Today is September 11.
For the past seven years all one needs to say is that date and everyone knows what is being referred to.
September 11, 2001. In the United States, it’s usually just called “9/11“.
I don’t need to say that I’m talking about today being the seventh anniversary of the four hijacked airplanes that were used by terrorists to bring down both World Trade Center buildings in New York City, crash into “ The Pentagon” government building in Washington DC, and a fourth failed attacked that potentially saved numerous lives due to the sacrifice of the heroes that crashed that plane into an empty field in Pennsylvania.
Do I?
Where were you when the 9/11 Attacks occurred?
In Japan, it was already late in the evening of September 11, 2001.
I was in the shower. My wife saw the “breaking news” on TV and she came to the bathroom to tell me that an airplane crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC.
I assumed it was just a small Cesna plane. Who would’ve guessed that hijackers could take over the cockpit of a passenger 747 and fly it into a skyscraper in a major metropolis?
And who would’ve guessed that they could fly a second 747 into the neighboring skyscraper?
And two more planes? One into the American military’s biggest building?
It was quite obvious that America was under attack.
Then the two towers came crashing down!
It was quite a sad, shocking event, wasn’t it!?
My wife and I stayed up for hours watching the TV news. It was impossible to sleep!
Condolences to the families of the victims.
Tokyo Five 
londra…
What do you mean?
Are you asking if my blog can be read in other languages?
Sorry…no. I only know 英語 (English) and 日本語 (Japanese).
I don’t know any other languages.
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doesn’t this web site has other languages support??
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MB….
Yeah, I guess it probably was chaotic in America.
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Class went on as usual. I remember I couldn’t concentrate on anything the Ecology professor was saying…
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I was living in an apartment in Albany, NY. I heard from my neighbor and turned on the tv to see everything going on. I went in to class (college) and there were hoards of students trying to call relatives and friends living in NYC on their cellphones.
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> Did most people in America / Canada get sent home from work on Sept 11?
Since it occurred during a regular working day, I think this was the case in most of the major metropolitan cities in Canada and the US with tall buildings like NYC because they might be potential terrorist targets.
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sfrunner…
You had a friend who was a casualty of 9-11?
My condolences.
bartman905…
Did most people in America / Canada get sent home from work on Sept 11?
Makes sense.
As I said, it was already nighttime here in Japan when the attacks occurred.
Mom…
Yes, the actions of the passengers on United Flight 93 (that crashed in Pennsylvania) were selfless and heroic!
Chris…
It’s great that you have kept newspapers from Sept 11, 2001.
I wish I did!
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It was not the happiest day of my life, though given that I was having cable installed that day, I had gone to bed the previous night assuming it would be a decent day.
You know, I still have a copy of the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI (guess where I was living?) from that date. Dunno why I keep them around.
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911 is one of those extraordinary days that I will never forget. Although I was not there in NYC, I was at our home just doing my morning routine when I remember turning the tv on and seeing the replay of the planes that hit the twin towers. Then I saw footage of the third plane that was heading toward NYC but was subverted by true heros aboard that plane-true heros who made the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their own lives to save many others, others who they did not even know. I cannot imagine having the courage it must have taken to be one of those who purposefully rose up to try and prevent the attack of the terrorists and in the process, gave up their own lives. They are true heros of our day. those and all the firemen/women, police, and any other courageous person who willingly gave up their lives to help others escape to safety. It is fitting that every year since then our country has held memorial services to honor them. well, thanks for sharing this reminder of 911 for us Bobby. it is a day that we all need to honor and remember in pray.
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I was is Toronto,Canada at work that morning in one of our downtown offices. In these offices, we had a TV in the lounge area so the employees were able to watch the horrifying events. If I remember, most of us were shocked and unbelieving.
Later that morning, we were told to go home for precautionary reasons because the Toronto downtown area had a lot of tall buildings.
So, I drove uptown to my suburban home – not sure what I would have done had I been living downtown in a high-rise building!
My thoughts and prayers as well to the victims and their families.
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Tokyo5, I left the apartment at about 5am that morning for work which was about 45 miles away. When I reached work, the AT&T lobby had a television monitor. What I saw in the next 30 seconds was horrifying (World Trade Center). People were glued to the set and had no idea what was happening. Eventually, the world knew. I had one friend that worked at WTC who survived and another friend who didn’t.
I was at work for about three hours and was eventually sent home. Because I didn’t have a car and took public transportation, I returned to SF. The system (Bay Area Rapid Transit) was eventually shut down later in the day because of threats.
Every anniversary, I say a prayer that something like this won’t happen again anywhere!
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