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