WEST VIRGINIA
"Where were you on 9/11?" as remembered by those in West Virginia that day.
1. The morning of 9/11 when I walked into work, I had my my big streamer of prenatal ultrasound images to show my friends and coworkers and when I walked in I was laughing and exuberant and ready to share... but everybody was focused on their computers, just locked in watching the news. There had been an accident in in New York City, I just thought it was an accident so I was like,
'But look at look at my ultrasounds.'
Shortly, we knew it wasn't an accident because of the Pentagon fire and the second plane. I just spent the morning trying to not worry about what was going on because I had this baby that I had to grow inside of me.
We gathered with my husband's family to plan and to think about the 'what-if' situations and we thought about maybe going out to a cabin in the woods - just kind of waiting and seeing what happened. I just remember while everybody else was talking about worst case scenarios, I was thinking about the best case scenarios and what I needed to do to stay healthy and keep my baby healthy and just all the positive things that I needed to do to to bring him into the world and hopefully a better world.
- Megan
'But look at look at my ultrasounds.'
Shortly, we knew it wasn't an accident because of the Pentagon fire and the second plane. I just spent the morning trying to not worry about what was going on because I had this baby that I had to grow inside of me.
We gathered with my husband's family to plan and to think about the 'what-if' situations and we thought about maybe going out to a cabin in the woods - just kind of waiting and seeing what happened. I just remember while everybody else was talking about worst case scenarios, I was thinking about the best case scenarios and what I needed to do to stay healthy and keep my baby healthy and just all the positive things that I needed to do to to bring him into the world and hopefully a better world.
- Megan
Megan remembers her 9/11 story from Charleston, West Virginia.
Written Stories
2. "I was a junior studying Music Education at West Virginia University. It was a pretty standard Tuesday, beautiful weather- 8 AM Ed Psych class then 9 AM Vocal Lab. Heard on the radio between classes that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, tragic for sure, but I filed it away as something I would catch up on later and go about with my normal day.
Vocal Lab was a class where all students could practice singing and teaching choirs and choral techniques. I was a choir pedagogy student that day but the methods students were working on a unit of Patriotic Literature singing traditional American patriotic songs such as 'You’re A Grand Old Flag' and 'America the Beautiful', right as the towers were burning.
We were singing patriotic songs of celebration while we were being attacked.
Vocal Lab was a class where all students could practice singing and teaching choirs and choral techniques. I was a choir pedagogy student that day but the methods students were working on a unit of Patriotic Literature singing traditional American patriotic songs such as 'You’re A Grand Old Flag' and 'America the Beautiful', right as the towers were burning.
We were singing patriotic songs of celebration while we were being attacked.
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I had a sizable break in my day so I went to my apartment for some lunch after class. Turned on the news and basically went 'oh crap.'
By noon, WVU made classes optional that afternoon. I did forgo my afternoon English lit class, but given the gravity of the news, I decided to go to orchestra rehearsal later that afternoon and I'm so glad I did. Instead of working on the music for our upcoming concert; our director, Lawrence Christiansen, turned it into a very powerful lesson. He opened the rehearsal with a short speech about how sometimes during events like we were seeing people turn to the arts and music to help them process their shock, awe, anger and grief. At the end, Maestro Christiansen quoted Heinrich Heine. 'Where words leave off, music begins.' What followed was the most emotionally cathartic musical experience in my life. We just sight-read pieces that day. Pieces like Barber’s 'Adagio for Strings', Elgar’s 'Nimrod' from the Enigma Variations, and the 4th Movement of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony (Pathetique). Everyone was there. Everyone had at least some emotional reaction. It helped all of us. And although the news was sad and tragic, we all gained some peace going forward from that rehearsal. I reflect now nearly 20 years after that day. It was a day that shifted my childhood mindset of safety and comfort into one where safety and comfort are not guaranteed. It also solidified for me the fact that music does have the power to inspire and heal. That day is burned in my memory, and in a way it was like a Phoenix, the old America burned, and a new, different one has risen from those ashes to take its place." - Lesley Schultz |
3. "I was in third grade and an announcement came on for the teachers to turn on the TV in their room. I wasn’t too understanding of what was happening, but the one major feeling I remember is just a very overwhelming sadness.
I honestly don’t know if I even knew why I was sad or if that was just the tone of the day. I don’t remember anything after the news, I don’t know if we went home, continued our lessons, or watched the news all day. What I remember so much more clearly is the aftermath. I was so terrified of terrorists.
I didn’t understand at the time why anyone could have so much hate towards America, weren’t we supposed to be the land of the free? I was very scared that it was going to happen again anytime there were crowds together and I didn’t want any of my family to be in the military anymore.
- Chel
I honestly don’t know if I even knew why I was sad or if that was just the tone of the day. I don’t remember anything after the news, I don’t know if we went home, continued our lessons, or watched the news all day. What I remember so much more clearly is the aftermath. I was so terrified of terrorists.
I didn’t understand at the time why anyone could have so much hate towards America, weren’t we supposed to be the land of the free? I was very scared that it was going to happen again anytime there were crowds together and I didn’t want any of my family to be in the military anymore.
- Chel
4. "I was 11 years old, living in Weirton and they didn’t tell us anything in school. I am not even sure they let us out of school early. I just remember coming home to seeing my mom and dad watching the coverage on TV. I went outside to play with my friend and I'll never forget looking up at the clear blue sky. I told my friend we are at war.
I can’t even tell you the kid's name I played with, but I’ll never forget that moment"
- Kalvin B.
I can’t even tell you the kid's name I played with, but I’ll never forget that moment"
- Kalvin B.
5. "It was a beautiful morning. The temperature was perfect, the sun was shining brilliantly, and it was uncannily not humid. I was at college in the commons area getting breakfast. While standing in line to pay I noticed a bunch of people were focused on the big screen TV. I asked the cashier if she knew what was so interesting and she said she wasn't sure... but maybe a plane had hit a building in New York.
I couldn't actually see the screen due to the people standing in front of it. The casual way in which the cashier mentioned the incident led me to believe that it was probably a small passenger plane. I sat down and ate my breakfast without paying much attention to the group that continued to gather around the TV.
When I finished eating I decided I should at least peek at the TV to see what had these folks so focused. Seeing the screen for the first time I realized right away that this was no small plane. At this point it wasn't suspected that the plane had struck the building intentionally. Class didn't start for a bit so I hung out and watched. I was watching when the second plane hit, I saw it in real time.
There were audible gasps followed by silence as everyone tried to process what just happened. Some weren't sure if they were replaying new found footage of the earlier crash.
My brain had one of those moments where the subconscious calculates things more quickly than the conscious. A voice just popped into my head saying,
'We're under attack!'
I immediately felt vulnerable.
Class was starting soon at this point so I headed over to the next building. We didn't discuss our normal subject, I remember distinctly though that everyone was pretty much without words. No one knew what to really say and you could tell that many were looking towards the professor for input. He, like many of us, was still processing it all and didn't have much to offer himself.
Still feeling vulnerable, I decided that I should be spending time with family and I went home.
Normally, the sky above Western Virginia's eastern panhandle was constant with air traffic. There was never a point that you couldn't look up and not see an airplane.
That's one thing I'll never forget. It was on that day that you could look up in the sky and see nothing but brilliant blue sky. No clouds, no crisscrossing vapor trails from air traffic, just unadulterated blue sky. That coupled with the sense of collective silence made it feel as if the world had stopped that day. I suppose that in a way it did."
- S. K.
I couldn't actually see the screen due to the people standing in front of it. The casual way in which the cashier mentioned the incident led me to believe that it was probably a small passenger plane. I sat down and ate my breakfast without paying much attention to the group that continued to gather around the TV.
When I finished eating I decided I should at least peek at the TV to see what had these folks so focused. Seeing the screen for the first time I realized right away that this was no small plane. At this point it wasn't suspected that the plane had struck the building intentionally. Class didn't start for a bit so I hung out and watched. I was watching when the second plane hit, I saw it in real time.
There were audible gasps followed by silence as everyone tried to process what just happened. Some weren't sure if they were replaying new found footage of the earlier crash.
My brain had one of those moments where the subconscious calculates things more quickly than the conscious. A voice just popped into my head saying,
'We're under attack!'
I immediately felt vulnerable.
Class was starting soon at this point so I headed over to the next building. We didn't discuss our normal subject, I remember distinctly though that everyone was pretty much without words. No one knew what to really say and you could tell that many were looking towards the professor for input. He, like many of us, was still processing it all and didn't have much to offer himself.
Still feeling vulnerable, I decided that I should be spending time with family and I went home.
Normally, the sky above Western Virginia's eastern panhandle was constant with air traffic. There was never a point that you couldn't look up and not see an airplane.
That's one thing I'll never forget. It was on that day that you could look up in the sky and see nothing but brilliant blue sky. No clouds, no crisscrossing vapor trails from air traffic, just unadulterated blue sky. That coupled with the sense of collective silence made it feel as if the world had stopped that day. I suppose that in a way it did."
- S. K.
6. "I didn’t find out about the attacks until the next day, I was 16 years old camping with three friends in West Virginia and didn’t have cell service. At one point, we saw some military planes fly over and one of my friends said he thought there was a military base nearby. We assumed it was just an exercise.
Driving the several hours back home to Maryland the next day, we were all in high spirits. We made two stops at a McDonald’s and at a truck stop. At both places, we noticed that everyone was glaring at us while we laughed and made jokes. That was pretty weird. We somehow didn’t see a newspaper or anything.
Getting into Maryland, I noticed that a very large flag was at half mast and I wondered what had happened. I made a joke that maybe George W. Bush had died, since I hated him.
It wasn’t until we pulled into my neighborhood that I really knew something very strange was going on. My neighborhood had never been very patriotic, but literally every single house had an American flag out front, even mine, when I hadn’t even known we owned one.
'Did the Fourth of July get moved?'
When we went into my house, my mom showed us the headline on the Washington Post and told us what happened. We were all shocked. One of my friends said,
'This means we’re going to war.'
To which my other friend responded,
'War with Afghanistan? That’ll be over in a month.'
Well, we all know how wrong that turned out to be.
- T. B.
Driving the several hours back home to Maryland the next day, we were all in high spirits. We made two stops at a McDonald’s and at a truck stop. At both places, we noticed that everyone was glaring at us while we laughed and made jokes. That was pretty weird. We somehow didn’t see a newspaper or anything.
Getting into Maryland, I noticed that a very large flag was at half mast and I wondered what had happened. I made a joke that maybe George W. Bush had died, since I hated him.
It wasn’t until we pulled into my neighborhood that I really knew something very strange was going on. My neighborhood had never been very patriotic, but literally every single house had an American flag out front, even mine, when I hadn’t even known we owned one.
'Did the Fourth of July get moved?'
When we went into my house, my mom showed us the headline on the Washington Post and told us what happened. We were all shocked. One of my friends said,
'This means we’re going to war.'
To which my other friend responded,
'War with Afghanistan? That’ll be over in a month.'
Well, we all know how wrong that turned out to be.
- T. B.
7. "I was in Charleston working as the manager for Northwest Airlines when a guy came up to our ticket counter and said,
'A plane hit the World Trade Center!'
I walked over to the TVs in the airport's main lobby expecting to see some bad weather conditions, but it was crystal clear out. That’s when the second plane hit, on live TV!
About ten minutes later, we get a call from our ops command center saying that all airspace had been ground stopped and that we had one of our aircraft inbound, landing in Charleston. I went outside to meet the flight and beside me were three West Virginia State Troopers and four or five local airport cops. The passengers were quickly deplaned and the cops did a full search of the aircraft.
After that, the airport manager said that they had heard that an aircraft was inbound towards Charleston and was not making radio contact. He handed me and about four other people binoculars and we went up to the ATC tower where he said,
'Start looking for anything.'
I was 23 at the time. Being up in that tower, looking for an unknown aircraft that could possibly be targeting the airport was intense."
- B. W.
'A plane hit the World Trade Center!'
I walked over to the TVs in the airport's main lobby expecting to see some bad weather conditions, but it was crystal clear out. That’s when the second plane hit, on live TV!
About ten minutes later, we get a call from our ops command center saying that all airspace had been ground stopped and that we had one of our aircraft inbound, landing in Charleston. I went outside to meet the flight and beside me were three West Virginia State Troopers and four or five local airport cops. The passengers were quickly deplaned and the cops did a full search of the aircraft.
After that, the airport manager said that they had heard that an aircraft was inbound towards Charleston and was not making radio contact. He handed me and about four other people binoculars and we went up to the ATC tower where he said,
'Start looking for anything.'
I was 23 at the time. Being up in that tower, looking for an unknown aircraft that could possibly be targeting the airport was intense."
- B. W.
8. "My wife and I were at Women and Children's Hospital for my infant son's two week checkup when a woman that worked at the Capitol complex came in and started talking loudly to her friends. She told them that Manhattan had been bombed and the entire country's government had been shut down!
After his appointment was over, we went to my in-laws house and discovered the truth."
- R. Moyer
After his appointment was over, we went to my in-laws house and discovered the truth."
- R. Moyer
9. "I was in the 7th grade history class. When I walked into the room, my teacher had the TV on and was staring at it in silence with her hands over her mouth. A couple of other kids were crying and I was too shocked to even know how to react. When the second plane hit I actually laughed in disbelief. I still don't know why that was my reaction, and I felt guilty about it for years.
The school sent everyone home shortly after that, but the rest of the day was kind of a blur. My father, a doomsday prepper, was waiting in his truck outside with our 'go-bags.' We spent the next week listening to shortwave radio and eating canned food in his cabin out in Roane County."
- D. H.
The school sent everyone home shortly after that, but the rest of the day was kind of a blur. My father, a doomsday prepper, was waiting in his truck outside with our 'go-bags.' We spent the next week listening to shortwave radio and eating canned food in his cabin out in Roane County."
- D. H.
10. "I was a 3rd grader walking home from school when a neighbor around my age said.
'Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center!'
My house didn't have a computer until years later and my parents/teachers never taught me about the World Trade Center so I barely knew anything about NYC despite living in relatively close proximity to it.
You can imagine how confused I was when I turned on the TV to see that the majority of the regularly scheduled programming abruptly interrupted by the sight of two burning buildings instead of showing my after school cartoons."
- V. K.
'Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center!'
My house didn't have a computer until years later and my parents/teachers never taught me about the World Trade Center so I barely knew anything about NYC despite living in relatively close proximity to it.
You can imagine how confused I was when I turned on the TV to see that the majority of the regularly scheduled programming abruptly interrupted by the sight of two burning buildings instead of showing my after school cartoons."
- V. K.
11. "I was in my 10th grade history class in Parkersburg, but I couldn't tell you what the subject of the day was. After a student ran in from another classroom and said a plane hit the World Trade Center, the TV went on and class halted. Most of my classmates didn't seem to care. My teacher sat in a chair in front of the TV and I watched from my desk. It was about that time I saw the second plane enter the frame and became terrified. What seemed like an unfortunate accident had instantly turned into an attack. I was witnessing history in history class.
My next class was Accounting or something. The TV was on in that room as well. Shortly after the first tower collapsed, the teacher shut off the TV and said ,
'We can't be watching that, we have accounting to to.'
I lost whatever respect I had for him. I skipped the rest of the day after lunch and a month later I quit school.
I joined the Army in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq."
- Darren U.
My next class was Accounting or something. The TV was on in that room as well. Shortly after the first tower collapsed, the teacher shut off the TV and said ,
'We can't be watching that, we have accounting to to.'
I lost whatever respect I had for him. I skipped the rest of the day after lunch and a month later I quit school.
I joined the Army in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq."
- Darren U.
12. "I was in 8th grade math class. An announcement came on for teachers to keep the TVs off and continue regular classes. Everyone was confused.
I got home and turned on the news, the towers burned and exploded over and over for hours. I saw Building 7 fall live.
My dad usually got home around 6/7 pm.
I remember running into the front yard and hiding, grabbing a stick and trying to make sure it was him coming home and not the same people who destroyed the towers."
- Anonymous
I got home and turned on the news, the towers burned and exploded over and over for hours. I saw Building 7 fall live.
My dad usually got home around 6/7 pm.
I remember running into the front yard and hiding, grabbing a stick and trying to make sure it was him coming home and not the same people who destroyed the towers."
- Anonymous
13. "I was in 6th grade in Wellsburg, WV - 40 miles from Pittsburgh. I remember being in reading class and the teacher running out then coming back in to turn on the TV. Those images will forever be seared into my mind. I had never heard the term terrorist before that day and had no idea how much this would change the world we live in forever. My parents and many others picked their kids up early that day. I remember crying knowing that I had watched as people lost their lives.
'The days go slow but the years go fast' is no joke. It only goes faster the older you get. Its a day I will never forget as long as I live."
- Anonymous
'The days go slow but the years go fast' is no joke. It only goes faster the older you get. Its a day I will never forget as long as I live."
- Anonymous
14. "I was in college, eating breakfast in the cafeteria before class and watching the news on TV. At first I thought it was a trailer for some movie, but the shot didn’t change. I was kind of numb and confused. We talked about it in class, but every time someone mentioned it, it still sounded like it couldn’t be real."
- Dave
- Dave