Do you remember where you were, 25 years ago, when you got the news?

[Gepard]

9/11 is a date, that changed everything.

In Germany it was a warm, sunny day. For me it was perfect to use my bicycle to drive to my job. I enjoyed the day, it was perfect. The whole day i run the radio, but short before 15:00 CET i switched it off.

Later i learned that few minutes later the radio station gave out the news, what happend in New York.

I knew nothing about it. When my working day was over i swung myself on my bicycle and a half our later i was home again.

There i found my wife sitting in front of the TV and starring into it. I saw a burning high rise building and believed that it was a Hollywood movie. I asked her: "What kind of rubbish do you watching?"

And she answered: "No rubbish. It's real!"

I did not realized it and went to the bathroom to wash myself. While i was in there i heared hear scream: "There just crashed a second plane in the other tower!"

And my next thoug was: "Damn! That means war!"

 

Edited Friday at 02:38 PM by Gepard

[Sundowner]

I watched most of the day on live tv from a hospital waiting room, we could'nt believe what we were seeing, made my problems seem very trivial in comparison. 

We just knew that the world would never be the same again.

[Flanker562]

I was getting back from PT at Fort Hood when it happened. My roommate told me as he had a TV, and showed the planes and news commentator commenting on the event.

It's a life changing moment for sure, and will be remembered.

[Erik]

It was just before 6AM here and I was getting ready to leave for work. The news of the second plane had just been made public and I drove to work in an eerie silence listening to the radio. The day was so weird and working for who I did at the time they let everyone decide if they were staying or going home. About a week later I had a flight to Washington DC and it was by far the weirdest flight I've ever flown on.

Life hasn't been the same since. 

[ValAstur]

I was returning home from my apprenticeship job, when a friend called me on the mobile phone. I was listening to a CD in my car, so I didn't hear the breaking news.

And when he told me, that a plane crashed into WTC, I thought he was telling me a bad joke. He insisted, that this was real.

No matter which broadcasting station I switched on my radio after the call...there it was.

 

By the time I got home, the TV was already running. My mom was nervous, speaking about all the people dead.

I don't remember how much time had passed since my arrival, but I saw the second plane crashing into the second tower...live!

It was not just a simple terrorist attack. It was an act of war.

Edited Friday at 08:31 PM by ValAstur

[daddyairplanes]

I was in Germany myself that day. Cooking dinner at a DFAC (dining facility)  on Warner Barracks, Bamberg. the news was broken to me by a KP (one of the other cooks wife) who announced the third plane hit the Pentagon.

the fun part is, that was also my wife's 25th birthday (yes, today was her 50th). she was shopping at the commisary, getting things for her birthday cake that i was gonna bake that evening.

i called her as soon as i figured out what was going on and told her  to get to the DFAC. the commisary was literally at the edge of base, Zollnerstrasse was on the other side of the wall where the dairy goods were. my DFAC was in the center of the base. we got bigger earfuls about bin Laden in USAEUR since we figured we were next on his list, not NYC.

never did get that cake made. the whole US military spent the day updating alert rosters and records, cancelling leaves and recalling people. same in Germany, except we were there until 2200 that night (it started at around 1500 for us there)

final note on it was a large amount of us lived in us government housing that was located off base. german apartments, but uncle sam paid the bills.  that night we were advised to wear civilians coming on base, and the cooks authorized to wear BDUs so we could carry them in gym bags. it was close enough to walk and i did so my wife could have the car handy. on the way into the base, for about two blocks before the gate, was a sea of candles and flowers. we Americans were told to look as german as possible right after. most of Bayern was red white and blue for a week after

[Shootingstar2]

I watched it on live tv from my work place. It was a truly terrible sight.  The pit of my stomach felt like it was falling out.  Will never forget

[Viggen]

I was eight at the time and in third grade. The sky was a beautiful deep blue, not a cloud to be seen. I didn't hear about it until my dad picked me up from the school bus and he had the news playing on the radio. When we got home the TV was still on and I was greeted by a replay of United 175 hitting the South Tower. It wasn't until I saw a replay of the towers collapsing and reports from the ground that I began to understand the gravity of the situation or at least as much as an eight year old could. My parents were nervous. That night I didn't sleep well and was scared. The next morning my mom had the TV on and I couldn't believe there was still fires at Ground Zero. School was chaotic because everyone was asking questions about it. Fast forward to September 11, 2013 and I was in Afghanistan at Kandahar Airfield. Looking back at it all now, twenty five years later, I think September 11, 2001 was the end of innocence. Definitely a day that changed everything. 

[Shaolin]

I had just watched a movie in the cinema and was riding home with my bicycle. Wen I passed the pedestrian zone, someone stopped me an gave me a special edition of the local newspaper (just two pages, half the size of a typical newspaper). As soon as I arrived home, I switched on the TV, and just minutes later the second plane hit the towers...