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

I was at 29 Palms, my unit was going to fly to Egypt later that month. We had to prepare for a short field op to practice for Bright Star, so we had a short turn around. I was checking my email in the barracks right before heading to morning formation and the first plane had hit the tower, and I thought what kind of idiot hits a building that big?. In 95 while flying from Boston to NYC to get back to the west coast, a pilot took us sight seeing where he flew a figure 8 pattern around the Statue of Liberty, and the WTC towers before we landed. I arrived and at the time most of us in the barracks had no idea of the severity of the situation or what happeend as we didn't have TV. That week was a busy week as we continued to prepare the equipment to go to Egypt, I remembered working 37 of 48 hours on Friday and Saturday to clean up, test, and repair comm gear to deploy with the unit. There were the typical rumors that were circulating that 1st Tank Bn would be redirected to Afghanistan and the rest of us that were not part of the operation would be joining the unit there. In the end none of that came about and I spent some time training British Royal Marine Commandos how to deal with the desert.

I was on the USS Harpers Ferry with the 11th MEU, in the Pacific. We were returning from a WESTPAC deployment that took us into the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and throughout SE Asia.
We had been harrassed the whole time whether on ground or anchored in the water. Intel knew to expect something... but we had no idea where/what.

I was actually watching TV that day as the first plane hit. As a meteorologist I knew something didn't seem right. Why would a commercial jet be so close to the towers and was ATC and Flight Operations wondering the same?

PS -- When I first read your question, the first thing I thought of was the Jimi Hendrix album. I'm just saying... :-)

I was a senior in high school on my way to statistics class. That's when I found out about the 1st plane.

I was in high school chemistry class.

I was teaching a classroom full of second graders. That was enough to get me to quit teaching.

I joined the ARMY six months prior to 9/11. Due to AIT for my MOS (25S formally 31S satellite communications) being nine months long, I was half way through AIT at the time.

It is funny when I hear a SGM or some high brass say that we knew what we were getting into when we joined during a time of war when I joined before hand. Granted I have since re-enlisted three times and knew what I was getting into when I did but that is not joining, that is re-enlisting.

I was in my 10th grade Alegbra class. At that time, the principle annonced to all teachers to turn their televisions to CNN. When the tv came on, It caught me off guard. A few minutes later the first tower went down. At that moment, I knew I wanted to be a Soldier. After going to college for one year on a full scholarship, I felt that I needed to do something more productive. I decided to drop out and join the Army. So here I am today; still fighting for my country.