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[isabelladangelo]

I realize 9/11 does not mean the same to everyone. The following is my recollection of events. If you would like to post your own recollection, please feel free. All I ask is for to be a recollection and not a political statement.


I can tell you exactly what I was wearing. I had on my khaki pants and a pink 1950's sweater with a white tank top on underneath. I know I had gotten up and had been up for about an hour before I re-crashed (darn allergies!) back in my room. I know I had somewhere to be that day. I also remember I was waiting to hear if I had gotten my first job out of college or not.

so, I was half asleep in my room when my Mom came running up the stairs and told my Dad that a plane had crashed into the WTC. My Dad stated exactly what I was thinking in my half awake state "It was probably just a prop plane."

I know how hard it is now to even concieve of a plane hitting a buidling as "nothing" but 2001 was only a couple of years after the plane hit the White House. That plane was a prop plane and only destroied a window and a couple of shrubs. The pilot of the plane died but, bascially, it was something that wasn't shocking; if anything, it was a joke.

Well, Mom came back up a few minutes later and stated that it wasn't a prop plane and another plane hit the buildings. At this point I'm trying to get my brain to wake up enough to go downstairs and watch the news. Still, I thought it was maybe one of those small planes and that even then, the plane couldn't do much damage, right?

It would be a few more minutes before I heard a sound I will never forget. My bedroom window at the time faced Massachusettes Ave which comes straight out of DC and runs pretty much along the Potomac at that point. All I can describe the sound as is a big "boom" that shook my window. I don't think I've ever jumped up that fast before in my life.

I ran down the stairs and stood before the TV. That's when I saw it. I saw the smoke. I saw the ash. I saw the fear. I could feel my own heart beating, waiting to hear if DC has been struck too. It was a matter of seconds before reports were on the news of a "helicopter crash" at the Pentagon. It took only a few minutes to realize it wasn't a helicopter crash...it was another plane.

My Dad is retired from the Navy. His last tour was at the Pentagon. A lot of his classmates were still at the Pentagon and are my "Uncles". I began to worry a lot.

My Mom came back in the room and I told her what I heard; I heard the sound of the plane crashing into the Pentagon. Both of us immediately stood before the TV and watched the horror unfold. Dad came down at some point but all I remember is being worried for friends and family. Did we know anyone at the WTC? Did everyone get out of the Pentagon? That's about when the mad calling spree began.

I remember screaming when the first tower fell. Actually, what I remember is hearing a scream and realizing it was my own. I don't freak out easily but when I do, it's not pretty. I think by this point every phone on the house was being used to call everyone we know. I remember people from Idaho and California calling to see if we were okay. I remember the shock and saddness as the images flowed across the screen.

I remember getting through to friends around noon. I was going to pick up my baby brother from school. I remember around 3:30 getting through to my "Aunt" and finding out that my "Uncle" had made it out of the Pentagon okay.

I remember watching the cars that night. It was around 8 pm and dark out. Massachusettes Ave, which is hardly ever too backed up where my parents live, was nothing but cars as far as the eye could see...and it was dead silent. No honking, no radios blasting, I don't even remember hearing any birds. Everyones faces looked the same; everyone was in complete and absolute shock. No one knew what to do. No one knew what to say. There were no cars going into the city; just cars going out.

It would be another week before I found out that Charles Burlingame, the pilot of flight 77, had been a co-work of Dad's while he had been stationed at the Pentagon. Burlingame was in the reserves and would help out at the office a couple of times a month.



I ask everyone to remember and to pray for all of those still affected by 9/11.

Comments

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

Wow - I didn't realize you'd heard the Pentagon crash. I was in Laurel, so I didn't hear or see anything except on the news. I was kind of detached from what was going on in DC though, since the towers started falling soon after and I thought my dad might still be inside. I remember what I was wearing that day too. Amazing how the little details stay with you...

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

It was the oddest sound I have ever heard. It was like a mixture of thunder and an earthquake.
I'm so glad your Dad got out! That must have been one heck of a day for you. Extra hugs your way!
My Dad actually had a lot of co-workers in WTC, all of whom got out alive. I'm still amazed that so many did get out. Yes, nearly 3,000 died but in buildings that normally hold around 50,000? That's miraculous within itself.

[rentausha.livejournal.com]

I remember that my Uncle used to live up there and I was really worried. I was in Oklahoma... because that's where I'm from, but I was temping at a cable company at the time. It was nuts! I walked into the building and it was like a ghost town. No one was back in the supply room. When I went up front I noticed everyone congregated around the big screen. I was in so much shock. We (Oklahoma) hadn't quite recovered from the Murrah bombing yet and here was another similar... but worse thing happening. We got no work done that day. We went to Chili's for lunch and watched the news on the T.V.s there for a while. I think we ended up having like a 3 hour lunch because the roads in Norman aren't that big... and they were jammed with people trying to get gas. It was worse than the aftermath of an OU home football game. I just remember most of all the horror, shock, and fear.

[attack-laurel.livejournal.com]

I was at work, with my radio off, and everyone had forgotten I was there (this still happens - my duties mean I'm shut in my office all day and I'm very quiet). I wouldn't have known anything had happened except that a friend with whom I had planned to have lunch that day called and told me vaguely what had happened. They had shut down all the federal buildings by then, so I was told to go home. I remember standing outside on the most perfect sunny day, listening to the silence, lighting a cigarette, and wondering how ironic it would be if a plane crashed into Walter Reed while I stopped for a smoke.

I got gas for my car on the way home, and everyone was weirdly chatty and understandably stunned. I got home, and Bob was there, having not been able to get in touch with me, calling everyone to find out if his stepson was okay, since he worked just down the street from WTC. It turned out he was late for work that morning, and he saw the second crash, turned around, and got out of there.

I remember wondering why people were acting *so* weirdly, then suddenly realizing that you guys had not experienced a terrorist attack of any magnitude on your home soil since Pearl Harbour. I grew up in London in the 1970s, during the height of the IRA tensions, and bomb threats (and actual bombs) were, if not commonplace, at least half-expected. This was horrifying (how could it not be?), but not as unthinkable to me as it was to all the Americans around me, and I felt so sad that you guys had finally had to experience that.

[sanveangirl.livejournal.com]

I remember how blue the sky was that day, at least here at my school. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

I remember the principal coming in to tell me that a plane had crashed into the WTC, and he asked me to go into our office and monitor events since students were still in school.

I remember having to tell him that another plane had crashed. It was a long, heavy walk to his office.

I remember calling my mom on my cell phone, having to walk outside on the playground to do so. I remember asking if Dad (who works for the Secret Service) was at the Pentagon that day, and finding out that he was in Tower 2 of the WTC. Fortunately, the SS offices were on a ground level floor, and he and the other agents got out quickly. I sat on the ground sobbing, not realizing how close I could have come to losing my father.