Where were you during 9/11? What has changed in 20 years?

I was in Day 2 of ACAP Class at Fort Drum, NY with an ETS Date of 14 JAN 2002. They wheeled in a television set during a break to show us the first tower burning. When they turned it off and resumed the class, I assumed that it was some type of an Attention to Detail / Short-Term Memorization drill. During the next break, they wheeled the tlevision back in, and just as they turned it on the second plane hit. When we were told that this was not a drill, I grabbed my things and went back to my unit to find the Re-enlistment NCO.

I was at the Pentagon that day working in the Air Force Operations Group. We had just finished the Ops/Intel Briefing to the Chief Staff of the Air Force and the Sec of AF, and I was carry the laptops back across the hallway to our office which was on the Mezzanine level. Everyone was watching The first tower burning on CNN. I could tell there was going to be a lot of casualties, and ran back to the briefing room. I told the Tech to put CNN up on the screens so that the Seniors could see what was going on. He refused, but than a Capt came running in and made the same demand. The Seniors were watching for a few minutes and the second plane hit...all hell broke loose. Word spread that there was another plane heading back to D.C. we never thought that we were the target. We continued working, I was the the first person to observe CNN Coverage of the Pentagon on fire. We never heard or felt anything...probably because we were underground. People always ask, did you feel it? and I always feel a little guilty that we didn't. I wanted to go outside and assist but we were ordered to continue working. around 12pm people were beginning to complain of smoke. The decision came down that we were going to evacuate. I'll never forget how we ran in groups of three through the completely deserted hallways of the Pentagon. I was carrying two laptops with the briefing on them. Four helicopters were called in from Andrews AFB and landed on the ceremonial lawn. I jumped on the second one and was surprised to see I was sitting next to head of Air Intelligence. We took off, I remember we circled the plume of smoke and we looked down at the rescue operations. We than flew across the Potomac River and landed at Bolling AFB, were we set up another Operations Center in the Finance Building. It was a long day, I eventually just quit and called a buddy for a ride home.

Three of our family members were most fortunate on 9/11. My son was in New York that day scheduled
for a meeting in the Twin Towers. The meeting had been cancelled just before the crash.
My daughter working in Washington, DC was scheduled for a meeting in the Pentagon that day and
got sick the night before and came to our house in Virginia to recover. I was in the Dulles airport that
morning getting ready to board a UAL flight with my destination being Salt Lake City where I was
working on the preparations for the Winter Olympics. We departed that morning not knowing we were
behind AA #77 which crashed into the Pentagon. At that point during takeoff the pilot advised us that
there was a national emergency with no further details and said we have been diverted to Pittsburgh.
We did not know at that time that all flights were being grounded by the FAA. My family watching
these events unfold called UAL and they were told that my flight had been rerouted to Pittsburgh.
Moments later my family watched as the networks reported that a UAL flight had crashed outside of
Pittsurgh. With that notification from the FAA, our pilot then told us that our flight had now been diverted
to Indianapolis. Again, no details on what was happening in the world around us and recall in those days
you just didn't pickup a cell phone to call to find out what was going on. It wasn't until two hours later
after we landed did we know what had happened.