Actually I had taken off and had only gotten about 20 or 30 miles from home so I was able to turn around and land at my home base. A few minutes later and I would probably have had to land at Elkins or Clarksburg, WV and get a car to drive back home.
I was lucky.
Surveying along the street in Johnson Village, VT. An abutting owner (sewing machine repairman) came along the sidewalk and told us what was happening. We didn't believe him at first but as information continued to come in and the first tower dropped it became serious. Upon hearing this my assistant (14 yrs. my senior, an old retired farmer and logger) became highly aggitated and raged up and down the sidewalk. Never saw him act like that before or since.
Today we celebrate my wife and daughter's birthday, both being born on Sept. 11. Not a good day for celebrating.
I was working from home and my parents called to tell me to turn on the news. I remember two things: being glued to the TV, in shock, for several days and realizing this was the first event in my lifetime that people would be asking 10-, 20-, 50- years later "Where were you when it happened?" and it also being an event that no one in the world would be unaware of.
I saw a picture and caption today that took my breath away.
God Bless those protecting our freedom...
I was on a construction site in Atlanta, about 5 blocks from the CDC building. I was supposed to pick up a geologist friend at the airport around 11:00, and my first clue was when he called and said Dulles was shut down and had rented a car instead.
An hour later the boss called and said shut down the job, send everyone home to be with their families. I remember the F-16's flying over the city, as CDC was listed as a possible target and they were patrolling airspace. I went to my motel room, turned on CNN, and stayed in front of the TV for the next several hours watching it all unfold.
I will never forget it, especially the jumpers, had nightmares for weeks afterward.
Topo survey of road intersection in Pine Plains, NY. Rodperson was about 500-600 ft up the road when she radios us that a guy was in his house and came out to see what we were doing and told her about the first plane, we didn't think much at the time unitl he came back out and told her about the second plane.
The first horrifying thought that I had was September 11 is my fathers birthday and I knew he had tickets for that nights Yankees game. Fortunately he hadn't gone down to the city for the day. Later I found out that he was actually playing in a New York State Police Golf Tournament near the Hudson River and they saw the first plane go by and commented that it was flying awful low. They then heard about the first plane and they didn't think much of it because planes have hit buildings before. When word came about the second plane the course was empty in about five minutes.
May we never forget.
Performing layout for Bayside 1 combined cycle power plant on Tampa Bay. Tool room called me over to listen to the a local radio station. I had flown in to Tampa the night before from a trip to Ontario Canada. The job was shut down for the day, as the existing coal fired plant that was being upgraded supplied power to Macdill A.F.B., U.S.A.F. Command Center. Work resumed the next day under heavy military guard. The world certainly changed for the worse that day.
My sister called me from California around 5:00 A.M. Hawaii time. The towers had already fallen, so for the most part, I was watching events filmed hours earlier.
