That morning I will never forget. I got up at 6:30 turned on the news and screamed and woke my husband from a dead sleep. He asked me what was wrong and I showed him the Today show. The next thing I saw was a plane hitting the second tower. For the next 30 minutes I tried to get ready for work and deal with the situation. I was 5 months pregnant and it was hard for me.
I got to work at my child development center, and it was the most quiet I have ever seen in that center. Parents droped off the children and just looked at me and wondered why.
As I was trying to get the kids ready for the day, one of my co-workers was very upset. I came to find that her dad was to attend a meeting at the World Trade Center, but she was able to call her father and he said the meeting was cancelled,but he lost many friends in the trade center.
If anyone is reading this and has or know someone who was lost that day, I am truely sorry.

I was 10 blocks away from the WTC when it happened, and I witnessed everything from my office window. I heard the first plane; I watched the second come over the Hudson River from Jersey. I watched them collapse. I watched the people running north-first with crisp white shirts, then with dust, then with splatters of blood. I watched the people jump. I lost my partner that morning-he did nothing more than go to work just like millions of others that morning.

Since then I have moved on with my life, and it has been difficult. I wish the killing would end-already so many people have died. I believe it to be a gross injustice when politicians use 9/11 as a bolster for their careers. This event should never be treated like that. It is about life, and respecting the fact that we each woke up this morning, and we'll each go to bed tonight. On that day, someone I know didn't go to bed that night. Its time to let John, and all the other people affected by this horrible event to go to sleep.

I also just want the media attention to stop. We all know what happened that morning, and for some of us who saw it with our own eyes, it is just far too painful to relive. I've fought to move on with my life-but the politics, and the media bring it back to me in technicolor. Please let us recover. Thank you

I was driving to The Dalles that morning, and listening to my favorite Morning Show on the radio. When they started talking about it, I thought that it was a skit. I couldn't believe that something like this could be happening. The more that I listened, the more in a daze that I appeared to be. My emotions ran from confusion, to sadness, to anger, all in a matter of minutes. I knew that who ever it was, they were going to get theirs.

To bad that it's been five years, and we have yet to catch the leader behind all of this. The con-artist that convinces young men that this is a life for them. I wished that he would be in one of the suicide missions that he so strongly supports.

I have flights coming up later this year. To be honest. I'm not completely at ease about that.

I like many other people on the east coast (I was living in Virginia Beach, Virginia) was at work. I was driving back from N.C. with a load of dirt for the local Zoo in Norfolk, VA. I heard on the radio that there had been a plane crashed in one of the trade centers in NY. I thought it was a joke, as this radio station liked to play sick jokes with their listeners. I called a friend, and asked her to turn the news on..as she did, that is when the second plane crashed.
I just could not believe this, I called my wife and we both cried together on the phone...How could this happen... I then noticed that we had no military planes flying over like we always did...seeing how this is a military town (VB VA). I just hope we never have this happen again...

On that morning, I was in the final stages of preparing to be part of a tour group taking a trip to Ireland that was scheduled to leave the country on September 14th. Sufficient to say that we didn't leave on that date as we had been planning for several months. I first heard that something had happened when I was checking my email that morning, and people on one of my email mailing lists were talking about it. Immediately I went to turn on the news, and saw the footage of what was going on.

I think I went through most of that day in somewhat of a daze. Later, however, it all began to sink in, and my then-boss sent me home for the day since I was so upset at what was going on. One of my first thoughts, of course was for my godmother, who lives in the Bronx, and a good family friend who lives in Manhattan. Were they all right? Were they alive? We were fortunate in that both my loved ones in the area were well, though other families can't say the same.

It was a day that I don't think that I'll ever forget. I hope that none of us do.

I was at work on the morning we got the news of the first plane hitting the World Trade Tower. We were all shocked that someone would actually do this. It was so disheartening that people would not even think twice about killing so many innocent people. We all cried. Then the news of the second, third and Flight 93. It was unreal. I felt so lost and sad. It could have been someone who was close to me. I was blessed and no one I knew was in those places. But people I didn't know who were Americans were. Our country is a strong country and will overcome this.

My husband is a retired navyman. My son is a disabled vet. We are walking in a Freedom Walk where we live (Virginia Beach) to show our support for the people who lost their lives that day and for the love ones left between and for the people who are fighting to retain our freedom. God Bless America!!!!

Well, September 11 2001 was a very sad day it all started when i had to go to school i was in 5th grade and we came in the room and the teacher had the television set up for us, it was very quiet. we could barely distinguish since it was a bad signal that the towers had fallen, first i though oh it was a demolition but then i heard it was a terrorist attack and then i though of the many innocent people that lost their lifes that day. that just makes me really sad. this is my story and i will never forget where i was the day of september 11.

I remember waking up and turning on the Today Show to see the sights of 9-11 through sleep deprived eyes. My boys were three and one and neither were sleeping well.

I'll never forget how I struggled in those moments to see and understand what the network showed us.

Then my pager started vibrating. It was Molly Kretz on the assignment desk. The page read "Terror Attack---no joke--come in immediately!"

I kissed my wife and babies and raced to work.
Already security workers with M-16's were checking cars going in and out of the Federal Building in downtown Portland.

I remember walking into the building and standing in a side room while the head of some federal agency tried to decide whether to send the workers home...and evacuate the building.

I also remember sound of silence. Not a jet in the sky. No light airplanes. Freaky.

I talked with Luis Palau, the famous Christian Evangelist, on why God would allow the attack to happen.

I attended St. Michael's Catholic church at noon...where the crowd jammed in to the normally vacant mass...and prayed with everyone else for peace...and a feeling of safety that the terrorists took from us that early morning five years ago.

It is hard to believe that it has been five years since the attack. As an Oregonian, I shouldn't have been anywhere near NY. However, I found myself in New Jersey attending a meeting I wasn't supposed to be at (the employee that was to attend was fired at the last minute). I was sitting down at my meeting in the Doubletree hotel in Jersey City across the Hudson river. A woman came running into the meeting crying hysterically. She said a plane went into the Tower. I thought at first she was just overreacting. I'm sure it was awful, I thought to myself, but how much damage can a small plane make? We decided to have a few minutes of silence out of respect, and then began our meeting. We were quickly interrupted by a member of the hotel staff. I will always remember the fear that crept into my throat when he began speaking. You cannot 'fake' fear. I saw fear in his face and heard it in his voice. He tried to remain calm, but said that we needed to evacuate the building immediately as the high rise buildings at this time were unsafe. Luckily we were on a lower floor and it didn't take long to get outside and then I saw the destruction from the first plane.

I, like every other person in the US started calling loved ones on my cellphone to let them know I was okay. My husband was in shock as he was just getting our daughter ready for school. He had turned on the TV and saw the news and he will never forget the echo of hearing the first military planes as they headed toward NY on TV and on my phone!

After the second tower was hit we were pretty much hostages of our hotel. No where to go, but sit in front of the TV like the rest of America, except I could see the destruction outside of my hotel room.

Slowly people started straggling into the hotel from the Ferry boats. It was amazing and surreal to see people shoeless, torn clothes,women hanging on to their babies with soot and blood on them. The shock on their faces as they left loved ones and personals behind to flee the madness. We started combining rooms and offering to give our rooms up for showering. Several women with children took us up on our offers to get the filth and contamination off of their offspring.

We had a young man,his friend and his dog who came over on a rescue boat, in our room watching the TV in disbelief as the building he worked in went down. "There goes my building. I can't believe it is gone."

My three day trip to NJ, became eight days. The streets were blocked and no one could leave. Down the street I saw the ambulances and police as they started a make-shift morgue down by the river.

I realized during that trip that nothing matters more than family and my faith. All I wanted to do was get home. My husband, a private pilot, was frustrated by his inability to get me safely home. But I know if I had been safe in Oregon, I wouldn't have felt the terror that I did while I was there. My daughter has a better understanding today, at the age of 10, that terrorism exists in our world and that it has remotely affected our lives. And today I still have a little hesitancy when I travel to the east coast, knowing how close I was to real pain and suffering.

I will always remember the hearts of the New Jersey people. Everyone worked together to try to make a hard time bearable and they made a West Coast gal less frightened for being 3000 miles from home.

My heart goes out to all those who lost family. I didn't lose any family, but I felt the helplessness of not being WITH my family.

My 9/11 morning started east of Boston with my fiancee and friend (co-worker). I had planned on taking my fiancee to NYC for her birthday and first trip to "the city" on the 12th. We were planning on leaving Boston and spending some time in Manhatten to do the tourist thing. Ironically, I had not finalized our hotel accomodations because I was torn on staying at the Marriott Time Square or Marriott Trade Center. Obviously, we never made it into the city but instead began a trip that I'll never forget. Fortunately, we were one of the lucky ones in which we already had a rental car (SUV which was huge....no pun intended). Our trip started outside of Boston and we ended our days in South Bend, IN., Black Hills (Somewhere in the Dakota's), and Spokane. It ended up taking us 3 1/2 days or 52 hours of driving. I ended up dropping the car at PDX and finding some humor in the fact that I had to tell the counter agent that I apologize for returning the car late and that I was supposed to drop it off at LaGuardia. The agent replied back to me and I quote,"Mr. Johnson, we are just glad to have you back." That statement meant the world to me because at that time it showed me that we were all looking out for each other.

i had worked late the night before 911. so i was i asleep. my husband called me from his job and asked me what was going on. i turned on the tv and they were saying it was a car bomb. just then the 2nd airplain went into the towers. it seemed so unreal to me.that i thought that it was a computer drawing.. then i realized that it was for real. at the time i lived under one of the flight patterns of pdx. it seem so erie not to have any airplaines fly. then the day they started flying again it seemed to be just as erie.
there was a young boy who burnt candles accross the street from us. he kept it up for a whole week. he would wave a flag and wave at people who would honk at him. it was a terrable time. i pray that we will never go though anything like that again

I had just woke up from a bad dream. I was in a cold sweat and visibly shaking. Off to the bathroom I went for my morning stop, almost in tears and not having any idea what that dream meant. I prayed hard that whatever that dream meant, that God would be present and bring those involved peace. That He would give courage to thoes who need it, and faith to those that didn't have it. Salvation to thoes who didn't know it. In my dream, I saw a silohette of NYC. In the distance I saw 2 planes flying, then hitting buildings. The whole foundation of NYC shook hard. After my prayer, I went back to bed and my husband got up to turn on the morning news while he got ready for work. He yelled to me, "Ang, a plane just hit one of the Twin Towers." I thought to myself, "It must have been an accident." Then my husband watched in horror as the next plane hit. At that point, I knew what was going on. All I could do was run to the television crying my heart out as I knew my dream was becoming reality. My heart sank as I watched, my eyes soaked with tears. I thanked God for preparing me with the dream, and figured He woke me from this dream before the first plane even hit. I prayed for these people before they knew what doom lied ahead. Even in the midst of horror....He reigns.

I think most people will remember where they were the morning of Sept 11th. I was where I am now, at my computer, when my phone rang...it was my partner telling me what happened. It didn't sink in until I logged onto to a news website.
The images shocked me. I started to cry. Through my tears and outloud gasps of "Oh my God, oh my God", I read the story and looked at the images. I could not believe it was happening. I wanted to go back to sleep and wake up later and have it be all a dream.
I knew I had to work that day, and I knew it would be tough. I'm a video editor at NewsChannel 8, so I was aware that I wouldn't be able to escape these images all day. It was difficult to separate myself from my emotions and get into "work mode". Looking for, and compiling the best video, seeing these images over and over. We (the editing staff) found ourselves getting "excited" when any new, different video would come in. That's what we do; we look for the best video...and we have to keep it professional.
At the end of that long, somber day, I was finally able to detatch from work, come home to my partner, call my family, and tell everyone important to me that I loved them.
It was a tough day, and my hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones that day.

I remember waking up for work as usual that morning. I was going about my morning when my stepmother called, urging me to turn on the television. I did, and was instantly caught up in fear and anger. I remember watching the plane hit the second tower. I remember hearing bits on the radio of an "aircraft unaccounted for", which turned out to be the plane that went down in the Philidelphia field. I remember watching in absolute horror as the towers went down. I worked at a Portland hospital at that time, and, as I drove into work, I remember being glued to the radio, hearing the radio personality break down and cry on the air. And I remember how very strange the skies looked with no aircraft at all to be seen but the occasional fighter jet, when the FAA grounded all flights.
I also remember, if anything good can be said about that day, that nearly every car I saw on that morning commute was flying a flag. And I remember the unity as a nation that occured that day, as we fought to understand how something so horrible could take place on US soil. We bonded as a nation that horrible morning. It's sad that it took something like that to jar us into realizing that we are one country, one nation.
Sadly, that unity is now gone. But, as we reflect this morning on that day when we were so vulnerable, my prayer is that it won't take such a terrible act of hate and violence to unite us again. That the unity we experienced in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 will hold us up when terror strikes again.

i remember exactly where i was, i was on my way to School i was a Sophmore in high school, riding on the back roads out near Sandy Oregon, my bus driver started screaming and pulled the bus over and said did any one else hear that?, granted it was like 6:30 am and every one sleeps on the bus we all said no, she then replyed to us a plane just hit the world trade center, as we were all awake in disbelief listening to the radio we all couldnt not even believe that a plane had just crashed into a building and then the second one hit, by the time i finally got to my school they had the big screen in the cafateria set up and no one was really required to go to class if you wanted to watch history unfold and pray for the people in the trade centers you could. i left school early that day for my dad and mom were scared there would be more attacks and felt safer if i was home, we sat and watched all day and most of the night in awe that something like this could happen. ill never forget the look on a classmates of mines face when he said his dad worked in the trade center we all started crying and praying for his father to be ok.
it is a day i honestly will never forget.

I was getting ready for school that morning. I was still recovering from the flight from Germany to PDX that I had taken 2 days before. I was listening to a local radio station, the DJ's were describing what was happening in New York. I thought it was a sick joke until I heard the DJ start crying hystarically. I ran downstairs and turned the TV on, then woke my mom up.

It's interesting that I cannot remember most of that morning, but what I do remember was a kind of silence over the town. Through school that day, and grocery shopping after work, no one was talking. It was like a blanket of silence was covering our country.

It is hard to think of something positive when such a terrible thing has happened, but I do believe at least personally, that September 11th 2001 changed my life.

I was reading a post from another reader, he said that he wishes the media would stop covering the heartbreak that our country went through on that day.

Although I do understand where he is coming from, I do not believe forgetting would be the right way to go. Sometimes remembering that terrible things happened, help us stop them from happening again. Maybe that's the lesson we learned. I believe we owe those who died that much..

I will never forget where I was that day. I was up early to get my kids to the neighbor's house before I headed to work. When we got into the car and started the engine the radio was on and on the radio, instead of music was a news break. The announcer was saying that an airplane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. My first thought was that a small aircraft had had an accident and had flown into the building. But as the morning progressed as I was driving to work, the realization that this was no accident became more apparent.
When the next plane had hit it was just unbelievable. Then there was the news regarding the Pentagon, too. It seemed so unreal! What was going on?!
When I finally got to work I had immediately gotten on the internet to find out what was going on. It just didn?t seem real. But looking at the horrifying images did not help make it more real. It seemed like I was watching the trailer to another one of those Bruce Willis movies! It was so surreal watching the jet flying right into the building! This isn?t really happening ? is it?
Well needless to say, not much work got done that day. I just could not tear my eyes away from the internet. I became numb from the overload of senses going on within me. I just could not seem to process what I was seeing ? to think that this is really happening.
When I finally got home that evening, with all my family safely there with me in front of the TV, that is when I could finally come to grips with what I had experienced throughout the day. I finally got to cry at the horror of the day and realize that the innocence of the world we knew the day before was now gone. I cried for the loss of that innocence, the loss of all those innocent people, and the loss of the those Towers.
I work with the fire district that is in my area and every day I am thankful for those who put there lives on the line for others. They are the true hero?s. I will NEVER forget!

Well I was only 9 at the time but i remember it so vividly i came out of my bedroom into the living room at about 11:30 a while after the attack and i asked my mom why she didn't get me up for school and she pointed to the t.v. and i remember seeing the repeat of the plane going into the tower and at that moment I felt like i had grown up i knew i didn't understand but the fact that i didn't understand and knew i didn't understand make me feel much more mature and through the day I remembered i got so mad at my mother for not letting me have fast food the night before and at that moment I felt so small

I remembering getting my kids up for that morning. i didn't have the tv on or the radio, my neighbor come running over saying that you need to turn on the tv. i had asked why? he replied that the world trade center was hit by airplanes, i thought first he was joking around. then i turned on the tv and watch with my children. i started crying and they asked mom why are you crying,i told them that a lot pepole had lost their lives. i was a voluniteer for a fire department when i was younger, so i had a lot greif for those who lost their lives for doing something they loved to do. still today my heart is out there for those who lost their lives.