Forum: Off-topic

With Respect..........the following posting is made

One Hundred and eighty four lights, one for each person lost in the Pentagon on that infamous day 9-11.

A great shot of the Pentagon taken on the night before the 5th anniversary of 9-11.

The flag is hung over the renovated point of impact of the plane that hit the Pentagon that Tuesday morning.

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When the first plane hit the WTC I was getting ready to go on a trip with my civilian job. I was listening to the radio and I had a gut feeling right away that this was no accident. I called into the Guard base and they said that as far as they knew it was just an accident, and nothing else was going on. Then I was in my bosses office watching the TV when the second plane hit. We just sat there stunned and all he said to me was "I guess you won't be going on the trip with us will you." I jetted out to my truck and hauled butt to the base and about 30 minutes later I was sitting in an intel briefing. Being in the middle of the country we were pretty sure that we were safe, but we do have SAC headquarters right up the street so for the first time in our history we actually launched our nuclear alert jets and headed out to start doing AR for the CAP birds that were over some targets in Nebraska, Missouri, and Colorado. It was a strange feeling being the only ones in the sky. ATC pretty much told us to go wherever we wanted to because the military was the only ones allowed to fly that day.

It really was not until that night when I was able to sit in a bar with some friends and watch the TV again did it really sink in as to what happened. We all knew right then that our lives, and our careers in the Military had just changed forever. And sure enough we started deploying jets and people overseas on September 17th, and I left on September 21st, and did not come home until sometime in March.

I have been watching all of the 9-11 shows on TV this past couple of weeks, and my wife always wonders why. And all I can tell her is that by watching them it just helps to strenghten my resolve against this group of people that want to eliminate us form the earth.

Elliboom...how true....thanks for sharing

See http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-2052.html

Not many hours in the Viper, (<50) but most were pretty exciting hours as they were test missions. Most of my "Viper" time was in the program office. Retired May 04.

Just turned 44...

Cool...sounds like you had fun, good background in vipers too. Thanks for the info

Well my story isn't nearly as flashy as some others, but it might be more relevant to some of the younger readers of the website. I was in high school at the time, a junior I believe. I didn't find out about it until fourth period when my Government teacher had the TV on. All the TVs in the school were on, I was just out of the loop before that because my previous teacher had disconnected herself so she could use her TV. Anyway, I saw the towers smoking and initially thought the teacher was showing us film from the 1993 bombing attempt at the WTC. That thought was soon corrected as the teacher across the hall came in crying her eyes out. Needless to say, those of us who hadn't seen anything started getting nervous and some freaking out a little. We were kids and the adults were getting messed up, what the hell was going on. After watching for a few minutes, we just stared wide eyed and slack jawed at the TV.

The girl I was sitting next to who I knew pretty well, much better later, uttered probably the freakiest phrase I've ever heard. She spoke to me in utter puzzlement. "Sean, where'd the tower go?" (Yes, my name is Sean.) The first tower had fallen, but it hadn't become apparent at that point. Everyone sat there slack jawwed after that point. The rest of the day was spent staring at the TV going, "What the hell?" It's stranger for a younger person, we've never seen major events unfold like this. I was 3 when the Berlin Wall fell, I don't remember that. In truth, this was one of the first major events in my lifetime that I can remember and certainly the most influential.

I think it might have been some time in the next month that I had decided what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I couldn't do the military service thing, it just isn't my style. So I'd make and design the stuff they would use, namely planes. I'd wanted to be an engineer before and was going to do it, but that made we want to go into military much more.

Whatever, not glamorous, just kinda what happened.

I was at SATO purchasing tickets from London to St Louis for a TO conference. Needless to say I had to cancel.

I was 7 or 8 years old in the 2nd grade, living in Arizona on my way to school, our bus pulled over to the side of the road and the bus driver turned on the radio. I was actually a pretty smart kid, I knew something had happened, and people were dead, but I had no idea what the WTC or Pentagon was. I remember watching F-117s light the sh*t out of Baghdad and Bush addressing the nation. The next thing I knew my brother was off to war. Now, in about a year, it'll be my turn.

Forum: Off-topic

What's your 9-11 story?