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A Vermont resident waves an U.S.flag along Route 7 in front of his store, Mike’s Country Store in Clarendon, Vt., Thursday Sept. 13, 2001.
(Source: Vyto Starinskas, AP Photo/Rutland Herald, ) 
Vermont 9/11 Memorial in Bennington, VT.
(Source: Stewart Cairns, AP Photo) |
"Where were you on 9/11?" as remembered by those in Vermont that day.
The former president of Norwich University in Vermont recalls the eagerness of his students to take action following the attacks.
1. I'm Rich Schneider - Rear Admiral United States Coast Guard reserve, retired - and on 9/11 I was the president of Norwich University in Vermont, the nation's oldest private military college and the birthplace of ROTC so you can imagine how this campus felt after the attacks. I had the cabinet in the boardroom at the time and the first thing we thought when the first tower was hit was that it was an accident.
It became very clear very quickly that this was an attack and my biggest problem as president was keeping the students here. They're all type-A personalities and wanted to get out of Vermont and go to New York City or the Pentagon and help in the recovery. I had to order them to stay here.
About a week and a half later when the President United States called for a day of remembrance and prayer and mourning, our governor - the honorable Howard Dean - picked Norwich to have that remembrance. On this parade field, the two of us tried to make sense out of all of this. It was very difficult, the students took that moment though and ran with it as normally wonderful type-A students do. They wanted to prepare themselves because every senior that was going to take a commission knew that they could very well be fighting in a matter of days after commencement.
So, Norwich University and the Coast Guard Academy are huge football rivals. I graduated from the Coast Guard Academy and I'm the president of Norwich, so you can imagine that sometimes I'm a little conflicted. After 9/11, we were all in lockdown and didn't know if other places were going to be attacked. The Coast Guard Academy is a federal installation and right across the river from the Groton sub base where all the nuclear subs are. So, about a week before the game the superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy calls me and I've known this guy for 30 years as a we were both ensigns at the same time. He said,
'Don't let your cadets come down here and try to steal anything or take prisoners.'
Which is what they normally did before regular games. He said,
'We'll kill them at the gate!'
That's how everyone felt. We had no idea where the next attack was coming from."
- Rear Adm. Richard Schneider
It became very clear very quickly that this was an attack and my biggest problem as president was keeping the students here. They're all type-A personalities and wanted to get out of Vermont and go to New York City or the Pentagon and help in the recovery. I had to order them to stay here.
About a week and a half later when the President United States called for a day of remembrance and prayer and mourning, our governor - the honorable Howard Dean - picked Norwich to have that remembrance. On this parade field, the two of us tried to make sense out of all of this. It was very difficult, the students took that moment though and ran with it as normally wonderful type-A students do. They wanted to prepare themselves because every senior that was going to take a commission knew that they could very well be fighting in a matter of days after commencement.
So, Norwich University and the Coast Guard Academy are huge football rivals. I graduated from the Coast Guard Academy and I'm the president of Norwich, so you can imagine that sometimes I'm a little conflicted. After 9/11, we were all in lockdown and didn't know if other places were going to be attacked. The Coast Guard Academy is a federal installation and right across the river from the Groton sub base where all the nuclear subs are. So, about a week before the game the superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy calls me and I've known this guy for 30 years as a we were both ensigns at the same time. He said,
'Don't let your cadets come down here and try to steal anything or take prisoners.'
Which is what they normally did before regular games. He said,
'We'll kill them at the gate!'
That's how everyone felt. We had no idea where the next attack was coming from."
- Rear Adm. Richard Schneider
Written Stories
2. "I was at a Motel 6 after working a 4 pm - 4 am shift for a cab company the night before. I had no idea whatsoever what had taken place until after 3 pm that day, some seven hours after the first plane hit, and I never got the full details until I arrived at work for my next 4 to 4 shift.
After all domestic air travel ceased, the cab company I worked for started receiving calls from airports in NYC, Boston, Manchester, NH and Hartford with folks pleading to send them a $600+ taxi prepaid in advance to bring them back to Vermont. We couldn't accommodate a single one since the five boroughs were locked down.
Once air travel resumed, the level of checks I had to go through to even enter Burlington International Airport with flight personnel on board was pure insanity. There were bomb disposal teams with guns searching the entire vehicle, using mirrors on poles and checking the engine compartment.
Took me around 10 minutes just to gain entry into the airport property with personnel aboard."
- K. B.
After all domestic air travel ceased, the cab company I worked for started receiving calls from airports in NYC, Boston, Manchester, NH and Hartford with folks pleading to send them a $600+ taxi prepaid in advance to bring them back to Vermont. We couldn't accommodate a single one since the five boroughs were locked down.
Once air travel resumed, the level of checks I had to go through to even enter Burlington International Airport with flight personnel on board was pure insanity. There were bomb disposal teams with guns searching the entire vehicle, using mirrors on poles and checking the engine compartment.
Took me around 10 minutes just to gain entry into the airport property with personnel aboard."
- K. B.
3. "I have this day in a weird vivid haze.
I was in 9th grade, sitting in a class at around 10 am when our teacher mentioned 'something crazy in New York.' There was a slow spread of rumors and our principal called for an assembly. He mentioned helping his mom stack cans of food during the Cuban missile crisis and addressed questions of sending us home early. He believed we were safest at school, we didn't even cancel sports.
Later in the day, a TV was turned on in the library just for students to come by and watch. I think the librarian was more interested than any one student. I saw people jump."
- N. R.
I was in 9th grade, sitting in a class at around 10 am when our teacher mentioned 'something crazy in New York.' There was a slow spread of rumors and our principal called for an assembly. He mentioned helping his mom stack cans of food during the Cuban missile crisis and addressed questions of sending us home early. He believed we were safest at school, we didn't even cancel sports.
Later in the day, a TV was turned on in the library just for students to come by and watch. I think the librarian was more interested than any one student. I saw people jump."
- N. R.
4. "I grew up just outside Boston. In fact, there were several residents of my town that were on the flights that crashed into the towers and some of the hijackers even stayed in a hotel not far from where I lived. I had just started my freshman year of college in small town Vermont. I was leaving my dorm to walk to class when our director of housing yelled through a window of her office to come watch the news. I ran into her office and there were about a dozen others gathered around the TV, watching the news. The first plane had just hit and we were speculating about what had happened. A lot of us assumed it was a tragic accident.
Then we saw the second plane crash and we knew it wasn't an accident. We stood there stunned for a few minutes, then myself and another classmate left to head to class. We were walking up the hill to the main building were the classes were held and we got picked up by one of our other classmates. We were talking about what was going on in New York and he turned to me and said he knew who did it. I asked him how he knew and he told me he had just gotten out of the Marine Corps after 15 years. He had served in the Intelligence branch and he specialized in Middle East terrorism and particularly Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. He had compiled reports that Bin Laden had plans to hijack planes.
I think we briefly mentioned the events in our English class and then classes were cancelled for the day. I remember going back to my dorm and sitting in front of the television with my roommates and just whoever came and went and watching the news coverage. My parents called and asked how I was feeling. I lied and said I was fine and then I called my grandparents. My grandfather - a WWII veteran - said,
'It's ok to feel afraid. I felt afraid after Pearl Harbor.'
We had a lot of kids from NYC and the surrounding area. A few went home that day. One of the kids had been a volunteer firefighter in his hometown in New Jersey and he took off to head to Ground Zero. Another kid drove to the nearest Army recruiting center to sign up. Another guy - an older student (in his mid 20s) had been a veteran and he left to go to Ground Zero as well.
One girl in my math class was from a few towns from me. Her father was supposed to be on a flight to Los Angeles that day, but she had little details on airline or flight number. She was desperately calling her father every half an hour, trying to get a hold of him and each time getting no answer. She was hysterical and in tears the entire morning and afternoon. She was trying to find someone to bring her back to Boston, but no one would. Thankfully at around 11pm her father called and said he was fine. He had been booked on Flight 11 and called a taxi to get to the airport. Apparently the taxi broke down on the Mass Pike and by the time he had been able to get a new cab and get to Logan, he had missed his flight and decided to book another one. He had been attempting to call his daughter but the phone lines and cell network across the Northeast were a mess and he was unable to get through until 11pm that night."
- Matt Casey
Then we saw the second plane crash and we knew it wasn't an accident. We stood there stunned for a few minutes, then myself and another classmate left to head to class. We were walking up the hill to the main building were the classes were held and we got picked up by one of our other classmates. We were talking about what was going on in New York and he turned to me and said he knew who did it. I asked him how he knew and he told me he had just gotten out of the Marine Corps after 15 years. He had served in the Intelligence branch and he specialized in Middle East terrorism and particularly Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. He had compiled reports that Bin Laden had plans to hijack planes.
I think we briefly mentioned the events in our English class and then classes were cancelled for the day. I remember going back to my dorm and sitting in front of the television with my roommates and just whoever came and went and watching the news coverage. My parents called and asked how I was feeling. I lied and said I was fine and then I called my grandparents. My grandfather - a WWII veteran - said,
'It's ok to feel afraid. I felt afraid after Pearl Harbor.'
We had a lot of kids from NYC and the surrounding area. A few went home that day. One of the kids had been a volunteer firefighter in his hometown in New Jersey and he took off to head to Ground Zero. Another kid drove to the nearest Army recruiting center to sign up. Another guy - an older student (in his mid 20s) had been a veteran and he left to go to Ground Zero as well.
One girl in my math class was from a few towns from me. Her father was supposed to be on a flight to Los Angeles that day, but she had little details on airline or flight number. She was desperately calling her father every half an hour, trying to get a hold of him and each time getting no answer. She was hysterical and in tears the entire morning and afternoon. She was trying to find someone to bring her back to Boston, but no one would. Thankfully at around 11pm her father called and said he was fine. He had been booked on Flight 11 and called a taxi to get to the airport. Apparently the taxi broke down on the Mass Pike and by the time he had been able to get a new cab and get to Logan, he had missed his flight and decided to book another one. He had been attempting to call his daughter but the phone lines and cell network across the Northeast were a mess and he was unable to get through until 11pm that night."
- Matt Casey