Where were you on that fateful day 13 yrs ago?
A friend and I left home for the SR early that morning and arrived in Salmon country around 7 AM.For some reason we decided to hit Ellis cove area and fish a few hrs before checking in to our motel.The fishing was slow with only a few fish to be seen but we kept at it for a few hrs before we decided to go low for some action.We walked back to the car and stowed our gear and got in and started to hit the road for Pulaski.I turned on the radio and instead of music there is someone announcing in a very strained voice that the towers in Manhatten were hit by two airliners!!I stopped the car right there in the middle of the highway and looked at my friend and asked "what the fxxx is he saying?"The whole thing was unreal!!We decided to drive to somewhere to see a TV so we went to the Golden Fish,would n't you know it they had no TV but they filled us in to what was happening as they were listening to the news from the beginning.After awhile we checked into our motel and watched the TV,fishing was no longer on our minds.The next morning we thought because we were there we would fish but after a couple hrs we packed up and hit the road for home.
I'll never forget that day!

I was teaching.  We were sent an e-mail with a link of the news footage of the towers and told very specifically that we could not say anything to our students.  It was such an odd day...knowing what ha happened, knowing that it would have some very difficult effects on our students in the near and distant future, but not being able to tell them
 

I was at work.... I am a paramedic and my partner and I had finished the morning unit checks and station duties  and turned on the TV to catch some news while we did paperwork.... needless to say the paperwork was soon forgotten.  I was watching the coverage when the tower went down, I can't describe how it felt when I saw that happen... I knew that not only were thousands of innocent civilians there, but there had to be a large number of rescuers also....  it was a sickening sensation which I will never forget, nor will I ever take it for granted when I see fireman responding to calls.  I trained as a fireman many, many years ago, and moved over to the ambulance side of rescue after a couple of years... but I never went to calls expecting it to be my last, and I still have trouble wrapping my head around the sick mentality that is involved in terrorist activity.   The suffering of those directly involved in the 9/11 is something I still think of often and pray has eased in some small way, though it will never go away completely for anyone affected that day.

Just returned with a load of freight from the east coast. Walked into the living room, turned on the TV and watched in total disbelief. The return trip that night was the most solemn ride that I have ever made.

NEVER FORGET...........

Was still a Detective back then and our dept said no to sending a group because they  really didn't know what might be next.
Heck with that-- called in and said would be back when I got back- Vacation if they wanted-with retirement around the corner really didn't care it they got upset.
 Got to  Zero on the very early AM of the 12th. Some of us who met on the train going in did an ad-hock group and started digging in at the back of 2 by hand, small fires still burned there - nobody else had started there as yet-was pretty  obvious  any thoughts of saving somebody were pipe dreams.
During the day of the 12th  thousands arrived, heavy equipment too, 
NEVER FORGET

I was assigned to the Westchester County Police Academy and after dismissing the recruit class I was ordered to take the police launch to a point mid Hudson river off of Indian Point Nuclear facility.  Myself and another officer remained there until we were ordered back to shore shortly after dusk.  Couldn't help but wonder what in God's name would we have done if a plane ditched into one of the cooling towers at the plant.
I too was part of the rescue/recovery effort the next day 9/12/2001.  I responded to the World Trade Center with the CO of the Academy with a few other subordinates in the department's armored personnel carrier.  I'll never forget the sights, sounds and smells of that fateful day.  No picture or video could compare to what I observed that day. 
God bless those who perished and those who gave of themselves the days, weeks and months that followed.   

I was installing windows in a fancy house on a hill in Vt. The nanny asked if I would like to listen to the radio, so I heard the first reports interrupt a program on Vt. Public Radio. My daughter worked downtown and her subway stop wasn't many blocks away from the WTC. I called Nancy and we waited until she called that she was OK.  A week later, I went with my truck and trailer and hauled her out of the city. She was devastated by the dust filled subway tunnel she exited from and the people running in the streets as if it was the end of the world. It wasn't our downfall, and we still stand. The day of the National Memorial Service I was heading for Boston to do a small job. The speech Dubya gave had just concluded as I pulled up to a toll booth. The toll operator looked at me and we simultaneously stuck out our hands and shook. We're Americans. They didn't take that into account. No fatwah, no Jihad, no misinterpreted passage of the Koran will ever take that away. I pity the shark or sea creature that got a bellyfull of Osama.

I was working on mosquito larva sampling as part of the response to West Nile Virus, had the radio tuned to one of those prerecorded smooth jazz things.  Finished my run, went back to the lab, the Community College next door was a stream of cars leaving, and the parking lot of my building, which also housed the Medical Examiner, was nearly empty.  I went into the building, and my supervisor came up and said: There has been an attack on the World Trade Center, both towers have fallen, and we have been ordered to evacuate.  I told her that there were still two field techs out, no radios in the trucks, and I was not going anywhere until they returned and we processed their samples.  The microbiologist was also still there, and did not want to abandon the rest of the day's work as it would cost 6 people another day to collect all the samples  again.  She said to suit myself, wished me luck if they hauled me up on insubordination charges, and went out the door.  The bacteriologist and I did the PM reads, the techs got back and we processed all the samples, and then we all left about 2 PM.  The four of us are still working, the supervisor is long gone.  While I could not go to NYC, I knew that as a public servant, it was important for me to do my job where I was, but that was how my folks raised me.  Now we're all trained for response whether it is a flood or a hurricane (Remember Binghamton a couple of years ago) or a disease outbreak.  Even after I retire, if the feces start hitting the rotary air mover, I'll be grabbing the pack and heading for a duty station.  For the Memorial Service, I refused to be compensated to attend and used banked time.  As Fichy points out, WE ARE AMERICANS!
 
L13

Driving between schools when I was working in the school system. I was pulling into the Palermo lot.
 

I was a computer guy for a school system in north Jersey. I remember going to the h.s. And seeing a bunch of teachers huddled around a tv in a break room. Saw the second plane hit live. Some teachers knew people that worked in the towers and a few parents of students in my schools were killed. I was also a volunteer fireman and covered down for Paterson FD while they were in NY to assist. It was a crazy time and it will always be vividly etched in my memory. Never Forget!