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

I was at my first duty station, Yokota AB. It started out a normal night on the Comms floor. I had the volume muted on television. I was doing CBT's, wanting to get some certifications done. Decided to take a break from CBT's and happened to glance up at the TV and caught sight of Tower 1 on fire but before I could unmute it to listen the phone rang and co-worker asked if I am watching the tv. Not long after, the 'crap' hit the fan; and the base went to Delta. After that everything kind of blurred together for the next few days.

I was at the hospital walking between the recovery room and the nursery.  I was 1 year out of active duty and 4 years later I returned to the reserves.  It has always been a day of truly mixed emotions for me.

I was part of Task Force Courage. 2-22 Infantry from 1st BCT, 10th Mountain Division.  We actually deployed our Battalion on 11 Sep 01.  We were somewhere over Europe when all that took place.  I remember when we landed (us having no clue) that some guy got on and broke the news.  We obviously thought he was joking with us, by dropping a punch line about the types of stuff we could see in Bosnia.  It wasn't until they started pulling all the Soldiers with family in NYC off the plane to call home that we realized they were not joking.  For 7 months we were patrolling, seeing replay after replay on news still didn't actually sink in that it was for real.  I took returning to Drum with all the security issues and changes before it sunk in.  It was just a surreal feeling the entire deployment. 

I was at Andrews AFB, MD. Two weeks later I joined the 1st Helicopter squadron, who on that day were flying supplies in and evacuating others out of the Pentagon.

I was stationed at Fort Hood, and my Combat Engineer company was about to go on a two week field problem.  We didn't actually SP until the next day due to all of the confusion and implementation of FPCON on post.  That was an intense day.  I was a young SPC with three years of service, and could never have imagined such a thing at that particular point in my life.

I was stationed in Korea, and was working on my Masters. I had just got home from an evening class (about 11 PM) when a neighbor called me and asked if I was watching TV. I said no, I was studying. He said, well, you better come over and see this because you won't believe what just happened. I got to his room and watched TV for a few minutes. I was stunned. I told him I better get home and get to bed because I knew we would be on alert the next day. Sure enough, we went to Threatcon Delta and stayed there for several weeks, working 13 to 15 hour shifts in the bunker on Camp Henry.

I was getting ready for work.

I was in the Navy Annex to the Pentagon (up the hill). We had learned about the World Trade Center and turned on CNN.  Shortly after that we heard the jet go over the annex.  It was too loud to be heading for Reagan National Airport.  I expected to hear an explosion, but what we heard was silence.  Like someone just turned the jet engines off.  Most ran outside to see what happened.  When it was clear that the Pentagon was hit, many from that Annex just started running toward the Pentagon to help. Someone in the annex started to evacuate the annex due to some intel of another plane. So some were directed into Arlington National Cemetery to get away from the building. Some stayed in the annex to start building situational awareness and augment the watch center.  I had a meeting the next morning in the Pentagon with a Rosemary Chapa from DIA.  Rosemary and her office did not survive the attack.  The evening of the attack, we were still trying to findout where one of our young Marines that ran down the hill to the Pentagon was.  We were a little pissed that we could not find him.  Apparently when he got down near the Pentagon a random Major put him on guard to keep people out of the impact area.  He was there all night.  He was completely sun burn from the heat of the fire.

I was in 30th AG at Fort Benning, Ga. Awaiting the drill sergeant to come and ruin my day...