I will never forget 9/11. September 11, 2001. I was off from work that day. When I woke up and turned on the news I saw a picture of a building with smoke coming out. The newscaster said it was the World Trade Center. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. At first I thought that maybe it was an accident like everyone else was saying. That a small plane accidentally hit the building. I called my mom and told her what was happening. She hadn’t turned on the news yet. As we were talking on the phone and both watching our televisions we saw what looked like a plane hitting the other building. We couldn’t believe it. This was no accident. We were stunned. It was like watching a movie. After I got off the phone with my mom I logged onto my pc to see what was going on as well. A little while later there were reports that the Pentagon was hit. Now this was too close to home. And work. I work just a few blocks from the White House. The Pentagon is located across the Potomac in Virginia. I called one of my co workers to see if he knew what was going on. He and everyone else in our division knew what had happened. Apparently our section chief told our group they could leave early. All kinds of rumors were floating around. Like there was an explosion at the State Department and that a plane was heading towards the White House and The Capitol. After I got off the phone I sat there in stunned belief at what was going on. The reports were right. A plane had slammed into the Pentagon. The federal government eventually let all federal employees leave early. Later the news reports announced that a plane went down in Pennsylvania. According to reports this plane was the one that was headed towards Washington, D.C.

I sat in front of the tv most of the day looking in disbelief as I watched the towers falling and the Pentagon in flames. I was also on my pc chatting with a few friends about what was going on.

I went back to work the next day. Federal government employees were given the option of coming to work or using leave and taking the day off. For those of us who did go back to work security was very tight. I had never seen such a strong police presence going to work. You had to show your employee id to the police if you worked within a few blocks of the White House. To this day I still have the Washington Post newspaper from Wednesday September 12. Every time I read something about 9/11 I get choked up. Especially during the past anniversaries of that day.









Remembering September 11
War on Terror: Washington
CNN.com September 11: A Memorial
September 11: A Nation Remembers
9/11/01 Memorial Gifs