Where were you during 9/11? What has changed in 20 years?

I was in Day 2 of ACAP Class at Fort Drum, NY with an ETS Date of 14 JAN 2002. They wheeled in a television set during a break to show us the first tower burning. When they turned it off and resumed the class, I assumed that it was some type of an Attention to Detail / Short-Term Memorization drill. During the next break, they wheeled the tlevision back in, and just as they turned it on the second plane hit. When we were told that this was not a drill, I grabbed my things and went back to my unit to find the Re-enlistment NCO.

I was at the Pentagon that day working in the Air Force Operations Group. We had just finished the Ops/Intel Briefing to the Chief Staff of the Air Force and the Sec of AF, and I was carry the laptops back across the hallway to our office which was on the Mezzanine level. Everyone was watching The first tower burning on CNN. I could tell there was going to be a lot of casualties, and ran back to the briefing room. I told the Tech to put CNN up on the screens so that the Seniors could see what was going on. He refused, but than a Capt came running in and made the same demand. The Seniors were watching for a few minutes and the second plane hit...all hell broke loose. Word spread that there was another plane heading back to D.C. we never thought that we were the target. We continued working, I was the the first person to observe CNN Coverage of the Pentagon on fire. We never heard or felt anything...probably because we were underground. People always ask, did you feel it? and I always feel a little guilty that we didn't. I wanted to go outside and assist but we were ordered to continue working. around 12pm people were beginning to complain of smoke. The decision came down that we were going to evacuate. I'll never forget how we ran in groups of three through the completely deserted hallways of the Pentagon. I was carrying two laptops with the briefing on them. Four helicopters were called in from Andrews AFB and landed on the ceremonial lawn. I jumped on the second one and was surprised to see I was sitting next to head of Air Intelligence. We took off, I remember we circled the plume of smoke and we looked down at the rescue operations. We than flew across the Potomac River and landed at Bolling AFB, were we set up another Operations Center in the Finance Building. It was a long day, I eventually just quit and called a buddy for a ride home.

Three of our family members were most fortunate on 9/11. My son was in New York that day scheduled
for a meeting in the Twin Towers. The meeting had been cancelled just before the crash.
My daughter working in Washington, DC was scheduled for a meeting in the Pentagon that day and
got sick the night before and came to our house in Virginia to recover. I was in the Dulles airport that
morning getting ready to board a UAL flight with my destination being Salt Lake City where I was
working on the preparations for the Winter Olympics. We departed that morning not knowing we were
behind AA #77 which crashed into the Pentagon. At that point during takeoff the pilot advised us that
there was a national emergency with no further details and said we have been diverted to Pittsburgh.
We did not know at that time that all flights were being grounded by the FAA. My family watching
these events unfold called UAL and they were told that my flight had been rerouted to Pittsburgh.
Moments later my family watched as the networks reported that a UAL flight had crashed outside of
Pittsurgh. With that notification from the FAA, our pilot then told us that our flight had now been diverted
to Indianapolis. Again, no details on what was happening in the world around us and recall in those days
you just didn't pickup a cell phone to call to find out what was going on. It wasn't until two hours later
after we landed did we know what had happened.

I was assigned to PERSCOM (now HRC) in Alexandria, VA. It was located about 15 miles or so from the Pentagon. We saw the first plane hit the WTC via video from the internet. Then the call came in that a second plane hit the other tower. Both our buildings were ordered to evacuate. As we left the Hoffman Building, I remember seeing smoke rising from the direction of the Pentagon. It was then, on the way out of Alexandria, that we heard the Pentagon was hit. I remember thinking that I was just up there the week prior for some training...on the same side that was hit. As we were slowly heading south on I-95, I remember seeing all of the EMS vehicles heading towards the Pentagon. It took forever to get in contact with my wife or with anyone back home to let them know we were alright. I remember sitting the rest of the day in front of the television almost numb watching and listening to the coverage from all three sites.

For the next thirty days, I was assisting as part of an ad-hoc DoD Casualty Assistance Center set up in Crystal City, VA. All of the families of the victims of the Pentagon attacks were brought in. I remember sitting in on briefings that were held twice a day to give updates to the family members on the progress being made in recovery efforts. I remember listening as remains were recovered, some remains as small as the tip of a finger, DNA matches were made and familes were notified. It was our mission to assist in taking the families through all of the steps with regards to filing claims, death benefits, burial coordination, etc. As a SSG(P), it was my introduction to the duties of a Casualty Assistance Officer. However during this time, there were five of us who handled all of the familes from the victims who were members of the Army. Each branch of service had their own representatives. It was a duty that I remember vividly as one of the longest 30 day periods of my life and also one of the most fulfilling. We helped the families, made a difference and I am exrtrmely proud of that.

Fast forward 11 years later. Most of us have served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of us have friends who did not make it back. Most of us have been changed in some way from our experiences "downrange." I believe that those have been and continue to be necessary sacrifices to ensure that our country and our way of life is never attacked again.

One more thing I would like to mention. All of the young men and women who serve our country today enlisted after 9-11. They knew what they were getting into. That is a testament to the level of selfless service that our current fighting force possesses. These Soldiers joined our military knowing they would be trained, deploy, fight, and maybe not return from war. I thanked them all for their service. I am proud to continue to stand in front of these Soldiers. If you see them walking down the street, or in an airport, or anywhere else, you should thank them also...

I was a health care conference that day.   I pretty my walked out of the conference and headed home to think of what I could do.   Sept 11th was my last day as a civilian.  Next day I met with a recruiter and joined Army Reserve at a ripe young age of 27.  

I was washing pots and pans on KP at Ft Eustis waiting to start AIT

I was gearing up for doing SRT (Special Response Team) training in Quantico near 8th & I Marine Barracks.  Instead of heading over to Quantico, we sped over to the Pentagon to help out.  We were geared up in full SRT attire and loaded up.  We helped out the Pentagon Police best we could.

I was out in the woods at Fort Bragg doing Squad Lane Training as a (very) young Sergeant. The crusty Motor Pool E-7 rode out on the gator saying "the world is on fire, New York is burning; y'all get back to the company- we're going to war!" Holy crap that was a scary confusion. We crowded around 100 Soldiers into our tiny dayroom to watch the big screen in stunned disbelief. I called my (now ex) wife and told her to grab any video tape, rewind it and start recording until the tape ran out. "ok, which channel?" Doesn't matter; it's on all of them! I think I may still have that tape. I believe it was after the second plane hit but before the first collapse. <br><br>Our Commander sent us to our shops to identify everything we thought we would need for a deployment and to submit a list of it. Then he held us until probably 9 or 10pm that night, expecting to get a call for rapid deployment to war. Finally he sent us home with instructions to pack our bags and kiss our spouses and kids because no one knew what would happen next. I think I slept maybe 10 minutes that night.<br><br>In what turned out to be the smartest decision I made in months, I had my (again, now ex) wife drop me off outside the gate before 4am and walk the short distance in to work. Sure enough, while I napped inside my shop there turned out to be no PT Sep 12th because almost no one could get through the gate. The traffic down Bragg Blvd was all the way down well into Fayetteville. People were queued up for 6 hours or more on Bragg Blvd. Some people were even pulling off the road and parking on the grass to walk in. We didn't end up deploying at all then, and in fact I PCS'ed from that unit in Jan 03 and they still hadn't deployed. I didn't end up going until Feb 06, but I did a year in Ramadi then followed by 14&amp;1/2 months in Baghdad and then to round it off, 10 months in Afghanistan.<br><br>There are very few moments in life that you never forget where you were. I wasn't alive for WWII, D-Day/V-Day, the death of Elvis, MLK, JFK or anything like that. I do remember the Challenger explosion and I do remember 9/11. I just wish there was an&nbsp; overwhelmingly positive news event that could cause a moment memory like that instead of always tragedies. That's life I guess.<br>

I enlisted in the Army in June 2001. So, really joining up then wasn't about the war on terror. I remember I was only two weeks out from graduating AIT when they turned on the TVs for us to watch. Watching those planes crash into the towers really put a sense of realism into what I do as a profession.

I was an E-1 at Ft. Meade, MD for AIT(MOS Training). I was walking down the hallway during a break in class and happened to glance up at one of the TV's, they had through out the school house, just in time to see the second plane make impact. At that moment, I knew nothing was going to be the same again.