That day started like many a September day in the baldies of Coke County, TEXAS for me. I left the house about daylight and drove to another ranch owned by my youngest brother to plow wheat ground. I serviced the tractor, checked the plow, and headed out.

I was just about through with a 30 acre patch, when I noticed a pickup, up in the water lot. It was my Great Uncle Corky (Carlton). He had never come out to the ranch, unless we were working sheep, so I knew something was up. So, I pulled up the plow and headed his way. He told me that I was needed back at the house, NOW. So, I killed the tractor and headed for the house in a hurry. Now, I didn’t have a radio on the tractor, once I got into the pickup and I realized something was going on. No one really knew what yet, but they said a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers in New York City.

My Dad had terminal cancer. He was in the final stages, getting weaker by the day. He had woke up that morning, after I had left, and decided today was the day he was going to the Robert Lee Nursing Center. He had not told me but a few days earlier he had called and told them he would be coming and needed a room in a few days. He did not want to die at the ranch for fear that my Mother might not want to live in the house once he was gone.

Just as I got to the house, the second plane hit the other tower. We still didn’t really know what was going on, but my middle brother and I started loading stuff for Dad to take to the Nursing Center. We took his chair, a T.V., a loveseat, clothes, and some other stuff that we thought he might need.

Marc and I helped him to Mom’s vehicle, and off the town we went. Once getting to the Nursing Center, the people there checked him in. Part of that was to get his weight. Marc and I both helped him on the scales, and he weighted 211 pounds. Now, Dad was a big man, he usually stayed in the 270 range, but the cancer had just about eaten him up. He looked at Mom, with tears in his eyes, and told her she had never seen him so light, he weighted more than that as a Sophomore in high school.

We got him in his room and got all his stuff arranged. Hooked up the T.V. and started watching the news about the crashes. He told my brother and I, that it was just like listening to the Pearl Harbor attack when he was a kid.

We watched it for a while, then Dad asked us to find ESPN or something else, so we tried, but nothing else was on the T.V. It sort of upset him that, there was nothing else on. LOL… He was a sports nut, and said, cut it off if that is all they are gonna have on there today. Marc and I left to go work on something, I can’t even remember what, but we came back later, and he was watching baseball, and in a good mood again.

Dad lasted until September 24th, 2001. He died around 2 A.M. in the morning, with Mom, and his son’s by his side.

We buried him on September 26th, in a little country cemetery, about 5 miles from the house.

I for one will never forget what I did on September 11th, 2001.

I was at a livestock auction in Garnett KS. My first thought was for my son who was in CA in Marine Corps boot camp. I thought the same thing your dad did. War was inevitable.

Home from school, sick. I was laying on my dads couch and watched the second plane hit.

Was laying in the rack at about 11pm at Camp Hanson, Okinawa. Went to bed early that night because I had mess duty in the chow hall at 0300 the next morning. Never did complete mess duty.
I will add that there was a typhoon approaching and I didn't feel too bad about mess duty because if the winds got so high they wouldn't allow outside movement and it would be nice to be holed up in the chow hall instead of eating MREs in the barracks. This was the 2nd or 3rd typhoon of that fall. Being in the barracks wasn't too bad either. Fully stocked up with beer and smuggled liqour with the opportunity to earn 'jump wings' and become 'coxswain qualified' by jumping out the leeward 3rd deck windows of the barracks with a poncho rigged as a parachute then riding your iso-mat in the storm run off concrete waterways down to the football field and make it back without getting caught.

The typhoon hit a day or two later as we we're boarding ship to go to Afghanistan. It was very rough and we were forced to return to Port. The morale was low because we figured we missed out on the war. The 1st Marines, and a unit from Lejuene beat us there. We floated around Indonesia for a couple months. The seas were terrible. On Nov 10,2001 we had a Marine Corps birthday celebration on the flight deck and half the cake slid off the cart it was on because the ship was rolling so hard.

I was in school.

Teal hunting in NW Missouri

I was just returning from a sales call with my boss, the wife called me and told me about the first plane. I called him and we headed to the office

We called all the remaing appointments for the day and canceled them

I headed home and couldn't believe all the cars in line at gas stations to pay $6-7 a gallon, my thoughts where "so where you gonna go, just go home"

Which is what I did

Servicing equipment at a high school when an alert came across my beeper that a plane had hit one of the twin towers in NYC.

I was working a full time construction job and part time as a firefighter/EMS. I was sitting at home waiting for my ride to work and my (ex) wife called me ant told me to turn on the TV. I remember watching is disbelief as The tower stood there smoking. They would switch over to the Pentagon then reports coming in Of a plane that crashed elsewhere. I watched the second plane hit, watched the towers fall, knowing there where people inside. I was sick. My uncle finally get there to pick me up for work, he was very late but was watching the news too. It was very hot for September that day. We were hanging siding a block away from a Federal building. There were armed guards standing around the parking lot. We worked for a few hours and neither of our hearts were into working that day. There was just a weird feeling in the air. Everyone I saw seemed to be feeling the same thing. I later got a call from my FF job and said they were taking volunteers to go to NYC. I said yes and packed a bag and waited. We didnt end up going.

Yep..I didn't know about 9/11 until around 9/22 maybe 9/23..

Fishing for silvers (coho) on the Quilcene River, Olympic Peninsula Washington. A guy came down to the river to tell us what was happening, didn't really believe him.

Caribou hunting in far north Manitoba. Outfitter's wife called on satellite phone to tell us.

I was sitting on the floor, in my house in Dayton, Ohio boxing around 1200 quail eggs to ship, with the TV on. I had just got back from Washington State early that morning, from my brothers wedding. A Cooper's hawk hit the top of my flight cage, on my pigeon loft causing a commotion, just as the live footage showed the second plain hitting. WPAFB started sending up massive numbers of aircraft shortly thereafter. I remember thinking we are now at war and that we need to pound an enemy into oblivion, so hard, that no one ever dares to attack us again.

Keith

had just pulled into a house i was trying to get finished up, sat in the truck a good while not believing what i was hearing on the radio.

College. I was going to meet my bother for breakfast and then to class. I the cafeteria the had a big screen in there and we pretty much spent the whole day glued to it. We watched the second plane hit and both towers collapse. We had a friend with us that was from NYC, and the phones were so jammed up that he could not get in touch with any of his family. Scary thing was that the last time he talked to his dad, he told him that he had to go down around that part of NYC for some business. He eventually got in touch with him, but pretty tense for a while.

Mr. Williams 7th grade history class.

I was finishing a garage floor in Paola KS and saw the air plains all making U turns in the sky. Left that job and went to pour a footing for a barn, the concrete truck driver told us what had happened.

Myself and my friend were on our way to build a deck we stopped for breakfast.
When we heard about what was going on with turned around after breakfast and headed to my house.
I loaded every goddamn gun in the house.
At the time I lived on the shores of Lake Huron.
I honestly thought we were under attack

Got off graveyard shift walked in the door & for some odd reason I decided to turn on the tv. I was watching for about 10 minutes before the 2nd plane hit. as soon as I saw the 2nd plane hit my mind was made up & stayed home glued to the tube.

Was at work. Left work to get my daughter out of the elementary school. I though maybe the attacks wont stop. I live pretty close to where flight 93 went down. It knocked knickknacks off of our shelves. It broke windows out of the school about a mile away.