I walked out of a Learjet simulator in Atlanta, within minutes of the first tower collapse. Walking thru the training center to a room with TV, passing flight attendants sitting on the floor crying, and airline pilots saying how the cockpits need to be armed. Got there and watched the second tower collapse, and hear about the one in Washington, and another in PA. Watching desperate people jumping from the highest floors of the remaining tower. People walking out like shell-shocked snowmen.Trying to call home, the office...no service. Wondering how wide is the attack. Thinking it was a beautiful day, and how it must have worked right into their plan. Wondering what we were going to get home to.
We went back into our classroom and figured we'd better go ahead and finish, because we'd have jobs when things got back to normal. Our instructor was this little 5' 2" southern belle named Anna. She crawls up into her chair (a lot like a high bar chair), and says,"I don't know about any of you guys, but I think we need to go over there, and kick some ass!" We laid out a plan that those watching the news non-stop would come knock on our door anytime something new came on, and we'd go see it. We were the only class that completed training that week.
Got home to find out our CEO had been on the 90-something floor of the first tower on the 10th. The company plane he was traveling on broke down, so he got a charter home. My supervisor and a mechanic flew back on the charter to fix it and bring it back. That mechanic had never seen NYC, and marveled at the lights as they came in to land. The next morning, he watched the towers collapse from his hotel room window.
The feelings today are the same as they were that day. We can NEVER forget.