Me, and that day.
I see you guys making comments and saying " I was in 9th grade, 1st grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade" ....wth? lol
I was a grown man on September 11, 2001, when that happened. After reading through this thread...I'm second guessing being on here. I had no idea there were so many kids on this site? Eh well doesn't matter. I don't really want to share a comment on such a horrible day, but here I am doing it, so what the hell? Here goes.
I was at a funeral for my good friend that morning. He had gotten his face blown off in a piece of crap foreign country by some American hating scum bag, and now we had to bury him. This was obviously pre- 9-11 Iraq invasion days. Just to remind you, operations have been taking place in that part of the world for years, it's just that most of them didn't make the news. He was 30 yrs old, same age as me back then. My friend for over 20 years. He was an honest, hard working, straight dealing, soldier, that could play football like a pro, always got the hot girls, drank like a man, was a highly skilled operator and could lead a fire team blind, with one leg, one arm, one trigger finger and just happened to be one of the badest Muther F'er's I've ever known. He was my friend and I loved him like a brother.
There was almost 300 people there that day. He was respected and well loved by many. So many had shown up, and replied in advance that we had to rent a giant reception hall for everyone because they would never fit in his families house. We had just walked into the reception hall, for the after funeral lunch/get together, when someone yelled out "HEY! HEY GUYS...THEY'RE BOMBING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AGAIN!"
A general gasp and sigh spread out amongst the crowd. Instantly, a few of us took off running to find a television. I stopped at the door way and noticed a projection monitor mounted to the ceiling, wires leading someplace and a huge rolled up screen above the stage/ podium area. There were a few remotes on a small stand near the wall and a couple of labeled light switches. I flipped a few, the screen lowered, and the monitor and cable box turned on. I quickly flipped through the channels trying to find some coverage. Someone who worked there saw what I was doing, ran over to a sound system, kicked on the audio, then went around shutting curtains.
Upon hearing the sound, everyone turned simultaneously and looked up at the screen. Mouths dropped, eyes widened, and hands reached out for someone to hold on to.
One of the towers had smoke pouring out of it. Women gasped in horror. People held each other. Some pointed at the screen in disbelief as they asked the person next to them "do you see that?" "Is this s$%^ real?" People were still showing up and walking in the front door. After a few minuets a couple hundred people had piled inside. I remember hearing different comments from all over the room as I watched the burning building on the giant screen. "Those bastards! They did it again!" "Those poor people in that plane!" "This is WAR! WE'RE GOING TO GO TO F'N WAR!"
Right then, just as 200+ people were in the hall and staring at the screen....*CRASH!!*! The second plane hit.
The only thing I can compare it to, visually and audibly, is when you are in a movie theater and 100 people all flinch at the same time. Some people gasped, some yelled, some cried out "OH GOD,,NO NO NOOO!!" Women screamed and men cursed. Some people reached out to the screen as if attemping to grab the plane and stop it from happening. People cried out in horror. We had all just buried a great man, someone we loved and would miss for our entire lives....and now we had to witness this. It went on until people couldn't take it anymore and left. There was no party. There would be no celebrating of our friends memory that day. We had shown up that morning with broken hearts and fractured souls, just to have someone else rip our hearts from our chests and beat down our spirit even more. I have shared intense moments with a group of people in the past, but that day, it was on such a massive scale.....that none of us would ever be the same.
God Bless America, and may death find all that seek to do us harm.
T.