Remembering 9-11

[trailrunner]

My last job was in the section of the Pentagon that got hit. The fluorescent strips along the floor and around the door handles to aid evacuation were a constant reminder. When I’d go outside to check my phone or get fresh air, I’d be right by the memorial, and every couple months I’d visit the memorial chapel down the hall, which has a book honoring the victims. They were everyday GS, contractors, and military, just like me.

I was TDY, but I have many friends who were in the building that day.

[bayonetbrant]

https://www.wired.com/story/pagers-pay-phones-and-dialup-how-we-communicated-on-911/

[mirth]

I didn't have home internet in 2001.

[Sir Slash]

I do not miss dial-up. 

[Staggerwing]

I had dialup.
First got it in 93 or 94, IIRC. Started with AOL, then Erols. Also had Compuserve in there somewhere.

I watched the OJ Simpson white Bronco chase text updates roll in on the news feed on the same Leading Edge 486SX25 that I had to buy a math coprocessor for to play Falcon3.0.

Frakk me, I'm old 

[BanzaiCat]

I remember at Waldenbooks, we sold CompuServe kits...this would have been 1991 or so. I never got that until I bought my 1200 baud modem for about $100 or so that year. I stuck with BBSs, even after moving to Houston, and didn't discover AOL until '95 or so. I definitely don't miss dial-up, blocking the phone line, and it taking six minutes to download a 100kB file.

[bayonetbrant]

I will share this story every year on 9-11....

the annual 'bump'

[bob48]

Not forgotten here, and never will be.

[bayonetbrant]

This is a transcript of the Today Show on the morning of 9/11 as the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

We watched it live - just returned from Germany the Friday before it happened, and I was on second shift at Kinko's at the time, so I wasn't headed to work until 2pm or so.
For years, I could've sworn I heard Katie say "Looks like they've got some air traffic control problems." Turns out I wasn't completely wrong - Katie isn't the one that said it, and it's not quite as flippant as I'd remembered it.

And I'm glad there was a transcript.

Just so you know, the transcript mis-identifies Elliott Walker as "Ms Walker".

KATIE COURIC, co-host:
Obviously, horrified commuters were--were absolutely devastated when they heard this explosion. We talked with somebody a moment ago about that, Jennifer Oberstein, and also another eyewitness, Elliott Walker, who is actually a producer here on the TODAY show.
Elliott, can you hear me?

Ms. ELLIOTT WALKER: Yes. Hi, Katie.

COURIC: Hi, Elliott. Tell me where you are and what you saw.

Ms. WALKER: Well, I live in this area. I returned to my apartment. But I was walking down the sidewalk delivering my young daughter to school. And we heard a very loud sound, the kind of sound you hear when a plane is, you know, going fast past you 'Nnnnnn,' followed by an enormous crash and an immediate explosion. I don't think we could feel shock waves, but we--we sort of felt like we did. And we were in a position where we could see the Trade Center almost immediately between the other buildings, and an enormous fireball that must have been 300 feet across was visible immediately, a secondary explosion, I think, and then plumes of smoke. I must be--there must have been a three-block cloud of--of white smoke. Now, from where I was on the street a moment ago, you can, in fact, see smoke leaving the building on three sides. It seems to be coming out on at least four or five floors. The area is filled with hundreds of dozens of pieces of paper that are just sort of floating like confetti. The area is swarmed with emergency vehicles and sirens. Obviously...

COURIC: Have you seen...

Ms. WALKER: ...we're very sensitive to this kind of thing in this neighborhood.

COURIC: Elliott, have you--of course, because of the incident that occurred in the early 1990s. Have you seen any--any evidence, Elliott, of--of people being taken out of the building? You say that emergency vehicles are there. Understandably so. But, of course, the major concern is human loss.

Ms. WALKER: Oh, my goodness.

COURIC: I mean, do you know if there were many people in the building?

Ms. WALKER: Oh, another one just hit. Something else just hit, a very large plane just flew directly over my building...

ROKER: Oh, my...

Ms. WALKER: ...and there's been another collision. Can you see it?

COURIC: Yes.

LAUER: Yes.

Ms. WALKER: I can see it on this shot.

COURIC: Oh, my...

Ms. WALKER: Something else has just...

LAUER: You know what...

Ms. WALKER: ...and that looked more like a 747.

LAUER: ...we just saw a plane circling the building. We just saw a plane circling the building, a second ago on the shot right before that.

Ms. WALKER: I think there may have been another impact. Can you tell? I just heard another very loud bang and a very large plane that might have been a DC-9 or a 747 just flew past my window, and I think it may have hit the Trade Center again.

LAUER: To be--to be honest, Elliott, I didn't--I didn't get the impression it was that big a plane. I...

Ms. WALKER: It looked big from here.

LAUER: I did see a plane go by a second ago, though. And it--it--it has now impacted the building.

Ms. WALKER: Yes.

LAUER: I'm trying to see if it is the different tower. It is. It's the other tower.

Ms. WALKER: I think it may have been the other tower.

COURIC: It's the second...

Ms. WALKER: The first one was World Trade Center One, and it looks, from what I'm seeing on television, like it may have been the second building that was hit.

LAUER: We're going to see--this is a piece of tape and we may actually see another plane enter the picture here in a second.

Ms. WALKER: I wonder if there are air traffic control problems.

LAUER: Let's go back to Jennifer Oberstein, who was talking to us a second ago.

[Sir Slash]

I slept through the whole thing. I went to Wal-Mart to get dog food and saw a bunch of the locals standing around a TV there watching it. I got there just as the second tower came down. Anytime you can get the local-yokels to look at something on TV that's NOT hunting related, it's got to be serious. I felt like I was going to be sick. Then I got angry about it. And I still am. 

[Martok]

Never forget. 

I still flash back to being stuck at work that day, all of us sitting/standing around, and watching the TV coverage.  I remember hating how helpless I -- we -- all felt. 

[bayonetbrant]

I will share this story every year on 9-11....

the annual 'bump'

BUMP

[bob48]

We were talking about it earlier and remember the shock and horror of what we saw on TV of the event and the aftermath. Even now, it has the power to reduce us to tears.

[Undercovergeek]

Was trying to explain to my parents that I don’t feel I’m entitled to the grief and horror of that day - I’m not an American, I have no connection to anyone there that day but every time I see it like Bob it’s hard not to tear up - watched 3 of the big documentaries here about it - a six parter, one with no music, no commentary just the radio and phone coms from that day and one following some survivors - watching the brigade commanders sending in men and knowing what time it was and they were never coming back out was horrible and a fire captain who survived with his engine who said ‘a whole army of firemen were coming to get us and they kept saying on the radio ‘were coming for you brother’’ makes me cry typing it

[judgedredd]

What were the documentaries? What channel(s)?

I was baby sitting my year old daughter when I saw pandemonium on some street. I saw fireman, smoke, dust, cars and assumed it was a bomb in Israel. Then I saw the second airplane fly into the second tower and could not believe my eyes.