HWTK - September 11, 2001 - Where were you ?

[Hewie]

So ... with the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks coming up, I was reflecting on where I was that night/day and what it had meant for me.

For me it was a very bizarre and somewhat surreal time .. the night (in Australia) .. I had just finished talking and emailing to a group of people in the towers.

I switched off my computer, went to training and then went home and fell asleep.

I headed into the office early (about 4am) the next day .. and as I turned the corner towards my desk I saw on the TV for the first time the images of the towers burning.

It was then that I realised that the last people I spoke with that night were most likely in there somewhere.

The day then unraveled completely ... but it will always be that thought of "Oh faaaarrrrrrk I was just talking to them" .. that I will always remember and never really knowing what happened to them.

So .. did 9/11 mean anything to you ? or was it just another day ?

[ashmo]

I was in year 9 because I travelled from rockingham to Melville I went to bed early and missed the live cross during rove. I rocked up to my aeronautics class the next morning totally oblivious about what happened. It's only when a mate told me (who I didn't believe at the time) did I find out. Let's just say when I got home the tv went straight on and I sat there in stunned silence....

[SOLID]

Was 16 home sick from school, remember thinking "well that's no surprise" after about 10 mins switched to ps2 to play gt3

[thegraeman]

Was in England. Happened while I was on the way home from work on the bike so I missed the start. Walked into my share house and saw my flatmates watching a building burning on TV. They said no, it was live. While we sat there we saw the 2nd plane hit, live.
I rang my parents in Australia and woke them. Just needed to connect with family.

[Trashed]

Yeah, I had gone to bed early and missed the whole thing until the next day. I too was absolutely stunned.

In 2006 I went to New York. I visited ground zero, and didn't really feel anything at all, but when I was on the viewing platform of the Empire State building they have brass plaques around that identify the buildings on the horizon. It showed the towers and that was when I could see how imposing they were, how they dominated the skyline, and really identified the city as New York. That was quite moving when I could really see the scale of it.

A few days later, on the actually anniversary I was in a pub in Boston. There was a solo guy playing songs on guitar, and he just paused for a moment, asked us to raise our glasses to those who were lost, and then played Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here". It was a lovely tribute.

[JamieBlade]

Was at work in the UK (Still lived there then). At the time I was in Ford of Europe's SVE division and one of the secretaries had it up on BBC on line. Everyone was crowded round the screen in disbelief.

[Dubs]

put a vhs in to tape Hustle on ABC and went to bed.
Got 2 calls during the night to tell me something and i couldnt remember them.

Then when i got up in the morning and turned the telly on i was like WOW.

Dubs

[deeman111]

Was sitting on the couch watching Rove on TV. Sister came out and told me to change the channel and then watched the first tower on fire. Kept watching all night seeing the second tower get hit then both collapse. Its was pretty surreal, knowing that these people were experiencing this as i was watching it. Next day at school (yr 12) had to listen to retarded kids asking stupid questions to the teacher "Will they attack us in Perth?, does this mean world war 3, will america start a nuclear war etc etc"

One thing i was suprised with was how little they mentioned the plane crash in Pennsylvania (i think), just a couple of photos and a quick mention, same with the pentagon strike. I guess the footage from the towers was more powerful

[dr00]

i was 18 and living with my dad. he was watching tv in the other room while i was probably playing counter strike beta or something . he yelled out to come and have a look, something about some trade centre i'd never heard of. that was just after the first plane hit and i watched it for the rest of the night. i was on the phone to my gf (now wife) telling her to switch the tv on when the second plane hit. i still get goosebumps every single time i see the footage of the second plane hitting or the towers collapsing. i still find it difficult to get my head around when i see a landscape shot of new york on an old episode of friends or something.

[emrys74]

I was doing stock take at Marlows Mandurah didnt get much counting done that night stood in front of the tv in the waiting room bit for ages.

[Hewie]

I still to this day have the newspapers from that morning along with a copy of the notice we sent to clients.

[BlackFZR]

Finished work at Carlisle Squash Courts, and headed across to Belmont Courts. Walked into Belmont to find all the courts playing pennants had come to a stop as the news breaking video's appeared on TV.

[kapyong]

Sitting at home surfing the net after watching the Bill, had the TV on in the background when the ABC went over live.

Saw the second plane hit and started to fully realise the ramifications of what I had seen, I called my sister in Melbourne to tell her to watch the TV.

I knew the world wouldn't be the same again however it has not been anywhere as bad as I envisaged, I thought 'Fuck WW3 has just started'.

In a way it has but not on the scale that I imagined, I had just finished up with 23 years in the army only months before so I was certainly thinking very green at the time.

PS. I'm an old prick I can remember watching Armstrong take that first step on the moon!

[Gippo]

My girlfriend (now wife) and I were camped out in our brand new house, as we had no furniture. All we had was a matress and a TV.

We watched the second plane hit on live news and then to our horror watched the pentagon get hit.

It was at that point that we realised that it was very serious and we were glued to the tv for rest of the night wondering what the world was going to look like in the morning.

Everyone at my work had little sleep that night.

[McGoo]

I was up at Mosman Park lookout with my then girlfriend. We had a big chat, shagged in the back seat, broke up ten minutes later, then drove home. We had our phones off until we got back to the residential college so we didn't hear squat. By the time we saw a tv both towers had fallen.

[shan]

happend to be at the Vic Hotel in darwin, bunch of yanks were in with a carrier group.
The day before there security was there, But they were freindly and happy to show the toys to groups.

I was drinking with marrines, we watched the TV behind the bar trying to work out what movie it was, One dudes reconized the reporter and couldent work out why the reporter was doing movies.
there was a band on, then a MP , huge black mother fucker walked in, firmly but not agresivly stepped on stage and pushed the singer away.
The band stopped, MR huge mother fucker said into the microphone.
All US personal, we have a situation.
Transport is waiting out side .
All leave is cancelled efective imidiatly.
God bless.

Thats when I / everyone knew it was real.
Darwin emptied of US personal in half an hour, couldent get a bus or cab all night.

The next morning , couldent get near the battel group, the smiles were gone.
The security details where looking rather pissed, they wanted to shoot someone.

I always wonder how many of that group got to shoot, or get shot.

We had a big chat, shagged in the back seat, broke up ten minutes later

I too like to use the full quota of emotions on a date

[Professor Redfern]

Not much excitng for me, I was watching Rove after a root, I tried to tell my Dozing missus that she should wake up and see this and she didnt. To this day it always reminds me that some people in this world just dont get it.

As a more poignant moment though, last year I visted ground zero and was not really that moved as you can imagine its just a big buiding site. However, venturing round the site I came across the fire station which is literally across a very small lane sized road from the tower, and they have a big brass plaque and still have fresh flowers etc laid out there.


It hit me like a tonne of bricks, these guys would have ran straight out of there station 15m across the road and straight into those towers, with no regard for their safety, and most of them would have died that day.


True fucking heros, even now it hits me.

[fincl]

In the RAAF in Canberra at the time on a ground ex (basically a couple of nights under the stars playing army, badly). We were told to come and listen to one of the ADG's radios. We thought it was a recording and part of the exercise...until we had the joy of picketing the base :-(

[Rhinosaur]

i was watching drag racing on 31 at home. a mate rang me and told to flick to sbs i think. first plane had just hit.
saw the rest unfold. stayed on the phone most of the night i think.

things like that either hit u or dont. it did. to me it seemed liked it divided people into those who see grey, and those
who see black and white.

devastating and inspiring.

[Rhinosaur]

True fucking heros, even now it hits me.

amen brother.