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

BNCOC - Fort Sam Houston, TX

I was working as a Network Administrator for the 2d Ops Group at Barksdale AFB. I remember watching the events unfold on the TV in the mobility office. Then some fighters buzzed the base and shortly after that Air Force One landed. I volunteered to deploy but since I was performing duties outside of my career field I was basically undeployable. So I got to plan the Ops Groups network response and configure the kit that was sent with our folks that did deploy. Our kit remained at the FOL until well after most of our people had returned. By the time it came back it all went straight to DRMO.

I was at Military Sealift Headquarters, Norfolk, VA where my ships crew was TAD (ship was in dry dock for maintenance with a skeleton crew in Baltimore) I didn't go with the ship because I was transferring to my next station before the ship got back. We were watching everything unfold on TV after hearing multiple different stories about what was happening (the first story we heard was there was a real bad fire in the trade center and all the subsequent stories gradually got worse and worse til we finally said let's get a TV an find out what is actually happening). We turned the TV on just in time to see the 2nd plane hit the towers - I personally just slid down the wall and sat on the floor staring, in a dumbfounded haze - until the announcement came over the intercom that the base was going to Delta and a full evacuation of non-essential personnel was ordered. We were in a building 2 blocks from the front gate (takes maybe 2 minutes to get off base from there)....as I was driving out the gate I saw the serpentine blockades going up and the gate close 1 car behind me. 2 days later we found out that one of our shipmates that had transferred a few months prior was one of those lost in the Pentagon.
- 3 weeks later, after returning to Norfolk from my instructor school (part of my transfer orders to my new shore duty station) I was back on board my ship seeing her and my friends off (the ship had been pulled from maintenance and they were being re-deployed to the Gulf (we had only been home from a 7 month deployment for 2 months)).....and begging my CO to op-hold me(cancel my orders to shore duty) so I could come back and deploy with them, with only the clothes on my back and my purse. - the ship was already at sea & anchor detail and the only reason I was still on board was because I was former crew(recently transferred) - all "civilians" and non-crew personnel had been sent ashore already.

Oddly enough I was waiting for a city bus to go to Jury Duty. I saw that there was one hell of a line of vehicles trying to get into base (a lot longer than usual), I did not know what was going on at this time. Someone eventually stopped and gave me a ride where I found out what happened. The Judge came out to talk to everyone that showed up and sent everyone home for the day without the need to come back.

I was home in bed on convalescent leave at Submarine Base Bangor, WA, having just had surgery 3 days earlier. My wife came running into the bedroom and turned on the television, just in time for me to see the second plane crash into the other tower. A horrible day indeed for our entire country.

As a traditional Guardsman at the time, I was on the phone with my unit asking when/where to report.

OCAR (Office of the Chief, Army Reserve) RTD (Retention and Transition Division), Ft McPherson, GA. I was supposed to be in DC working incentive issues, but end of FY budget issues cancelled the trip. My wive called, and asked why a 737 would fly into the WTC. As she watched the second plane hit. I told her I'd call her back and went into my bosses office and told him to turn on CNN, we were under attack. When the Pentagon was hit, we started the scramble to find the OCAR staff.

I had only been in 3 years at that point and was stationed at McConnell AFB working in Retirements and Separations. I walked into Customer Service to pull a members record and saw what was happening on the tv. By the time I got back to my office my supervisor was telling me to get to SF to gear up for the flight line....loved being an augeedawg. Had to go home and change first since I was in my blues at the time.

I was in the motor pool at Ft. Knox KY. I was maybe in my fifth or so week of OSUT basic training to become a tanker. I had joined the Army during peacetime for only two years to get some money for college and get out of town for awhile. I'd never imagined that many of the fast friends I had made in basic would be laid to rest with an American flag draped over their coffins in the following years. What started out as a personal, short term expedition, turned into something that has shaped and will forever effect my life. It stems from the morning in Kentucky when I learned that planes were being crashed and Americans killed.

As the HHC XO, I was opening the Day room for my Soldiers at 2-8 IN, 2nd BCT, 4ID, Fort Hood, TX. I turned the TV on as the story about the first plane was being a reported.