“I was fresh out of the Marine Corps working part time for a small fire department in the Denver metro area and going to school for my fire science degree. I remember hearing the initial reports on my way into work at the firehouse. It wasn’t too long after I got there that I remember watching the 2nd plane fly into Tower 1 and I said out loud to the guys I was working with that; “The FDNY is going to be hiring.” and something to the affect that I was leaving and re-enlisting. The rest of the shift was very surreal and somber. It wasn’t too long after that and I was off back with Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children.”- Anonymous
“After 18 days of being in the wilderness outside of Livingston MT on a wildland fire assignment with the Hotshot Crew- on 9/11 I was on R&R in a hotel in Denver with my girlfriend. I was an ARFF firefighter in the Air Force Reserves and got the call on Sept 12th to see if I could deploy with our fighter squadron (which I did). Also….On Sept 12th- a Type 1 Incident Management Team from my region was sent to take over the rescue/recovery for Ground Zero. Essentially- a large number of FDNY’s overhead was killed when the towers collapsed and they needed assistance in the post collapse rescue. A few years later I helped a select group of FDNY Battalion/Division Chiefs work into the wildland world of Incident Management so they could learn our ways and FDNY could build their own Incident Management Team. Those dudes inspired me to leave the Hotshot world and go into CT. Everyday I think of my brothers there and quietly do my new job….waiting and ready to sling lead or surveil these foreign enemies. ~343~” -JD Glomar
“I was in orchestra class when it all went down. Being at a young age, I didn’t grasp the true concept of what had happened.”- James Christopher Davis
“Working at Encoda Systems in one of the tallest buildings in downtown Denver – speculation going around as to whether or not to evacuate….” -Kirk Hutchinson
“I was on my way to work, I turned on the radio and the music had been interrupted by news of the planes that had been hijacked. When I got to work everyone was talking about it. I worked for the feds at the time, we were all sitting in the conference room listening to the newsfeed, when they announced that the first tower had been hit. Once they realized it was a planned attack, the considered sending all non-essential employees home in case further attacks were planned. However, in the end I think we stayed at work. I remember it being very emotional and difficult to concentrate on anything else.” – Terra Itup
“I think it was freshmen year for us, I was in Spanish class. Our teacher let us watch it and the one thing I remember the most is when people started jumping out of the buildings. I can still, to this day, see the image in my head of what looked to be a man jumping out of a window and was followed by (what liked to be) a woman in a skirt falling. Every time I hear or think about 9/11… I see this image.” – Jenny Hansen
“On September 11th, 2001, I was taking my GED test so that I could join the Army. Having been a homeless teenager, I was not afforded the normal high school opportunity and when the recruiters took notice of me, I saw the US Army as my way of doing something with my life and getting out of poverty. Right as I finished the essay portion of the GED test, the observer/instructor turned on the radio. I sat in awe as the radio announced that the twin towers had been hit a second time by another plane. I turned in my test, asked her to score it quickly and ran with my test results to the teen shelter. I watched frozen to the TV from around 0930 until the place closed at 2000, in shock of what was happening. The next morning I waited in line at the recruiting station with my GED score in hand, aside almost a hundred other men and scheduled my day for MEPs. That day has defined my life ever since.”- Kevin Brown
“I was in middle school… 6th grade. I faked I was sick to stay home that day. I remember I was so upset because there weren’t any cartoons on and every station was of the breaking news. my mom (who was a reporter at the time) came running into the living room, trying to get her shoes on to leave to the newspaper. She was so frantic and i remember it was when I knew something was very wrong. I wished I had went to school that day because it was in that moment I felt so alone; even in my own house.”- Shalamar Kiper
“I was in Virginia visiting a friend, around Richmond. My buddy and I were outside, ironically playing war, when we heard our moms talking. They sounded panicked, so we went inside, to be greeted by footage of the first tower going down. That moment was electric- many years later, it would be one of the main reasons I enlisted.”- Cameron Bohlen
“Sept 11, 2001 I was the only logistician representing 1st Ranger Battalion awaiting one of our companies to arrive into a small base right outside of Budapest, Hungary when the MPs on post told me to head back to my unit. Unfortunately the rest of the company was back at a staging base 1000s of miles away. However, our Battalion staff was actually in the air and arrived a few hours later. Once I closed all training mission accounts there we departed back to our staging base and were stuck in an aircraft hangar for approximately a week waiting for airspace to open back up. With over 200 of my closest friends we sat around wondering what the future held for us and coming to the realization that the world as we knew it was going to change and would have a greater impact than most of us could ever imagine.”- Jim Brown
“I still lived in Cali. I was asleep and woke up to my husband leaving a message (on an answering machine) saying something terrible had happened. I turned on the TV to see both towers burning and a huge chunk of one fell off. Then then Matt Lauer says, “Did you see that large chunk of the building just fall off?!” and discussions continued on how the towers still would not fall. I went into work late. I was the primary web designer. I redesigning our intranet with the american flag as the background then went into my boss’s office and quit. I hated that job and I wasnt going to waste another day there.”- Julie Diana Humbird
“I was on brigade staff duty in Germany when 9/11 was going on! Crazy times.” -Jourdan Smith
“I was in 7th grade I believe on the bus on my way to school when I heard it on the radio. I thought the morning crew was just being making stuff up at first. Then it was on every station.”- Arenet Delmonico
“Counter piracy and counter terrorism operations in the Gulf of Omen and Horn of Africa.” (pictures on Fb) Tim Sanders
“I was at an aircraft gunnery / FTX at Ft. Hood and woke up (I was on nights) to everyone in our tent crowded around one guys portable 3 in TV screen. I squeezed in just to see the second plane hit. They told us to man our .50 Cal positions (with no ammo) and await further instructions. A couple hours later we packed up and headed back.”- Jason D. Hall
“Just got off of duty in Germany. And had gotten into the shower at my apartment.”- Samuel Fortune
“I was a freshman in HS and was sitting in my Spanish class watching the news with my class while waiting for the teacher to arrive. We watched live feed of the second aircraft impacting. Class was then suspended.” -Geoffrey Hierholz
“I was in basic training.” -Amy Marano
“I was getting ready for school when I saw the first plane hit on TV. I thought for sure it was an accident & left for class. During that class I found out the second tower was hit by a second plane. I was so naive. I still thought it was an accident, it never even occurred to me that it was on purpose to harm us. It was an older male student who told me it was indeed intentional & by terrorists. I couldn’t believe it. I then realized my dad was flying home that morning from ft lauderdale FL to NY & froze. I called him but the call wouldn’t go through. I tried calling my mom, who worked downtown, & it wouldn’t go through. I was standing at my car door when my mom called & said she & my dad were ok, his flight was cancelled. I stood there & cried as I do whenever I let that day really sink in. Our country had never felt so small & vulnerable to me before. I felt close to every single American that day & every 9/11 since.” -Magda Sanford
“I had finished leading Junior Cadets on a 6 mile run. Got in my car to drive home for a quick shower and then back to campus. I heard it on the radio. Later that day all of the Senior Cadets and Cadre gathered, one by one, without formal orders, in our ROTC building glued to the TV. It was like an energy that pulled us together. We werent in real units at the time…we were Cadets and WE were all we had. Some of us prayed together. We were the only people on campus. We watched the news together for weeks…we knew we were going. Our training intensified. Our instructors were all Green Berets, two of them had served in Vietnam. They knew what we were about to do. I deployed a year later. I was in the first wave of newly commissioned 2LTs from my University to go. It changed the entire trajectory of my life.”- Shelly Goode-Burgoyne
“I was in 3rd Ranger bat getting ready to deploy to war on 9/11.” -Mack Kithcart
“I woke up hungover as hell by my roommates girlfriend telling me to turn on the TV. I woke the girl I was sleeping with on a regular basis and told her that something was up. We walked into the living room and turned on the TV, then woke up my roommate. This was before the second tower was hit. All three of us watched TV for another two hours. His GF came home during that time. We were both on the SWAT team at that time and got called in. We sat on call for about 4 hours and then they released us. It was about 6 pm at this point. The four of us went down to our watering hole and all four of us, plus about 300 other folks proceeded to get shitfaced.”- Andrew Fisher
“Had just finished a surfing lesson at Typhoon Lagoon in Disneyworld when I found out.”- Kristen Stamper
“I was on a plane headed home for leave.”- Josiah Perry
“Getting Zach and Trevor ready for school.” – Mike Skelton Jr.
“It was my second day of college at DU. I was getting ready to leave and news of it popped up on the TV. I remember seeing people jumping out of the buildings and not knowing if there was more to come when I had to leave. several of my new classmates came from New York and we mostly talked about the event and what the impact of it all may be in each class that day.”-Alexis Turner
“I remember watching the news at work. 3 of us had just got back from a business trip from NY, 3 days prior to attack we were on top of tower.” -Teresa Keim
“I was in an 8th grade history class. What was really awkward I guess was that I was interviewed by the feds on and off for years. I wrote about Sept. 11th one year prior. On Sept. 11th, 2000 as part of a creative writing assignment where I had to create a superhero.”-Joshua Raiford
“I was getting ready for work with the TV on and saw the 1st plane crash into the tower. Couldn’t believe my eyes!!”- Sandra Padilla
“Freshman in college at George Mason University in Northern Virginia. I was in a basement Pysch class, when I got some broken message on my fire department where I was a volley emt/ff. Ended up going to the station. I had never seen the highways so empty, nothing but black SUVs going by at high speed.”- Nicholas Zuber
“9/11. I was on a live fire range in Kosovo, the people there set up memorials on the street and had a candlelite vigil for 3 days.”-Raleigh James Heekin III
“Soon as the second plane impacted I got back into uniform, prepped a ready bag. I then got the call to return to base. Being in Germany was difficult, especially since my family lived on the economy and not housing.”-Samuel Fortune
“I was 17 years old and had a meeting scheduled with my recruiter that day, he called and cancelled because he had to report to base. I enlisted two weeks later.” -Eric Wennersten
“ That is my birthday, 9/11. Before the planes crashed, Brittany had shown me my present in the freezer, pistachio ice cream. While watching Good Morning America, saw on the news what had happened and then I just starred at the TV, for a long time. I went to CBS (a Bible study) and we were all in shock and sang an old hymn that brought our hearts united under the umbrella of God’s Sovereignty.”- Vickie Penn
On the 14th anniversary, we remember and honor the loss of so many heroes, men, women and children. You will never be forgotten.
Buy Me A Coffee
The Havok Journal seeks to serve as a voice of the Veteran and First Responder communities through a focus on current affairs and articles of interest to the public in general, and the veteran community in particular. We strive to offer timely, current, and informative content, with the occasional piece focused on entertainment. We are continually expanding and striving to improve the readers’ experience.
© 2024 The Havok Journal
The Havok Journal welcomes re-posting of our original content as long as it is done in compliance with our Terms of Use.