9-11

[nexus73]

What struck me was the way communities far distant from New York or DC reacted. It's almost as if they believed somehow they would become targets. The local county fair was going on the place where I worked, and the event organizers closed the midway and canceled whatever event was planned for that night. Surely they didn't expect terrorists to attack a talent show (or whatever the nightly event was) in Stanton, Ky., did they?

I think it was a side effect of just how unprecedented this event was - it had been 60 years since we were attached on home soil, and possibly not since the War of 1812 for an attack on our mainland.

Mainland US attacks have happened since the War of 1812.  Pancho Villa attacked Columbus NM during the Mexican Revolution.  Imperial Japan hit Oregon 3 times, once with a sub shelling the Fort Stevens area and twice with sub launched planes that dropped bombs in the forests of Curry County in an attempt to start fires.  Goleta CA was shelled once by an IJN sub as well.

Rick

[Bruce]

I was 4 at the time and not old enough to remember anything. I also can't remember the pre-9/11 America, but from what I have heard it was a far different society than what I grew up in.

The stories of bloodlust immediately after the attack are terrifying to hear about now. Random attacks on anyone who "looks Muslim", the rush into two horrific wars, the terrorist paranoia that we still haven't shaken off...all of it is just insane when you look at it with hindsight.

[tradephoric]

I slept in as i didn't have college classes that day and was partying the night before.  Around noon my brother came home and yelled up that "there was an explosion at the pentagon!".  I groggily acknowledged what he had said and was ready to fall back to sleep before he yelled out "and the WTC collapsed!".  Upon hearing that i was instantly wide awake and jumped out of bed and watched the news coverage for the rest of the day.

[MCRoads]

I was not alive yet (born in 2002), but my parents were in S. Korea due to a US Air Force assignment. They were about 40 miles from the DMZ, and so all hell broke loose. They thought the North would use this as a trigger to attack. My dad had to put on a HAZ-MAT suit, and my mom was told to move closer to the flight line in case they needed to evacuate civilians. Honestly, I don't think that was an over-reaction, unlike some other places mentioned here. I can totally see North Korea attacking us while we were trying to figure out what was going on.

[hbelkins]

One of the things that bothers me about this date each year is that all the wacky meth-induced conspiracy theories come bubbling back to the surface again.

I heard two of them for the first time this year. The first is that no planes actually crashed into the towers; what people saw was a computer simulation. The second is that no planes crashed into the Pentagon or in that field in Pennsylvania.

Honestly, how do people come up with this crackpot stuff?

[jakeroot]

Honestly, how do people come up with this crackpot stuff?

People will do anything for attention. It's quite sad in light of the tragedy that did occur.

[ET21]

Was in 4th grade, there was an odd feeling amongst the teachers. We all knew something was up when we had no recess and we were early dismissed just after lunchtime. One of the last memories I have is not hearing any planes for days, I lived underneath a takeoff pattern from Midway Airport.

Was in one of those mindsets that I knew something bad had happened, but didn't fully understand.

[NWI_Irish96]

I remember there being some small airport in Newfoundland that had some 30+ international flights land there and the people in the town providing food for the hundreds of people stuck there.

Anybody know someone who was on one of those flights?

[GaryV]

Gander Newfoundland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_World_Came_to_Town