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I had joined the Air Force a little less than a year before 9/11. I was in the last weeks of my job training when it happened. My job training was in the alternate base command center building so it wasn't unusual for that building to be in a higher threat level than the rest of the base. They pulled all the people from the 3 calibrations classes in a room and told us that "Planes had hit the world trade center and that until further notice it was business as usual." The way they made it sound it was tiny Cessnas and not loving passenger planes. They bussed us to lunch which was cool because we didn't have to march a mile to get to chow, none of the TVs in the chow hall were on and the mood was really weird. We finished out the day of classes and marched back to the dorms, this is where poo poo got weird. They assigned 2 door guards who had to check everyones bags before they were allowed in the dorms. The line to get inside the actual building stretched back a quarter mile, finally after about 30 minutes of waiting I got inside. I changed for PT and started to go outside when my MTI looked at me and told me PT was cancelled (for which I was very happy!) I put on Civilian close and again tried to leave to go the local cyber cafe to play Everquest when I was told that we were locked down to the student area (The Triangle). I was pretty pissed (still not knowing the full extent of what happened), I went back to my room to watch some TV. This was also the first time I was able to turn on my cellphone as well. I turned on my TV to see the full horror of what had happened as well as getting like 30 voicemails with people wanting to know if we were ok at Biloxi (why people thought terrorists would attack Biloxi is beyond me). That was when I realized "Holy gently caress we are at war! I'm glad that pussy Al Gore didn't win and we have a strong leader like Bush in office!" The rest of the day was very solemn for me, I just watched the video over and over again. In my training class we had 3 guys from Saudi Arabia, the rednecks in their apartment complex spent the night kicking on their door and shouting death threats at them. I'll never forget "Chiefs" face when he said "We didn't have anything to do with this, why are they threatening us? We are allies!" There was a guy in my training class that to this day maintains that the 3 Saudis had something to with 9/11 since they asked him "How far is Washington DC from New York?" because there trip home took them through New York and they were going to be in New York for a few weeks before returning to Saudi Arabia. 9/11 fundamentally changed my life. My entire Military career was changed by 9/11. As someone said bases used to be these open and free little areas that you could drive onto, check out and leave. Now they are locked down to prevent poo poo from happening. A few weeks after 9/11 some Marines tried to get back on base with no IDs. The military police turned them around, they walked about an 1/8th of a mile down the fence, climbed the fence and took off running. The MPs chased after them, eventually arresting them in front of my squadron as we were in formation. It was pretty funny. It took about a 3 weeks for us to be let off base after 9/11 occurred. My first stop was the cyber cafe to play Everquest, it was weird to see people talking about 9/11 inside of EQ. I was also banging my girlfriend the day that we went to war in Afghanistan and they locked the base down again. I had signed out that day but since cell phones weren't prevalent back in 2001 they didn't have a way to get in touch with me. I returned to base only to see the base was on lockdown AGAIN after the war started, thankfully this lockdown was short. The 2 base lockdowns played havoc on the local Biloxi economy, the cybercafe I went to that was open 24/7 changed their hours during the lockdown because they weren't able to drive non-military traffic there. So many businesses right outside of the base went out of business because they lost 95% of their customer base for roughly a month. I'm sure it was like that everywhere that had training bases. Well this post was wayyy longer than it should've been, but these are my memories of 9/11. If you want more detailed answers just let me know and I will expand upon whatever you want to know.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:48
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 03:14 |
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Tendai posted:I can't think of a time in my life when I've been so totally unnerved by the behavior of people around me when they weren't overtly doing anything to me. At one point, I remember hearing a woman whisper to her husband (I assume) that "she should be ashamed!" as I walked by them. It wasn't violent, but it was shocking in a pretty hard way to me. Luckily my roommates were cool people and there was none of that at home, but for about a week as I remember it, after 9/11, I could not go places with other people without getting some kind of poo poo if I paused long enough to pay attention to my surroundings. It breaks my heart that this happened to you because on 9/12. Its terrible the bullshit that happened to Muslims (and to Sikhs) on the days following 9/11. MikeCrotch posted:For you Americans out there, how prevalent were opinions like this: Probably being in the Military opinions like this weren't popular, in fact the Patriot Act was viewed very favorably by most of my friends and associates. It wasn't until 2005 or so that I heard a military member speak against the Patriot Act and it blew my mind. My base Keesler AFB was convinced that we were the next terrorist targets because all the Air Force pilots were trained there. I think there was hysteria because people didn't know what was coming next. We didn't know if there were more attacks coming, if power plants were going to be next, if we were going to be dirty bombed or anthraxed. It was just a wild 2 weeks. SalTheBard fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Sep 30, 2015 |
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Sep 30, 2015 18:53
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Funky See Funky Do posted:I've since become deeply ashamed of my response to 9/11. I was 18 and going through an aggressively anti-American stage. So my reaction was a very muddled mixture of excitement, fear, confusion and morbid curiosity. It's important to note that this all happened just after millennium fever when apocalyptic beliefs were all over the place. I distinctly remember thinking "This is the beginning of the end of the world." I suppose there's still time for history to prove me right on that one. Realistically I don't hold it against anyone how they reacted shortly following 9/11. I was super Jingoistic and was happy that Bush was in office and not that tree hugging pussy Gore, because Gore wouldn't do poo poo and W would lead us to glorious victory against the terrorist mother fuckers that did this to us! It was an intense time and a lot of poo poo went down. For a long time I had this picture hanging on my barrack wall of a plane with all these bombs and poo poo laid out in front of it with a caption of "We've seen your best, now it's time for you to experience ours" or some bullshit like that. I think the main thing (that a few people have touched on) is that with oceans on both sides, stuff like Islamic Terrorism seemed like a fairy tale. It was something that happened in Israel or other Middle Eastern countries, Islamic terrorism didn't happen on American soil goddammit! Then the USS Cole happened and people realized hey this poo poo is serious, but still the USS Cole happened and Ocean away. 9/11 was such a shock because it happened in a scale in America that is usually not seen here. This thread has been a little cathartic for me because it helped me get out some feelings that I've been holding inside for 14 years (that I wasn't even aware I was holding in).
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Oct 3, 2015 02:04
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Violet_Sky posted:I also remember people complaining that the 2000s was the worst decade ever. Is that because of 9/11? War, 9/11, Bush presidency, patriot act, take your pick
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Oct 4, 2015 06:27
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Violet_Sky posted:3 out of 4 of those things were the result of the aftermath of 9/11 so yeah. Yes i know. I just was pointing out that a lot of poo poo in the early 2000s loving sucked.
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Oct 4, 2015 06:51
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Commie NedFlanders posted:The 90's was a wonderful decade to be a child. gently caress ya! In addition to all the NickToons I was also first introduced to "Japanimation". It was a good time in general, while I'm sure there were just as many kidnappings and what not my folks were totally fine lettering my sister and I run around the neighborhood all day, fishing at the local pond. There wasn't that culture of fear that I feel permeates everything now. SeventhUncle posted:I was working at One Wall St Court at the time and I took the 2 train down to Wall St station in the morning. Wow that was an intense read. Thank you for sharing that. SalTheBard fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Oct 16, 2015 |
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Oct 16, 2015 16:23
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Strategic Tea posted:Not to be massively insensitive, but being massively insensitive - It's fine. I don't think you are being insensitive at all. It was a shocking day for Americans because it had never happened here before on that scale. I can see if how someone from Bosnia would look at it and go "Welcome to my world mother fuckers".
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Oct 16, 2015 17:24
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 03:14 |
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Jesus Christ I'm sorry that happened.
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Oct 17, 2015 15:22
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