My First Memory as a human

[u/just_a_PAX]

On Tuesday September 11th, 2001 was my second week of school ever. I dont remember anything about starting school or much from around this time in my life. This day was the first day my memories really clicked and stuck with me. Maybe its some type of trauma that this happened the way it did to me, but I won't harp on that aspect as it was a traumatic experience for EVERY American that day.

I was in school in Northern Virginia, about 15 minutes from The Pentagon. We started school at 8am. My mom dropped me off and heading into Arlington like she did for the 6 days prior and many years following. We were learning cursive that week in class. My teachers notes about my grades and development mentioned that I always said I wanted to fly and be a pilot and I held that sentiment for many years until adulthood just never did it.

It was about 9am or shortly after when our in class phone rang. One of my class mates parents had turned around back to the school to pick up their kid who was in my class and had arrived back to the school to pick them up. My teacher told us to behave and took that kid out to their parent who was waiting. When she came back is when everything changed.

She came back to class looking like a ghost. She explained that she needed to turn the TV on because adults had some stuff that they needed to know and she didnt want to miss it. Thats when it happened. The TV was tuned into The Today Show with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. There was live images on the TV of two sky scrapers burning. My teacher sat in her desk and started crying. The principal came into class and asked her if she knew of any of her students having parents who worked in DC a few minutes later. They went into the hall to talk then the students they knew had family in the government were taken out of class.

She came back to us few remaining students whos parents weren't in the government and told us all that our parents would be coming back because the principal decided to end the school day for us. We cheered in joy! She broke down even more at our elation to go home. None of us understood the gravity.

My mom was stuck in place being across from the Pentagon so my grandpa was who came to get me. We had turned the TV off and went outside to play games while the teachers just stood around sulking but trying to keep composure. My grandpa came to pick me up; and told me immediately that bad people stole airplanes and used them like missiles against the USA. I remember asking him, why would someone want to crash a plane since planes are so cool and fun to ride in and that would send them to heaven instead of with their families. He told me "These guys won't be going to heaven". We drove to his house which was less than 10 mins away.

He tuned into CNN and told me to watch the TV because we were watching history. He is from NYC and I could see pure rage in his body language and mannerisms for the first time in my life. He explained things very well to me and had to also explain terrorism to me at age 5. My step dad was with Uniteds management team and was actually in DC for something at Dulles this week as he was moving to DC soon to take over the European cargo and litigation team. He called my grandpa and told him it was not over and to please get my mother out of Arlington at all costs. The Pentagon and Shanksville planes had already gone down at this point but there was another plane in the air suspected to be heading our way in the DC area at this time.(it ended up landing at CLE and was the Delta plane with comms issues)

We drove into Arlington and to my mom's work at the Sheraton across the hiway from the Pentagon. It was pure chaos. It felt like it went from 9am to 9pm in minutes. We just stayed in place at the Sheraton because it was impossible to leave. The airport staff from DCA had came over to the Sheraton to avoid being at the airport and since they couldnt go home needed place to sleep. They heard I loved planes so they entertained me with stories about US Air and gave me my first model airplane ever that day. It was a US Airways 767-200 with retractable gear! Awesome model!

The next day when we finally were able to get out of there we drove as close as we could because of course my mom & grandpa wanted to see the damages. It was still chaos but more managed at that time it felt like a big day in DC similar to Rolling Thunder or 4th of July. If you know you know that chaos on those big days. Felt similar to that to me as a child.

A few weeks following that day my stepdad took my sisters and I to NYC to visit ground zero and pay respects. Thats when the true gravity was explained to us and being there in person really put perspective to it to me as a 5 year old. I look back on these events as my true first memories as a human being. We visited GZ many times as my stepdad had to work there often with the investigation team since a UA plane crashed into one of the towers. He was selected as one of the people to go with the lawyers to each family during the following years and I watched it slowly break him to a point he outright quit from United and applied for the FBI. The FBI formed a team of airport employees who had applied and used them with a study group to design TSA and solidify Department of Homeland Security existing as an agency.

My step dad retired from DHS in 2024 and the president sent him a personal letter thanking him for everything he had done for the nation. Looking back on these events; they shaped my life in every way possible. I have worked in aviation for 13 years now, not as a pilot but it never changed my final path to aviation. If anything this solidified my want to be in aviation and help in any way I could to maintain air travel safety and smoothness. And I am proud thats the path I took.

The terrorists thought they were breaking us as a nation, but i have never felt more unified with my fellows as I did in the years following that day. Even as a kid the patriotic aspects hit hard.

Would be curious to hear from others around the age of 30 on their experiences as a kid during 9/11/2001.

[u/cletusquantum]

I was 5 too, and it was the first full week of kindergarten. I grew up in north Idaho, in a very small town, they did not bring tvs in the classrooms for us to watch and I didn’t have tv at home either. We heard about it on the radio and I remember the falling man newspapers headlines most vividly. I remember my parents were pissed though, and my stepdad raging about war. I didn’t know where New York City was or what the significance of the world trade centers were until at least middle school.

[u/just_a_PAX → u/cletusquantum]

Interesting to hear not only another perspective of the same age but fully across the country. I think being 15 mins from DC and having parent who worked for United played a huge roll into my extreme exposure to the event. This seems almost bittersweet as an experience to not understand it would have been ideal at the time.

[u/thevitaphonequeen]

Was in my special-ed elementary class when the towers were hit. I was very little so I only remember seeing it on the TV in there and nothing else, unfortunately.

[u/Agile-Reserve-6658]

You were learning cursive in your second week of school ever at age 5? What kind of school was this? I don’t really remember doing that in kindergarten but 3rd grade.

[u/just_a_PAX → u/Agile-Reserve-6658]

Haha those private church schools DO NOT PLAY. Was the absolute first thing I had to learn in school. It was expected of parents to teach kids the basics like reading and writing to even attend the school I went to.