Where Were You?

[MU B2002]

In Campus Town West (402 I think) sleeping through my finance class.  Roommate yelled into my room that a plane hit a building or something in NYC. Either not realizing what he said, or believing him, went back to sleep.  Woke up just in time to see the second plane and proceeded to sit on the couch watching the news for what seemed like 4 days. 

[Strokin 3s]

McCormick 11th floor shower, guy next door walked in and said he thought he heard a small plane flew into the world trade center but couldn't be sure it wasn't part of his dream.  Finished up the shower got dressed and was glued to the TV the rest of the day.

[GGGG]

I was going to work on an absolutely beautiful September day.  I watched all day but continued to work in a bit of a haze.

I remember that night trying to put my 10 year old son to bed but he was crying because he thought someone was going to get him.  That's what made me most angry - those bastards took away his security.  After I talked to him for awhile, I went upstairs and started to cry.

That night, I woke up and heard a fighter jet in the sky and it made me feel better...as did the soldiers with machine guns at O'Hare when I flew 10 days later.

[sellit07]

Sultan that message really touched me. I worked with kids for 5 years, starting as a junior in HS, and if I would have worked with them during that time period it would have killed me and made me the most angry to see kids feel scared and confused for their security. I don't want to make it about the war because that it is a totally different topic but one of the main reasons we needed to go was to protect the kids/future of our nation.

[jutaw22mu]

It was my day to sleep in, since I didn't have class until 10:30.  I was in McCormick on the 12th floor and our phone rang.  Since I was on the bottom bunk I had to answer it, and it was my roommate's mother.  I remember being slightly annoyed...woke her up and gave her the phone and tried to go back to sleep.  Next thing I know she's turning on the tv (one of those tiny ones) and I was even more annoyed until I heard "plane crashed into WTC."  I sat up in bed and was glued to the tv the rest of the day.


I still have pictures from the gathering MU had in the mall between the Union and McCormick (unfortunately not digital versions.  Never seen so many people cram into that space since then.

[TomW1365]

I've heard many people talk about where they were when they heard that someone shot Kennedy... it's amazing that everyone that experienced that can tell you every detail of what they were doing before and after they heard the news.  I was always blown away how people could recount so clearly what had happened 40 years ago.    
The 9/11 attack was something that helped me understand how this was possible.  I'm sure most would agree that while this occurred eight years ago, it seems like "just yesterday" and we know what we were doing before and after hearing the news.    
I was in a meeting in our building a block north of the Sears Tower when my managing director came into the conference room and told us that a prop plane had hit the WTC.  We turned on Good Morning America just in time to see the second plane hit.  As you can imagine, most office buildings started clearing out soon after the news that there were many other planes that were unaccounted for.  I, on the other hand, was glued to the TV until 2:00.  When I was walking back to my train, the streets in Chicago's Loop were eerily quiet and resembled a ghost town.  
To me 9-11 is a day for me to reflect on how lucky I am to have great family and friends in the greatest nation on this earth and to never take a day for granted.    

[Sir Lawrence]

I still have pictures from the gathering MU had in the mall between the Union and McCormick (unfortunately not digital versions.  Never seen so many people cram into that space since then.

I too recall how crystal clear the day here in Milwaukee was.  I work on the 23rd floor of the US Bank Building, and was a little later into work than usual that morning.  We had our conference room full of my partners meeting on something when the news started to spread.  The Bank didn't close the office tower, but most folks left to go home--it was simply too hard to concentrate on work anyway. 

I had two kids in college at the time, all in different states, and felt an overwhelming need to make sure they both were OK.  Cell phones traffic was tremendous that late morning.

Gesu had a special  church service, I want to say at 5:00 p.m., that I tried to attend.  By the time I arrived, you could not even get inside the side entrances.  I've never seen that many bodies in that building. 

[jaybilaswho?]

Sophmore year of high school in Spanish class. Someone came past the door adn said there was an attack on the World Trade Center. We turned on the TV and no one said a word for the rest of class. When the bell rang to change classes... noone knew if we should go to our next class or stay where we were.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

I too remember what a beautiful day in Milwaukee it was.  I was at the Clark gas station on prospect when someone came in and said that a plane hit the WTC.  In my mind, I couldn't even picture what that would even look like.  I was working for Frito Lay at the time, and was training a new hire.  Our next stop was Sendiks on Downer, where they had a TV on and we watched it all happen.  I almost punched the pie in the sky, middle aged "intellectual" that was just hanging out in Sendiks for no good reason when he made the statement that "none of this would have happened if Al Gore was president."  Spent the rest of the day making deliveries to a lot of Middle Eastern owned small groceries and gas stations.  Those guys were really nervous, people were standing outside some stores blocking the doors, etc.

[Chili]

Woke up for my Advanced Financial Principles class during my 2nd Senior year at my apartment at the Reeves to my friend calling saying we we're under attack. Went and turned in my assignment told Pruceck (I think that was his name) that I wasn't sticking around. Met some buddy's at Heg's and watched tv all day. We had no idea what to do - but Heg's seemed right. Went to go watch W talk at Caffery's later in the day.

Surreal.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I remember waking up and my roommate was watching the news (different from sportscenter) After the first plane had crashed, everybody was thinking is was an accident. Nobody knew the size of the plane yet, or what had happened.

Utter confusion on the news as the tower sat there an smoked. We had more of a WOW, that's weird feeling, (rather than WOW, that's scary)

Then I watched live as the second plane hit. It became apparent that it wasn't an freak accident anymore (although people were still wondering if there was something wrong with radar or maybe the computers on the planes were freaking out).

Nobody could really believe that it had been premeditated (just too weird to imagine) until there were rumors about a plane that hit the Pentegon, and then it obviously all part of a big plan and hysteria started to set in.

The next step (probably that afternoon?) was speculating out who did it. I remember hoping it wasn't a Tim McVeigh type of thing. I feared that if a US citizen had been behind all of this that it would rip the country into pieces.

The rest of the day/week I was pretty numb. We watched a lot of TV, but after couple of days, it just became noise. We really didn't know what it all meant. 

Also, I will always remember the world series that year. I hate the yankees, but I was so happy for all of the New Yorkers when they won those games in NYC.

[Robyrd5]

I was just getting out of my first period English class my freshman year of high school when I overheard a friend of mine in the hallway talking about a plane crash. I went to my religion class where my teacher broke the news. For whatever reason, we didn't watch the footage on television, but she let us listen to the radio reports. Our assignment for the period was to write letters to the families of the victims, which was hard to do not knowing exactly what was unfolding and having very little time to process it all.

After second period, we were all escorted to the auditorium, where another of my teachers, a Navy captain, reassured us that we were safe and nobody would want to attack a little nothing town in Georgia. Then he told us that we'd be dismissing school early so we could be with our loved ones. I remember many of my friends being distraught because a lot of them had fathers who were pilots, and they weren't sure if/where they were flying that day. My mother wasn't able to pick me up from school until the normal time, so I waited around with a couple of other kids for a few hours. It was very quiet; nobody really knew what to say or if it was even okay to talk about anything else.

When my mother finally picked me up, she had my two younger siblings with her. Apparently there were wild rumors spreading around at their school (Kindergarten-8th grade). My sister asked, "Mom, is it true that New York just declared war on Mexico?" It was apparent that the administration had no idea how to explain what had happened to the younger kids. We went to my grandmother's house and were glued to the television for the rest of the day. And pretty much every day after that for at least the next week. It makes me wonder how many times we all watched the crashes and the collapses over that time period.   

[TallTitan34]

For those of you who were at Marquette then, what did the school do on that day?  I was still in high-school at the time.

[dsfire]

As I recall, classes were cancelled after 11 or noon-ish (just for that day), and as someone mentioned above there were some special services later on.  I don't remember much in terms of emergency warnings of any sort, but I might've been out of the loop.

[Skatastrophy]

While MU held a candlelight vigil on the 14th to mourn at Westown Mall, there was a pretty big deal on the afternoon of 9/11/2001 when MU refused to let MU's college republicans have a moment of silence around the American flag.  A number of reasons were given for it, but I recall the university trying to keep that on the DL after the whole country turned uber-patriotic.  Definitely a messed up and tense week for everyone.

From John McAdams, the academic advisor for the college repubs at the time (stolen from a thread on freep).

I'm the faculty advisor of the Marquette College Republicans. The proposed memorial was indeed denied. At least a large *part* of the denial (but not the entire story) was the unhappiness of staffers in the Student Affairs office with the display of the American flag. For example: 1.) Lonnie Leitner, President of the College Rebublicans was told that "this is not a day for nationalism." 2.) A staffer reportedly stated that the display of the flag would be "offensive" to foreign students. I say "reportedly," but the Student Affairs staff themselves told this to me. 3.) A staffer for Student Affairs advised Marquette Student Government officials not to display the flag in the Student Government offices. The other part of the story is the fact that Marquette administrators had held a meeting and had an elaborate plan as to what "Marquette's response" should be. When the College Republicans came in with a proposal that wasn't included in their plan, they reacted negatively. In sum: partly ideological bias, and partly bureaucracy. John McAdams

[AlumKCof93]

I was trying to get my almost 2 yr old son ready so I could take him to daycare before I went to work.  He was being awful that morning and when I turned on TV and saw a fire, I thought that might distract him so I could get ready.  I had it on for a few minutes and then looked to see the 2nd plane hit the WTC.  Matt Lauer immediately recognized it as terrorism, which left me dumbfounded.  The rest of the day was filled with horror, fear and tremendous sadness at what had occurred. It was an unbelievable day.

[GGGG]

Not to be political here, but McAdams is being a little bit of a prick here.

A classmate of mine, a Republican, who worked in the International Education office at MU at the time told me that a number of student groups, not only the College Republicans, wanted to have some sort of Memorial.  What the administration didn't want is a bunch of groups doing their own thing because it might cause tension.  For instance, the Islamic group wanted to do something too...as did the Students for Peace...or whatever it was called.

The administration then decided that they were going to sponsor a memorial event...and not have a bunch of separate ones.  Remember, this was a confusing time - they had no idea what the reaction would be if everyone was on their own.

[wyoMUfan]

I was a freshman the year after, and I remember the 1 year anniversary memorial MU did.
It was touching, its amazing how every year makes 9/11 more and more distant in our hearts...discussions like this are good to help us remember.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Not to be political here, but McAdams is being a little bit of a prick here.

A classmate of mine, a Republican, who worked in the International Education office at MU at the time told me that a number of student groups, not only the College Republicans, wanted to have some sort of Memorial.  What the administration didn't want is a bunch of groups doing their own thing because it might cause tension.  For instance, the Islamic group wanted to do something too...as did the Students for Peace...or whatever it was called.

The administration then decided that they were going to sponsor a memorial event...and not have a bunch of separate ones.  Remember, this was a confusing time - they had no idea what the reaction would be if everyone was on their own.

That's a great point.

I'm sure MU didn't like playing the "bad guy", but it was really needed to get everything organized.

Sometimes grassroots/spontaneous stuff is great, but it is also risky because having 4-5 different (and diverse) groups trying to "honor America" in their own way might not have gone so well. Tensions were running high, especially for people with family members in NYC, in the military, or in the middle east. 

MU had to play the bad guy to minimize the risk.

[Tommy Brice for Coach]

people were standing outside some stores blocking the doors, etc.

Man what the hell is wrong with people... that was the one thing I hated about 9/11, is that for a short period of time it really seemed to bring out some bigotry in a lot of Americans. If you were from the middle east, or even had brown skin, you were associated with terrorism or a Bin Laden sympathizer. That's so messed up.

As for what I was doing, I was eating some cereal at the living room table, watching Good Morning America getting ready for school (I was in 8th Grade). My dad gave me a call, but had no idea what had happened, he was just checking in. When I told him, he thought it was a joke. Got to school just as the second plane hit. Watched the towers fall and then our teacher shut off the TV for the day, and we spent hours talking about the reasons for the attack and the political situation behind it. Now that I think about it, it was that day that made me start to pay attention to the news on a regular basis. Made me realize how important it was to do so.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Man what the hell is wrong with people... that was the one thing I hated about 9/11, is that for a short period of time it really seemed to bring out some bigotry in a lot of Americans. If you were from the middle east, or even had brown skin, you were associated with terrorism or a Bin Laden sympathizer. That's so messed up.

Bigotry and racism exist all sides, left and right, blacks and whites, Asians and Germans, Catholics and Protestants, etc. 

I worked with several Muslims at the time and they were on edge as you can imagine.  They totally understood how some people felt but they were caught in a wave of anger.  Out here in L.A. we have ethnic violence all the time. If you're white or Hispanic and walk into the wrong neighborhood, pray.  If you're African American and walk into the wrong Hispanic neighborhood, pray.   It's everywhere, no group is immune to it, though I do see a lot of white guilt by some people which I never understood.  It exists to some extent in all ethnic groups, all peoples (that doesn't mean all people are racist....nor am I saying that) so some of the holier than thou comments by some groups pinning these claims on others is hypocritical at best.