9/11

[Guest]

15 years on, I still remember the confusion of hearing one after the other of the crashes, and the stomach churning news footage of the moments.

Does anyone else hold their own moment of respect for the 1000's that died needlessly?

[MR_W]

I remember sitting bolt upright in my maths class and saying to my mate that something didn't feel right. When I got home and saw the news and did the time conversions, I sat upright when the first tower went down. I don't claim to be psychic or anything but that was a bit weird.

Gf is American so I imagine my feed is going to go a bit nuts on Facebook.

I remember 7/7. Popped into the old Dixon in Exeter high street and it was on the TVs.

[Tango]

I was working in a lab in the main hospital in Jersey......someone came in and said a plane had crashed into the WTC......The Internet then fell over, so news was a bit sketchy after that. I was staying in an hotel in St Helier that night and went to a pub for dinner and a beer. There was a TV on in the bar with news and live reports.....everyone in the bar was watching it in complete silence......

[rennie]

I heard about it via internet at work

watched tv stunned when I got home

[Guest]

I look at it as the beginning of a chain of events that are still going on at the moment. So I think about all the victims as a whole, in the US but also Middle East, Africa and of course France since that's where I'm from and I relate to it in a more direct way.

[MarkW]

I had landed in Holland earlier on the day it happened, and was in a meeting at head office when the planes struck. When I came out of the meeting room and went into a colleagues office he turned his computer screen towards me and just said "Look at this". I thought it was a trailer from a new movie and said something like "Wow! That's amazing!" I still remember the plummeting feeling in my stomach when it dawned on me what I was watching.

I phoned my wife and told her to put the TV on:

"Which channel?"

"Any channel, Vicki..."

I'm in Washington at the moment, and obviously it's the main feature on the news. It was on the TV at breakfast in a room full of about 30 teenage kids on a school trip, none of whom had even been born when it happened. They all sat there asking me about it, which was nice, but made me feel very old.

Perhaps I'll stop asking my mother what the 60s were like...

[MarkW]

I had landed in Holland earlier on the day it happened, and was in a meeting at head office when the planes struck. When I came out of the meeting room and went into a colleagues office he turned his computer screen towards me and just said "Look at this". I thought it was a trailer from a new movie and said something like "Wow! That's amazing!" I still remember the plummeting feeling in my stomach when it dawned on me what I was watching.

I phoned my wife and told her to put the TV on:

"Which channel?"

"Any channel, Vicki..."

I'm in Washington at the moment, and obviously it's the main feature on the news. It was on the TV at breakfast in a room full of about 30 teenage kids on a school trip, none of whom had even been born when it happened. They all sat there asking me about it, which was nice, but made me feel like one of those Japanese guys who gets wheeled out to tell American schoolkids about Hiroshima.

Perhaps I'll stop asking my mother what the 60s were like...

[Joe85]

Something incredibly sinister about the whole thing, I'm not talking "beam jets cant melt steel fuel" but just the whole 5 years after with Bush and Blair, Iraq invasion based on lies etc.

Awful time in history. Bin Laden, Bush and Blair have changed this world permanently for the worse and so far only one of them has been made to pay.

[Guest]

They all sat there asking me about it, which was nice, but made me feel very old.

Perhaps I'll stop asking my mother what the 60s were like...

That's so important that memory of past times and events is passed on directly from one generation to another though... Otherwise the only narrative of the past is the one of the establishement that goes unchallenged and it's not good... not for democracy, not for people's rights, not in terms of legacy.

Sad society that in which being first hand witness of history make you feel old and want to shut up instead of making you feel experienced and wanting to share with the youngest

[MarkW]

Sad society that in which being first hand witness of history make you feel old and want to shut up instead of making you feel experienced and wanting to share with the youngest

What made me feel old was that these 14 and 15 year old kids were almost adults - certainly in their attitudes and behaviour. It can bring you up short sometimes to realise that a whole childhood and early adolescence has passed in what seems like the twinkling of an eye! I remember the conversation with my neighbour (a weapons technician in the US Airforce based in Lakenheath) as if it was just a couple of years ago.

And as if feeling old wasn't bad enough I seem to have managed to post my earlier comment twice, which suggests I'm losing my marbles.

[Joeman]

My flatmate at the time was flying to the US. I sent her a text to say "if you don't make it back I'm keeping your PlayStation"..

She was re-routed mid-Atlantic and flew back to the uk and she got to keep her PlayStation.

[Guest]

Sad society that in which being first hand witness of history make you feel old and want to shut up instead of making you feel experienced and wanting to share with the youngest

What made me feel old was that these 14 and 15 year old kids were almost adults - certainly in their attitudes and behaviour. It can bring you up short sometimes to realise that a whole childhood and early adolescence has passed in what seems like the twinkling of an eye! I remember the conversation with my neighbour (a weapons technician in the US Airforce based in Lakenheath) as if it was just a couple of years ago.

And as if feeling old wasn't bad enough I seem to have managed to post my earlier comment twice, which suggests I'm losing my marbles.

I'm sure it's one of the admin who tricked you. There's no other sensible explanation.

I still struggle when I hear people saying they were born in the 80s and they're adults ... I think everybody was born in the late 70s, we just developped differently, that's all

But beyond the individual sense of getting older, there's a sort of cult and obsession in our societies with being and staying young whatever that means that lead us to feel old instead of just older when we age. I notice it at lot around me, but maybe it's just me.

[fq-craigus]

I was in the library computer room at school when the librarian came running in turning the tv on crying that the twin towers had been blown up, i remember thinking whats a twin tower.....

[Guest]

I still struggle when I hear people saying they were born in the 80s and they're adults

I was born in the 80's

[Guest]

I still struggle when I hear people saying they were born in the 80s and they're adults

I was born in the 80's

Not sure about the adult thing in your case though

[Gin]

I still struggle when I hear people saying they were born in the 80s and they're adults

I was born in the 80's

Not sure about the adult thing in your case though

 

1991...

I feel like an adult though!

And I do remember 9/11.. I'd just got out of my primary school, year 6, and all the parents were talking about it..

[MrBrightside]

I was in the Army on the way down to Okehampton that day. A day I will remember forever, like it was yesterday. Things changed quickly after that.

[Throttled]

Throttled Jur was born on the 9/10 and I was phoning people to let them know when one of my friends started to swear down the phone. I went into the maternity and got them to switch the TV over from some make over show, just as the second plane hit. I have also been to the top when I was in NY in 1986. It was an amazing sight just looking from one at the other. I still have my souvenir mug.

[Gin]

Throttled Jur was born on the 9/10 and I was phoning people to let them know when one of my friends started to swear down the phone. I went into the maternity and got them to switch the TV over from some make over show, just as the second plane hit. I have also been to the top when I was in NY in 1986. It was an amazing sight just looking from one at the other. I still have my souvenir mug.

I was thinking about this the other day; the idea of a child born with their birthday close to this day and how it's affected them..

How does Throttled Jr feel about the event?

Do they find it has become a defining feature in their life and as a parent do you think you can see any personality traits that have been influenced by being so closely bound to this day?

Or is it more slightly infuriating that something they don't have any recollection of has always been there to over shadow their birthday?

[NearOn]

I remember leaving my school on a British Army base in Germany and getting home and my brother was watching it and as I started to watch, the second plane hit. I always remember just how the buildings collapsed as if was controlled.

Have to admit I don't necessarily believe the conspiracy theories but I certainly won't be surprised if one day more comes to light about the whole situation.

[Joeman]

I remember leaving my school on a British Army base in Germany and getting home and my brother was watching it and as I started to watch, the second plane hit. I always remember just how the buildings collapsed as if was controlled.

Have to admit I don't necessarily believe the conspiracy theories but I certainly won't be surprised if one day more comes to light about the whole situation.

 

yep, they came down very cleanly... almost too cleanly... many people made a lot of money on that day when the share price of many companies crashed. But I hope that the conspiracies are just that, and not some greedy persons plan to pocket a few (billion) quid.

But the towers coming down sparked the war against Bin-Laden. He suddenly became public enemy number one. A man reliant on blood transfusions somehow surviving in the desert and not able to be found.

When they eventually found him, in Pakistan, they killed him in his house, took his body away, and dumped him at sea... no body, no evidence... did Bin-Laden actually exist? we will never know....

[RantMachine]

When they eventually found him, in Pakistan, they killed him in his house, took his body away, and dumped him at sea... no body, no evidence... did Bin-Laden actually exist? we will never know....

 

Haaaang on a minute Joe, think you've got things a bit mixed up, that was clearly Megatron

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Burial_b60be4_2067851.jpg

[Joeman]

When they eventually found him, in Pakistan, they killed him in his house, took his body away, and dumped him at sea... no body, no evidence... did Bin-Laden actually exist? we will never know....

 

Haaaang on a minute Joe, think you've got things a bit mixed up, that was clearly Megatron

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Burial_b60be4_2067851.jpg

Bin laden/Megatron both as plausible as each other.

They used some new high-tech stealth helicopter technology to capture bin laden. Maybe they were transformers too.

[Throttled]

Throttled Jur was born on the 9/10 and I was phoning people to let them know when one of my friends started to swear down the phone. I went into the maternity and got them to switch the TV over from some make over show, just as the second plane hit. I have also been to the top when I was in NY in 1986. It was an amazing sight just looking from one at the other. I still have my souvenir mug.

I was thinking about this the other day; the idea of a child born with their birthday close to this day and how it's affected them..

How does Throttled Jr feel about the event?

Do they find it has become a defining feature in their life and as a parent do you think you can see any personality traits that have been influenced by being so closely bound to this day?

Or is it more slightly infuriating that something they don't have any recollection of has always been there to over shadow their birthday?

 

To him it has just been a coincidence. At the time my US relatives were just delighted that they had something happy to think and talk about.

[Throttled]

I remember leaving my school on a British Army base in Germany and getting home and my brother was watching it and as I started to watch, the second plane hit. I always remember just how the buildings collapsed as if was controlled.

Have to admit I don't necessarily believe the conspiracy theories but I certainly won't be surprised if one day more comes to light about the whole situation.

 

yep, they came down very cleanly... almost too cleanly......

 

I am no engineer, but inside the buildings with lost of pillars around a central lift shaft and the tall thin windows made it like a massive cheese grater. So the planes were able to get into the building (harder to do with an older stone building like the Empire State building which has been subject to a plane strike and it just bounced off) and then they disintegrated amongst the pillars. That was also enabled by the size and speed of the planes. So the damage inside was spread over a large area inside, not just on one side of the building.

Then to confirm if something works or not it is usual to do something at least twice. The two planes and two towers meant that there was a second time and on both occasions the towers reacted the same way. There would have been more reason to be suspicious of the way it collapsed if only one plane had hit one tower.