Thursday, September 11, 2008

Where Were You...

...on September 11, 2001. Bob and I were married for three months and two days on September 11, 2001. He was on sea duty and would have to be in work by 7 am or 7:30 am every morning. But that Tuesday morning was different because the gold crew of his sub was coming home that morning. He didn't have to be in to work until 9 am, so we got ready together and I left a little bit before him to head to work. Normally I got ready by myself in the mornings and always watched "The Today Show" to get caught up on the morning's news. Since he was home the tv was off so I had no idea what was going on.

As I was driving on Spur 40 in St. Marys, GA the song on the radio ended and the DJ came on saying a small prop plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. By the time I got to my office the second plane had hit. I headed to the golf course still not comprehending what was really happening, and when I arrived there to conduct my interview and take pictures for the newspaper, the tv was on in the pro shop...that's when I realized something was wrong-after seeing it. I interviewed the manager and we took a ride out on the course for me to take some pictures. When we got back the Pentagon had been struck and the base was on emergency lockdown. When I saw the Pentagon on fire Sandy came to mind. I wasn't sure of where her office was, but figured she'd be evacuating. I also thought about my friend from college; he was living and working in New York City at the time.


I called my mom as I was driving off base and asked what the heck was happening. Everyone on base, except for essential personnell, was ordered to leave the base. After getting home Bob called and told me he was on his way home too. The sub had pulled up to the pier only to be turned around and head back out to sea. When Bob got home he immediately packed his sea bag and was told to be ready to go to sea that afternoon. That didn't happen, and the sub ended up staying out until that Friday. I went back to work the following Monday and by that point the images of Tuesday were cemented in everyone's minds.

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

3 comments:

Dani said...

I was in my first year at the Naval Academy ... in chem lab that Tuesday when they came to the classes and told all of the midshipmen to head back to Bancroft Hall. We went to chow in shifts for a few days so that we would not all be there at the same time.

AllBlueZoo said...

I was living in Anaheim, CA. I worked at Bank of America and we had TVs all over the place. Our mainframe was in one of the Towers so we couldn't get any work done. As I drove back home from work it was gridlock on the highway going to the desert; everyone was escaping the city in fear.

It's so hard to think about that day, how am I going to explain it to my children when the time is right?

Anonymous said...

It was in the evening here in Japan when those attacks occurred...it was shown live on the evening news.

http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/nine-eleven/