Re: 9/11: Where Were Our RADPers?
- From: bpjacks <djnowick@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:56:43 GMT
I work in DC, a couple of miles from the Pentagon. I was in my office - with my 2 yo in child care 1 floor below me - when my neighbor - a fellow transplanted NYer - emailed me and said "a plane hit the Towers - turn on a TV." I grew up on LI and I have a ton of friends and family who work in NYC - many downtown, including my brother who works about 1/4 mile from the towers. I ran to a conference room and watched with others - it was clear that was no Cessna. Then we saw the second plane hit. I called my brother - he was fine and was going outside to see what was up. My SIL could see the Towers swaying from her midtown office. From that point we lose phone connections and communicated only through email. Then we heard a tremendous thundering boom - all the windows in the conference room shook - we thought the white house or capitol were hit. The CNN no-shit ticker ran across the bottom of the screen saying "reported fires on the Mall." My friend's husband called her cell and said he saw a plane hit the pentagon (he was out jogging - the only live a few miles from there.)
At that point we looked out of the windows and there was FBI surrounding my building -- the Washington Field office is catty-corner to my building and the Army Corps rents the 3rd floor. I ran to the daycare center to check on DD - all was obviously fine but all of the crying parents threw me off and were upsetting the kids. Those who wanted to take their kids and leave did so but as I drive home past the Capitol, I wasn't going anywhere until every last plane was reported to be grounded. I left DD to play so as to keep things as normal as possible for her - she was perfectly safe - and I went back up stairs to get in touch with my mom, SIL and brother again. My brother had driven to work for some dumb reason that day and had started walking toward his car...right near the Towers. As they fell, a huge massive cloud of billowing smoke and crap flew at him and he ran the other way. He had been about to turn around anyway because he said he could not stomach the carnage he saw in the streets nor the god-awful screaming or the smell. He and SIL met up in midtown ... from here I get fuzzy on where they went because I get the story mixed up with their trials during the NYC blackout. But it took them about 10-14 hours to make it back to NJ. My mom met my godparents somewhere in midtown and walked for a few miles across the bridge into queens or brooklyn, then eventually found a cab - I think they walked about 10 miles before they found one. Took them 12 hours to get home.
I left work at about 3pm after all the traffic disbursed. It was like a ghost town - not a car to be seen. There were military aircraft flying everywhere. As the days went on I learned of so many of my friends who had near-misses that day, and a few family friends who were killed. My boss's friend - a well-known man in our field - lost his wife on Flight 77. My dad's college roommate's son worked for Cantor Fitzgerald - he died. My college roommate's mother is a flight attendant for American - she was supposed to fill in for someone on Flight 93 but her schedule was changed at the last minute.
<fast forward 2 years>
In November 2003 we were in Disney - me, my brother and SIL, plus my DD, now 4. I was 6 months pregnant with my youngest child - DH couldn't get the time off so he was home. Standing at MK waiting for the monorail, the monorail broke down. We were hot tired and annoyed but it was Disney so really, how bad could it be? :-) Pretty bad, if you were the woman next to us - she was so huffy and grumpy. But, she informed us "this is nothing - I was here on 9/11 and trust me, there was no place worse to be that day." We just stared at her, mouths gaping wide open. She said "no really - it was awful - you can't possibly imagine what it was like. So, where were you?" My brother said "I was about a 10 minute walk from the Twin Towers." I said "I was 3 miles from the Pentagon." She opened and closed her mouth, and walked away.
I don't "do" 9/11 movies, coverage, etc. It's all too up close and personal for me. I do want to read the 9/11 commission report, though. Someday soon. I'm almost ready.
Jackie
FIZZIE wrote:
After watching some of the 5 Years Later coverage of 9/11, I remembered.
that many of the members of our RADP family were directly and
indirectly affected. By doing a newsgroup search for 9/11 I found some
of the stories. I plan to do further searches to fiind other stories
here, and perhaps even print them out to keep.
It is fascinating reading. I do remember that we tried to seek each
other out online to see if we were all accounted for and to compare
experiences.
Looking back. Where were you? How do you view that day looking back?
What are your Disney memories... were you onsite at the "Happiest Place
on Earth" when one of the saddest days in our history occurred? How
have you changed? What is your story?
RIP 343
-Fizzie
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