CDR Salamander: As it started

Saturday, September 11, 2010

As it started

17 comments:

MR T's Haircut said...: I was on USS Enterprise. I just got off the TAO watch and was asleep when my roommate Roger woke me up.. we watched the first tower burning then were astonished and shocked as we watched the second plane hit the the tower. The Enterprise <span>...</span><span>had just transited the Straights of Hormuz and we had left that shithole of the Persian Gulf.. We immediatley turned around and steamed to Pakistan and the north arabian Sea. We participated in the first strikes against these thugs and we sustained an air campaign on them spelling doom for 7 weeks. We then chopped the 5th Flt after being relieved by Carl Vinson and TR battlegroups.</span>; 08:20
Mid Mom said...: I was driving the kids to school when we heard the news report. My son said: That was a terrorist attack. I said No way! He's my Mid.

We didn't have TV in the house then, and I'm glad I missed most of the visuals. I saw them years later at a Smithsonian exhibit. It still hits me in the core of my being.; 09:58
DeltaBravo said...: A special memory for those in the Navy Command Center at the Pentagon, a mix of civilians, active duty members, reservists and veterans, who were going about their business, holding a staff meeting by remote video with others, checking the weather reports for the planes being scrambled over the east coast...making phone calls to Norfolk... when they themselves were hit. Good, hardworking shipmates and friends, who only a year before had endured the reports coming in that their fellow shipmates were slaughtered on the USS Cole. Everlasting fair winds and following seas to all of them.; 10:04
Kristen said...: Never forget. Never forget the heroes, and the victims, and all those who answered the call to avenge them and defend the nation.; 13:03
Kristen said...: Mr T, I loved it when I heard that the very first plane making the very first strike on the Taliban was carrying a flag from the World Trade Center. That touches me down at the very core of my being.; 13:05
C-dore 14 said...: DB, Two former shipmates (Dept Heads on my two flagships) died in the Navy Command Center. One was a watch officer and the other was doing his two weeks ACDUTRA. I'm flying the flag in their memory today.; 13:55
DeltaBravo said...: C-dore...Papa Bravo was in that office. Probably knows the people of whom you speak. One of the Bravo Brothers was in the office but was rotated out so other reservists could do their time. But he lost several shipmates who were there for a meeting. He said he'll never forget the closed circuit screen going blank.; 17:13
ewok40k said...: I remember as vividly as if it was yesterday. I was shopping for books, a day after my birthday having some extra cash, when the speakers instead of normal music were turned to news on the radio. My first thought was, WTF, new Tom Clancy book promotion? Then I made it to the TV sets on the other side of the mall and with pictures of the towers being hit I knew a war has started. My second thought was, my god how many people were there, as I saw the towers come down. Finally, I thought, whoever has done it will be really mauled when the US will strike back. As first reports indicated casualtirs of up to 20 thousand dead, I was expecting almost anything, nukes included. Then I realised that Poland that just came into NATO seeking security from Russia, will be amongst nations that will send help to the US in this new, strange kind of war. Maybe not a big help, but based on what strength we can lend.; 17:25
C-dore 14 said...: ewok, My wife and I were vacationing in Italy and on the road from Rome to Orvietto when the attack occurred. We didn't learn about it until we checked into the hotel late that afternoon. It's quite an experience to be in another country when one's homeland is under attack. I'll always remember the simple acts of kindness and sympathy shown to us by average Europeans over the next few days as I will the hush that fell over Orvietto's main piazza during the "national silence" that Friday.; 20:06
WCOG said...: I was in seventh grade at the time...our teachers were instructed not to let us know what was going on (apparently they didn't consider that we had to learn some time) but mine ignored that and turned the tv in our room to CNN. We suspended lessons and just watched it all happen. I respect that man a lot for giving us all an introduction to reality the way he did; that was the first time I can remember being treated like an adult.

Honestly, I don't remember it like it was yesterday; it seems like it was a thousand years ago. Time passes differently when you're a kid.; 20:54
MR T's Haircut said...: Kristen,

and you would blush at some of the Bomb Art...

My good friend and Assistant Combat Direction Center Officer, had a flag he had said Go Navy I think, he put in the Combat Direction Center. All the watch standers and anyone who wanted to, wrote down a few sentiments on that flag, including the very reserved Padre. He still pulls it out from time to time show people.; 22:03
Casey Tompkins said...: Got up late (early for me), turned on the radio (can't get non-cable TV where I live), and heard something about a plane hitting the Towers. My first thought was when a B-25 hit the Empire State building, back in WW2.

Went nuts trying to get current info on the internet, but since everyone else in the country was doing the same thing, all the news sites were swamped.

First reaction after seeing some of the Tower videos; Oh. My. God. It's Pearl, all over again. Only this time they shut down the entire freaking country.

A fair number of folks like to quote or cite "kick-ass" videos or songs, but I'll go with this one today.; 00:47
QMC(SW)(ret) said...: I was in Japan at NAF Atsugi. 9/11 was a nighttime event for me. We had moved from the Navy Lodge to a place out in town that day. The cable wasn't connected yet and all we had was very poor broadcast. I was trying to watch an ABC feed with Japanese newscasters doing voiceovers. My wife was translating. Came in just in time to see the second plane hit and knew it was an attack.; 02:35
Stu said...: I knew them all there at the NCC. While the events have obviously influenced my opinion on such things, that was the closest bunch of guys I ever worked with.; 15:08
glab said...: I was an active duty commander at the time working at SPAWAR. I was put on port and starboard in the command center instantly wtih another officer who was doing his 2 weeks AT with us. He had been offered two postings out of his reserve unit. One with SPAWAR or one with the Command Center. He was a very good friend of one of the Reservists killed at the Command Center and kept saying that could have been him.; 16:52
DeltaBravo said...: Did you do the crossword puzzles too?; 18:52
C-dore 14 said...: QMC, It was the same for us in Italy on the first day, watching CNN with Italian voiceovers and trying to grab information from the crawler at the bottom of the screen. The next day, when the owner realized he had Americans staying in the hotel, he shifted his satellite channels to get CNN in English.; 13:09

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