I was home sick from school, I was flipping through TV channels and happend to find CNN, where they were covering it.

Yeah I can't remember much at the time (I was 7), but I remember watching the footage after school (brit time) and BBC news had taken over BBC1... It was the same on 7/7 (UK Attacks) The whole of the Morning was taken up in front of the TV Watching the plot unfold...

  When 9/11 happened... 

I just completed my 14th year of Active Duty Service in the US Navy. I just got my oak leaf and was on leave after completing instructor school.

  My oldest son woke me up. I thought he needed a ride to school that morning. He told me "Dad, Something happened in New York!!" I was groggy, and said, "Hold on, I will be there in a minute..." I had my coffe pot automatically set to brew in the morning, so I got a cup of joe and headed to his room to see what was up.

  I saw the live CNN feed from the Big Apple with Tower 1 on fire. Mind you, I am on the West Coast, so this was going on around 6 am out here. I am like, "Oh, God!! an epic plane crash.." So, I woke my wife up and said, "Babe, a plane flew into the WTC in New York!" She said, "Wake me up when there is really something going on...." At that time, my son screamed..."DAD, Another plane hit the other tower!!!" Then, my first thought was..."Oh, god....We are at WAR!!"

  I proceeded to wake my wife up again...."Babe, a plane just flew into the WTC!!!" She said, "Didn't you just tell me that?" I said, "Yes, but another plane flew into the other tower!!!"

  Then, she sat right up in bed like a vampire rising from the coffin...."Quick, turn on the big screen......Kids, I don't think you guys are going to school today....."

  That is what I remember. the rest of the day was filled with the knowledge of the horror of the event and the massive scale of shock and sadness my family had. I knew that day, America would be changed, forever...

Since I started this whole thing, I felt it only right to impart my tale.

As I said, I was living in Vegas. At the time I was working graveyard shift in a casino and went to bed around 4-5am PST, right before it all happened.

My landlady wakes me up banging on my door around 8am. I get up, and she tells me, "Hey, the World Trade Center just came down." Being from Baltimore originally, we have a building there that was also called the World Trade Center. She knew that, so I thought she was just telling me they demolished it. I was irate, saying "You woke me up for that?" She tells me to turn on my TV and just watch, so I did.

I sure as hell wasn't expecting what I saw. Bodies falling to their death, towers on fire and falling like dominoes, talk of us under attack, it's Pearl Harbor all over again, the President is dead, rumor after rumor after rumor on the news...

I stayed glued to the TV for the rest of the day, only leaving in the afternoon because I had to go grocery shopping. Folks, when I left the house, it was like the whole world stopped. Most of the streets were empty, businesses and bars were closed down (except the casinos, only a nuclear blast would shut them down), and the supermarket was a ghost town, the few people in there shuffling around like zombies.

As an American and former Navy man, there were many times I lamented that Americans in general seemed too arrogant, to in love with themselves and their seeming invincibility, that nothing bad could ever happen to us as a country ever again, not in this modern age. But there it was in living color, for the whole world to see. In a weird kind of way (and only fellow military folks really could know what I mean), it was almost good for us to get a big dose of cold water like that, to prove that we are just as vulnerable as anyone else. Not that all that death and destruction was good of course, but anyone that fought the first Persian Gulf War with their hands tied knows what I mean.

Like the man said, those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. I can only hope and pray that we don't.