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

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the fourth grade, and I remember my mother taking me out of school early in the morning. Then I remember watching the second plane hit the second tower on TV - I was young enough to know that planes flying into buildings was not good. It was scary. My father came home and called his brother, my uncle, who worked in NYC near the towers, and said that he was okay.

Enroute to Nebraska for a funeral detail. Most of the people on the van were asleep due to having to leave so early to get there on time. I was awake because I was polishing and glueing the rounds together. The driver and I heard the news of the first plane hitting the towers while listening to a morning comedy show. We just thought it was a bad joke so we changed the channel and heard it on another station. We found a road side coffee shop and ran inside to see it was real. We called back to base and was told "you are in Kansas, the armpit of America and there was nothing to do but finish our detail and get back home." It was a long, scary, and quite ride back to Fort Riley to be greeted with armed guards at the main gate. It took us 4 hours to get on base which normally took about 5 to 10 depending on traffic.

I was in USAREC. A station commander in TX. My wife called me and I got a radio just in time to hear the announcement of the 2nd tower falling.

It was 2am on the 12th of September, and we received a call from a sister-in-law. We had just moved to Guam (a month and a half earlier) for my husbands civilian job, and I was working on transferring from the 75th Div in Houston to the Reserve unit under 196th in Agana.

I was at Camp Howze Korea watching a football game on the one AFN channel we had when the cut out live to show the second plane hit the towers.

When the first tower fell I was at home getting ready to go to work.When the second tower fell I was at work.

PFC Gorman was doing physical fitness with 4-1FA at Fort Riley, KS preparing for NTC at Fort Irwin. Went home wife said did you see what happened I said what happened? Holy crap four hours to get back on post barracks guard duty with maddox handles and gurad motorpool prior to NTC transport with M1A1 outside previously open post gates...Junction City in uproar for limited access.

I was due to make some meetings there, but cancelled them the day before. I was going to meet one of my clients at the Merc and take him to another one of my client's fashion show during Fashion Week, but that did not happen.

My wife's ex-husband called to tell me to tell my wife that he was OK. I thought he was having a touchy-feely moment, so I told him we're all good. Then he told me what happened, so I turned on the TV. I asked him what security told him to do (he was managing director), and they said to stay put and they were safe. I told him to unass the building immediately, as the towers were built to sustain a hit with a 707, not a 757. I talked him into telling his staff to leave, and just as they were leaving everything else cut loose with the second plane. How many people were hurt because security told everyone to stay put?

125 families in my community lost a family member. It had a major impact for a long time.

Although, and I will only say this on Rally Point for obvious reasons, a lot of families got paid a lot of compensation for losing a family member - far more than our deceased soldiers' families get. That was and is a sore point for me, but for obvious reasons would not be a point well-received in NY.

The smoke and smell hung over Long Island for several days. FEMA put out a bunch of monitors so they could assure everyone down there the air was OK. Hmmm, they put a lot of them on the Hudson River with a fresh sea breeze, and not as many around the rest of the downtown area so the averages were somewhat stilted.

Also, the Arab street vendors normally ubiquitous to the area were strangely non-existent that morning. One of the problems the Muslim community had was attributed to the fact that these folks knew in advance and did not let anyone know.

Strange how more stuff happens when stuff happens...

RIP everyone.

I had just taken command of an MPAD from Wichita, KS about 3 weeks prior. 11 of my Soldiers and I were in Minneapolis getting ready to fly home. I hadn't been watching the news that morning. My training NCO and I were going to meet in the lobby, go fuel up the vehicles and come back to pick everyone else up to go to the airport. As I was walking towards the lobby, I walked past the bar and saw a few people standing in there watching the TV. All I heard was that there had been an explosion in the Pentagon. My ears perked up, but I kept walking to meet my NCO.

When I got to the lobby, my NCO tells me that his son had just called and said a plane flew into the World Trade Center. I looked around the lobby and I looked at him and I said, "We are under attack. We aren't flying anywhere today." Naturally, he tried to tell me that I had didn't know what was going on, but when his son called again and a second plane flew into the world trade center, I repeated my first statement. About 20 minutes later an announcement was made in the lobby that all planes had been grounded and no planes were flying.

We ended up getting home that day, but it meant driving the rental vehicles home. I suddenly knew that day what it meant to be terrified inside and knowing as the commander, you have to push that fear aside, remain calm, and show strength and compassion for your soldiers as they try to deal with the situation. It was one of the most challenging days of my career.

Driving to work at my first teaching assignment. I was a barely-MOSQ 92Y SPC in the ARNG.

After I got to school, everyone wanted to know if I was going to have to "go somewhere" because of the attacks. Little did we know back then.