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Permalink Reply by Joe Weingarten on September 9, 2011 at 9:34am

I was in a Ford dealership picking up by new Excursion and watching on TV what was happening. On the way home I was trying to call my cousins in New York. I knew one of their husband worked at the World Trade Center and my other cousins husband near by. I did not get through until much later in the afternoon to find out the one who worked in the center moved a few blocks away to a new office and the other was also OK. But by faith my cousin was on her way to the WTC for an 11am meeting and the train stopped and all were told to go back home. Her original appointment was 9am. It was changed just the night before. Having grown up in Manhattan I to this day have not been able to look at the list of names of those who died I would not want to find names I knew. After I got home, I saw a formation of F-16's flying over my house and breaking the sound barrier had a feeling they were off to protect Air Force One in case It was coming to Wright-Patterson AFB. As it turned out they were the escort for AF One but they didn't come to Dayton. For those of you who would not know this the Air Force is not permitted to break the sound barrier over population areas of the US. I knew from this something very big was up.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Britt on September 9, 2011 at 11:03am

I was on my way to my Carmel office (I was part owner of a direct mail company called Rumba Direct) when I was listening to Bob and Tom and they were being serious (which was odd) about a plane that just crashed into the World Trade Center. When I got to my office, I turned on the television and seen the smoke billowing from the north tower. That's about the time the south tower was hit and my heart about stopped. Jeanne was headed to the office, too, so I called her and she was in disbelief, too. I was scheduled to leave around 10:00 am for a lunch meeting in Champaign, Illinois so I was busily trying to get my paperwork together for the meeting but quickly realized that the gravity of what was going on was going to cancel this meeting (and it did).

One vivid memory I had was of the skies being void of airplanes that day and how quiet it was everywhere. The sky was clear as a bell and it seemed eerie that everyone was in "bunker" mode.

Ten years later, it still chokes me up to think about all those people we lost that morning. Especially those that were trapped in the upper floors of the towers and those firefighters going in to save them, their last minutes were unspeakable ways to die.

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Permalink Reply by Nobel on September 9, 2011 at 4:25pm

ON Sep 11, 2001 I was at my office at the Pentagon.  We had just seen the first aircraft hit the world trade center.  I was heading out to a meeting outside of the building.  When I arrived at the offices we we watched the second airframe hit the second tower.  About the same time we were notified that the Pentagon was hit.  We completed the meeting and went to our respective offices - my was with LTG Maude. When I arrived back to the building we were told that we could not enter the building.   I was assigned to the offices where the attacked occurred, the Army G1. I tried to call in as I was on call that day - but all line lines and cell phones were not working.  There was an Air Force flight that went towards the west over the Pentagon to stop another possible incoming plane --it was a false report - needless to say we had to go to cover.  By the time I finally got through - I was told to go home change and be back at 0400 hours for a change in shift...for the next 68 days I was working 12 hour shifts with 1.5 hour changeover briefings.  We lost over 30 people from our offices the first to go were LTG Maude, his Aide Major Kip Talor; SGM (ret) Max Belke, SGM Strickland and others...LTG Maudes offices were at the point of entry into the Pentagon.  I knew many of those that died that day....for days the Salvation Army was the only outfit there...the Red Cross came in later--- Needless to say it was a long day and a horiffic time.  N. Lugo

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