From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Death, Where Were You?
We want to know where you were on Sept. 11 and how you reacted to President Obama's announcement.
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During a Sunday evening press conference, President Barack Obama offered details on the Pakistani operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Obama said that he had given consent for the operation, which led to a firefight and bin Laden's death.
“On nights like this one, we can say that justice has been done," Obama said. A transcript of the President's speech is available here.
It's been almost 10 years since 9/11, which left more than 3,000 dead and has been deemed the worst terrorist attack against the United States.
Remembering 9/11
I was in my freshman gym class at Hoffman Estates High School in the Northwest Chicago suburbs when the announcement was made. We had been running around the track, when slowly but surely everyone began to stop. The gym teachers had congregated at one end and the students grouped around them. It was hard to make out what they were saying about planes crashing into buildings in New York City. I'm not sure if it was hard to hear or just hard to process.
They dismissed us early and a lot of the students ended up in the library. Staff and teachers had wheeled in TV's for us to watch the events unfold. They kept those TV's in the library for the rest of the week. I remember coming home to hear my mother talk about what it was like during the Cold War. I remember later that week talking to her father/my grandfather, who had served in WWII, about Pearl Harbor.
I watched last night's news unfold from a Washington Post email alert, to an outpour over Twitter and then a live stream on whitehouse.gov. I'm still in shock.
Joshua Sauvageau
11:10 am on Monday, May 2, 2011
After joining the Navy in early 2001, I was sent to my first training command in South Carolina that March. On the morning of September 11th, a group of sailors and I were receiving training when we received an initial report that a plane had crashed into a building in New York. Someone switched the television to CNN and we watched in amazement as thick smoke billowed from the first tower. As we watched, a small shiny object, which proved to be the second plane, crashed into the second tower. I had never before, nor would again in my 6 years of service, hear a roomful of sailors be as silent as we were on that morning. Some left the room immediately while others were glued to the television, as we watched the day's grim events unfold.
Walking around the campus of the Naval Nuclear Powered Training Command on that day, what I remember the most was the quiet; each sailor reflecting on the event's meaning. All of us there had joined the military in a time of relative peace and now knew that we would be called upon to perform our sworn duty: to protect America. I recall a sensation of pride, that I would truly have the opportunity to make a difference...
Joshua Sauvageau
11:10 am on Monday, May 2, 2011
...I spent much of the next 5 years patroling the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf aboard an aircraft carrier. Those weeks and months at sea could become bleak and uneventful and I would often pine for home. Though, whenever I missed my family and friends too much, all I had to do was remember watching those towers fall on live TV to bring back those feelings of pride and service. Those feelings, I still maintain, 5 years after leaving the Navy.
Alfred Mulle
8:53 am on Tuesday, May 3, 2011
I was living on the east end of Long Island, NY when this happened. I was in 10th grade. For whatever reason, we were not allowed to turn on any of the school televisions that day. Then for some reason, you would hear student after students names being called over the PA system to be picked up early from class. There were rumors spreading all around the school, and you would see some teachers crying or holding back tears in the hallway. But I didn't find out for sure, what had happened until I got home from school, and was glued to the TV for the rest of the day.