9/11 quiz

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?

I woke up and found a message on my answering machine from my Mom. My Mom asked me to call her. I called my Mom at my Aunts house. When my Mom got on the phone she told me that my Grandmother, my Moms Mom, died earlier that morning. This was not a big suprise because my Grandma was 86 and had cancer. I was still very upset. My Mom then asked me if I had turned on the TV. I said no. My Mom told me to turn on the TV and asked me to call her later. When I turned on the TV I saw the horror that had happened that day.

**2. What country/group did you suspect immediately? **

I didn’t suspect anyone at first. When the OKC bombing happened every one was saying that it was a Islamic group. That was wrong. When stuff like this happens I tend to wait for evidence before blaiming anyone.

**3. Who were you with? How did you react? **

I was alone and cried my eyes out because I lost my Grandma and saw this horrid attack on the US happen on the same day. I do remember sending President Bush an email that said “President Bush, find those who attacked the US. Find them and kill them. Kill them with extreme prejudice.”

4. Who did you call first?

I didn’t call anyone.

**5. What did you do the rest of the day? **

I watched the news and cried.

6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?

No, but I lost my Grandma on that day. Every time I see something about 9-11 it just reminds me that I lost my Gram. My Gram was a sweet and gentle woman. She loved the Denver Broncos and we would watch the Denver games together. My Gram would always get upset if Elway was sacked. She would say “Why did that guy have to hit Elway so hard?”.

7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No, it should be a day to remember but not a holiday.

<snipping 8 through 11>

12. At what point did it really sink in?

The day it happened.

Slee

22

1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?

I woke up and found a message on my answering machine from my Mom. My Mom asked me to call her. I called my Mom at my Aunts house. When my Mom got on the phone she told me that my Grandmother, my Moms Mom, die d earlier that morning. This was not a big suprise because my Grandma was 86 and had cancer. I was still very upset. My Mom then asked me if I had turned on the TV. I said no. My Mom told me to turn on the TV and asked me to call her later. When I turned on the TV I saw the horror that had happened that day.

**2. What country/group did you suspect immediately? **

I didn’t suspect anyone at first. When the OKC bombing happened every one was saying that it was a Islamic group. That was wrong. When stuff like this happens I tend to wait for evidence before blaiming anyone.

**3. Who were you with? How did you react? **

I was alone and cried my eyes out because I lost my Grandma and saw this horrid attack on the US happen on the same day. I do remember sending President Bush an email that said “President Bush, find those who attacked the US. Find them and kill them. Kill them with extreme prejudice.”

4. Who did you call first?

I didn’t call anyone.

**5. What did you do the rest of the day? **

I watched the news and cried.

6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?

No, but I lost my Grandma on that day. Every time I see something about 9-11 it just reminds me that I lost my Gram. My Gram was a sweet and gentle woman. She loved the Denver Broncos and we would watch the Denver games together. My Gram would always get upset if Elway was sacked. She would say “Why did that guy have to hit Elway so hard?”.

7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No, it should be a day to remember but not a holiday.

<snipping 8 through 11>

12. At what point did it really sink in?

The day it happened.

Slee

23
  1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?

I had just gotten into my office when the secretary came up to me and said “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center”. I then spent my time between the internet and a radio some other people in the office had on.

  1. What country/group did you suspect immediately?

Well, when the secretary first told me, I thought it was an accident. I then suspected the Palestinians for a few minutes, then Iraq, and finally settled on Bin Laden or some other fundimentalist muslim group.

  1. Who were you with? How did you react?

I was with the other people in my office. I was kind of scared (I work in DC), confused, and overwhelmed.

  1. Who did you call first?

I tried to call my parents, who were visiting me for a few days, but couldn’t get an answer.

  1. What did you do the rest of the day?

I stayed in the office and tried to get some work done until 1 or 2, then I got a taxi (the subway into Virginia was down) and went to my parents’ motel room. We watched tv for a while and talked, then went to dinner, then came back and watched more TV. Then when I got home, I messaged friends and told them I was ok. Then I went to bed.

  1. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?

Fortunately, no, but I know people who lost friends.

  1. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
    No

  2. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?

I hope so.

  1. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?

I think so, but I’ve never been a rah-rah kind of guy.

  1. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?

I flew home for a week in December.

  1. Have you been to Ground Zero?

No

  1. At what point did it really sink in?

Maybe the next day, or the day after that. All I knew is, for a long time, I couldn’t hear sirens without my heart jumping into my throat.

24
  1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?

It was a little after 10pm local time, so I didn’t hear about it until I got home work, just before the second plane hit. As soon as I walked in, my wife started frantically calling me over to the TV.

  1. What country/group did you suspect immediately?

I though it was an accident until I started hearing about the other planes. I don’t remember who I first suspected, but some Middle Eastern terrorist group would probably have been the first suspicion.

  1. Who were you with? How did you react?
    I was with my wife. I think it took a while for me to react.

  2. Who did you call first?

First, one of my friends called me, and we talked for a while about what we were seeing. A little later, I remebered that my parents were going to fly out of Boston sometime around then, so I called them next. It turned out that they were going to fly that day, and had been so busy getting ready that they hadn’t turned on the news and didn’t know what was happening.

  1. What did you do the rest of the day?

It was late at night here, so there wasn’t much I could do outside. I logged onto the SDMB and read threads of NY Dopers checking in and letting everyone know they were ok. I think I went to bed at about 3am.

  1. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?

No.

  1. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?

No.

  1. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?

Yes.

  1. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?

Some. Not so much an increase in patriotism as a feeling of setting aside my differences with other Americans.

  1. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?

I flew in January, but it was nowhere near the US (Tokyo-Taipei). I haven’t flown near America, but that’s because the opportunity hasn’t come up. My parents were in the air the day the flight restrictions were lifted.

  1. Have you been to Ground Zero?

No, haven’t been in America in the last couple of years. If I go to NY, I’d like to visit it.

  1. At what point did it really sink in?

Don’t really know. I think it mostly sunk in that day, with occasional feelings of vertigo over the next week.

25
  1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?

At home, waiting for tv show to start, when the BBC broke in with a news flash about the first plane - the initial report was that it was a light aircraft. The second one hit about 10 minutes later.

  1. What country/group did you suspect immediately?

I was in two minds. I thought it was Bin Laden, but also thought that American militia types could of done it.

  1. Who were you with? How did you react?

I was alone. My reaction to the report of the first plane was that the pilot was a damn idiot (bearing in mind I thought it was a light plane that had hit). Watching the second plane hit my reaction was, “Oh, shit”.

  1. Who did you call first?

My wife, Washte, who was at work.

  1. What did you do the rest of the day?

Gave a running report to Washte until she came home. All the news sites were down, so I kept her and her workmates informed.

  1. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?

No, but Washte had a few friends who worked at the Trade Center.

  1. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?

I’m not American so it’s not my place to say.

  1. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?

Yes.

  1. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?

Once again, I’m not American. The British deaths had no effect on my level of patriotism.

  1. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?

I haven’t, my wife has. Three flights in mid-August, three other flights two weeks later.

  1. Have you been to Ground Zero?

No.

  1. At what point did it really sink in?

Within a day or two.

26

  1. I was sleeping. The phone rang. I was told to turn on the TV because the Pentagon was bombed!

  2. I don’t recall thinking of suspects.

  3. I was alone.

  4. I called Mom.

  5. I didn’t do any work that day. I watched news, looked at Internet info., and emailed back and forth with friends.

  6. I don’t think I know any of the victims.

  7. No, I don’t think a holiday is warranted.

  8. I think some money made it to surviving family members.

  9. Yes. I feel more patriotic, and the feeling has been sustained.

  10. I flew again Oct. 2001. To Dulles.

  11. I visited both grounds zero in 11/2001.

  12. It really sank in when I saw the grounds zero. I cried at both spots.

I feel badly for those above who were much closer to the incidents on that day. I cannot imagine the horror. I feel lucky to be alive.

27

1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC? In central New Jersey, about 25 miles from Lower Manhattan.
2. What country/group did you suspect immediately? Noone in particular.
3. Who were you with? How did you react? Fellow researchers and grad students. Incomprehension. I had been out catching birds and it had been such a beautiful day. We got back to the lab to hear that two planes had hit the WTC, one had hit the Pentagon, one down in Pennsylvania. How can one react to that with anything but incomprehension?
4. Who did you call first? My sister kiffa. Had trouble getting through - no cell phones.
5. What did you do the rest of the day? Stared at the computer and couldn’t think. Got scared when the F16s flew overhead and went home to stare at the only channel that worked (a shopping channel that had the ABC feed).
6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks? No family or friends. Too many close calls.
7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday? No.
8. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families? Yes.
9. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last? Yes, or at least less inhibition about expressing it.
10. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again? Yes, about a week after the crash on Long Island. Flown several times and will again in a couple of weeks.
11. Have you been to Ground Zero? No.
12. At what point did it really sink in? It somes and goes.

28

  1. I was at home. I had just picked up my elder son from school and given him and his baby brother a snack, and sat down at my computer. I had checked my e-mail only an hour or so before, and yet I had close to a hundred new messages, with more coming in as I read. I’m on some very chatty mailing lists, but that was bizarre. As I read the mail I came to understand why… I didn’t want to turn on the TV with the kids in the room, so I was very grateful to my e-mail buddies and the Dopers for all the updates.

  2. It was weird. On the one hand, I felt like I’d been half-expecting something to blow soon, though not literally. On the other, Oke City kept coming to mind, and I figured any conclusion drawn in the heat of the moment would be wrong.

  3. As it happened, fella bilong missus flodnak came home from work early with a headache (no connection, he hadn’t heard a thing until he was in the car). So all my nearest family were in the house, but my husband was in bed and flodjunior was playing in his room. Only totnak was “with” me.

  4. I actually was trying to stay off the phone! We live close to the international school, and I thought there were probably people who needed to hear from friends and relations more than I did. However, the first reports of the fourth plane here incorrectly said it had crashed in Pittsburgh. Several people who knew I went Pitt called to see if I had any more news, and if I needed support. (Some mistakenly thought I had family in Pittsburgh; I don’t, though some of my college buddies still live there.)

  5. Just ordinary things, for the most part. As it happened I had a meeting scheduled that evening with other American expats; I decided not to go, and found out later it had been cancelled anyway. Made supper, read the evening paper, put the kids to bed. My husband said later that I looked like I was walking in my sleep, but I stayed very calm. Once the kids were in bed I turned on the BBC and kept it on until midnight.

One thing I remember was that I didn’t cry for over a week. Then I was reading Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset; late in the book, there are three tragic deaths in a short period of time. I got as far as the third and just started blubbering like a baby. Felt much better afterwards.

  1. No, thankfully.

  2. I understand the need for memorials this year, but I don’t think it should be a holiday.

  3. I haven’t been following that part of the aftermath closely enough to say.

  4. No.

  5. I flew again in June of this year. I wasn’t scared to fly earlier, I just had no specific reason to do so.

  6. No. I haven’t been to New York City in years… I don’t know if I’d go if something took me to NYC now. I don’t know how I’d react.

  7. The next day, I think, when I explained it to flodjunior. In his seven-year-old innocence, he assumed there had been some sort of horrid coincidence and the four planes had just crashed. I hope I never have to have a mother-son chat like that one again. (Oh gawd that sounds horribly self-centered… I hope you understand what I mean…)

29

1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?
At home. I’d sat down to eat lunch (It was about 2 o’clock here in England) and turned on the TV to see that a plane had hit one of the towers of the WTC. The second hit a few minutes later as I watched.

2. What country/group did you suspect immediately?
I don’t remember having any thoughts along those lines at all.

3. Who were you with? How did you react?
I was alone. First confusion. I don’t believe I’m alone in thinking that I was watching a movie or some sort of sick joke for the first few minutes. Later horror, especially when the second tower fell, sadness, and fear that it wasn’t over.

4. Who did you call first?
My mum. She was at work. I called her shortly after the second plane hit. I asked her if she’d seen or heard any news recently. She said no so I told her what had happened.

5. What did you do the rest of the day?
I was glued to the news for a few hours and kept up with the threads about it on the board at the same time. Eventually I decided I had to get away from it all, so I went shopping

6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?
No.

7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No. A minute’s silence could perhaps be observed on the anniversary each year but I think the greatest mark of respect we could give to those who died is to go to work as normal.

8. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?
I hope and believe that the majority of it did, yes.

9. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?
Not really applicable to me but it did seem to me that America was united like never before.

10. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?
No but I don’t fly much anyway. 9/11 didn’t affect my feelings about flying.

11. Have you been to Ground Zero?
Not exactly. I was there about a month before it became ground zero. I went to the top of the World Trade Centre on August 17th as part of a family holiday. Fantastic experience.

12. At what point did it really sink in?
When the Pentagon was hit was the first time I truly realised that the US was under attack. It sounds foolish but up until then there was a part of me that somehow still believed it was some horrible accident. It was a few days later that the loss really sunk in. Thinking about the things I had personally seen on my visit there made it seem much more real. I have a penny that is imprinted with a picture of the towers and the words ‘Top Of The World - New York’. The machine that made that is crushed beyond recognition. The girl who served me pizza is probably dead and she is only one of thousands. Damn.

30

1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?

Standing on the corner of Broadway and Vesey Street in downtown Manhattan (about a block away from the WTC). However, I had an very good idea that something was wrong when I got out of the subway station and saw that Fulton Street looked like a war zone.

2. What country/group did you suspect immediately?

I suspected Middle-Eastern terrorists pretty much right away.

3. Who were you with? How did you react?

I was with about a thousand other people when I first saw the towers. I eventually went into the building where I work where I rode out the towers collapsing with three other co-workers. The police came and evacuated us at about 12:30.

4. Who did you call first?

I tried calling my wife, mother and father to tell them that I made it into downtown Manhattan OK and that I was alive and well. The phones, as you can imagine, were not working too well. I fincally did manage to get a call through to my sister and asked her to pass word to everyone else that I was fine.

5. What did you do the rest of the day?

I waited in the building where I work until about 12:30. I saw and felt the towers collapse. After the police evacuated us, I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to get home. I ended up walking all the way home that day, as the subways were out citywide. I stayed home most of the day, although later in the afternoon I had to go to a local UPS to get something that we were waiting for.

6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?

Fortunately, I do not know a single person who died on that day. However, I do know people who knew people. Had I remembered to change my voter registration after I moved, I could have been there myself, instead of getting out of the subway at Fulton Street.

7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?

No.

8. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?

Yes.

9. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?

Yes.

10. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?

Yes, my wife and I flew to Israel (and back) in December 2001.

11. Have you been to Ground Zero?

I pass by there every day. However, I did go up on the Fulton Street viewing platform once last June.

12. At what point did it really sink in?

Still hasn’t. I still look in that direction and expect to see the towers. I still find myself planning to go to the Borders at 5WTC after work, and then recalling that it’s not there anymore.

Zev Steinhardt

31

1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?
I was in my office at work, at the Suitland Federal Center just outside of D.C. in Maryland.

2. What country/group did you suspect immediately?
I didn’t. I was too busy trying to get a clue as to what had actually happened.

3. Who were you with? How did you react?
About 9:15 or 9:20, I’d guess, my co-worker across the hall came over and asked if I’d heard anything about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. There’s no TV that I know of in our building, so it was Web or radio for news, and the Web was jammed, but after a few minutes I got to the Washington Post website which had the news of the second plane hitting the WTC. My officemate was away, but I remembered his radio in time to hear President Bush’s first response to the attacks on the WTC, the one before the plane hit the Pentagon.

It was hard finding radio news - on one station we listened to for about 15-20 minutes, the deejay was relaying the news he had, including phoned-in reports from listeners. After the Pentagon was hit, there were also reports of explosions on the Mall, near the Capitol, and in other places. The husband of a co-worker works near the Mall, and he’d called her with the report of a bomb going off on the Mall. All this later was shown to be false, but we didn’t know it at the time. For all we knew, the terrorists were attacking many targets that morning, by a number of different means. Since the National Maritime Intelligence Center (Naval Intelligence, that is) is in our complex (and used to be in my building), it was a longshot but not totally implausible that they might attack here.

Eventually I logged into Fathom, where posters with better news access were updating the rest of us, not that the national news people were much clearer. That thread gives a sense of the confusion that morning.

4. Who did you call first?
My wife, who works in another building in the same complex, to try to figure out whether and when to leave.

5. What did you do the rest of the day?
Around 10:30, they told us to evacuate the complex. Given the gridlock that that created, my wife and I waited until the guards came through saying, “Leave. Now.” Once we were a couple blocks away, traffic was negligible. It was eerie, heading home on that clear, perfect morning.

We spent the rest of the day following the TV news and checking in online. I called the local Red Cross in the early afternoon about donating blood, but they already had more people in line than they could handle that day, so I gave the following week.
6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?
No, thank goodness.

7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No, definitely not. What I would suggest is that all business, school, etc. activity cease from, say, 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern time on 9/11 each year, in remembrance of the attacks.

8. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?
Yes.

9. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?
As it says in Hebrews 11, my true citizenship lies elsewhere. But I love America very deeply, and that didn’t change one way or the other on 9/11.

10. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?
Yes, several times: my wife and I had already had major travel plans for the upcoming year, and we didn’t change them. So we flew down to visit her folks in Florida last October, flew to Hawaii for a delayed 10th anniversary trip in November, and flew to Yurp on a trip with my family in June.

11. Have you been to Ground Zero?
Yes, while I was in NYC for the Dopefest last January. I was staying with OxyMoron, and we walked down there together on the morning of January 5. The wait in line for the viewing platform couldn’t have been more than about 30 minutes. It really looked like a big construction site by then; nothing to distinguish it. But I needed to go.

12. At what point did it really sink in?
It still seems a bit unreal.