September 11, 2001 attacks

2007-10-09T16:35:45Z

216.173.168.162:

[[Image:9-11.jpg|left|thumb|200px|a hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 collides with the south tower of the World Trade Center at 9:02:59am September 11, 2001]]{{tocright}}On [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11%2C_2001_attacks September 11, 2001], nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower, resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and extensive damage to nearby buildings.

The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

In addition to the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks. The victims were predominantly civilians.

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==Kevin McNulty==
[[Kevin McNulty|Kevin]] was 37 years old and by now a father of two with his youngest just having started kindergarten. He was working for CompUSA in the training department when an employee rushed out of the breakroom.

"A plane just flew into the World Trade Center!"

Kevin rushed back in after her to see the report on the television in the break room. He knew that in the 40s a plane had accidentally flown into the Empire State Building, and at first he thought that might be what had happened here. He got to the television only a couple of minutes before the second plane hit the other tower. He knew then that it was no accident.

<blockquote>
''At first, all I could think about was the daunting task that faced the fire fighters rushing in to the WTC. Then the first tower collapsed. At some point, the news broke about the Pentagon. Then, news reports started frantically coming in from all over. It was chaos. There was talk about a bomb at the State Department and lord knows what else. I remember thinking that the world had gone crazy. All I wanted to do was go home and check on my kids. After a couple of hours of CNN, that's just what I did. The store basically closed down for the rest of the day. At that point we had no idea what the extent of the attacks were or if or when they were going to end. I remember just wanting to hold my family until all the noise stopped.
 
 
''A few days later, with no apprent provocation, I just started crying. Thinking about all the people who'd died only because they had gone to work that day. Thinking about how it could have been any of us. I cried for a long time.
 
 
''To this day, I still can't watch the footage of the plane hitting the second tower without looking away.''

==Denise Duggan==
I was working for a software development firm at the time. I remember about that time everything just stopped and we were all over the net trying to get information. Of course, many websites were jammed. I went to Buck Lake Elementary school that day for lunch with my youngest as September 11 is his birthday. As I came in the office staff informed me they were trying to keep the information from the younger students (he was in first grade I believe) so their parent could handle it with them. I remember it being a very surreal feeling having lunch with a bunch of cheery first graders and yet feeling so terrible about what had happened and yet having to keep a smile on my face. For years after that, when someone asked my son when his birthday was, he'd say "September 11th" and then he'd get a sad look and say "the sad day" but then his face would brighten and he'd say "but a happy day too becuase it's my birthday."

[[Category:Where Were You?]]

Challenger Disaster

2007-10-09T16:31:27Z

216.173.168.162:

{{tocright}}[[Image:Challenger disaster.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Smoke plume left in the sky moments after the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger]]On the morning of January 28, 1986, the United State [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger Space Shuttle Challenger] was scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in central Florida.

At 11:38 a.m. EST the ship lifted from its launchpad with seven American astronauts, and 73 seconds later, Challenger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster was no more].

Below are the memories of [[REDdimension Wiki Circle]] members relating where they were when the shuttle exploded in the sky over the Atlantic Ocean just off Florida's east coast and how the national tragedy impacted their lives.
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==Kevin McNulty==
[[Kevin McNulty|Kevin]] was 22 and finishing his last semester at California State University, Fullerton. He was asleep at 8:38 a.m. Pacific Time since he didn't have a class on Tuesday until 10:00. Somewhere around 8:45, his mother rushed in to wake him.

"Kev, the space shuttle exploded..."

Trying to wrap his still-dawning consciousness around the thought, he stumbled into the living room to see the news replaying every camera angle they could, trying to determine what had happened. Though they weren't saying anything official, it was clear to Kevin that no one had survived.

On the way to school, Kevin stopped at a fabric store to buy a few inches of black ribbon to pin to his shirt. It was the one and only time he has ever personally sported a ribbon for a cause.

<blockquote>''I was in shock for a couple of days. I didn't know any of the astronauts, but the space program had been a part of me as long as I could remember, and I felt like I lost someone close to me when I heard the news. It would be the same when I heard about Columbia years later.''</blockquote>

==Jon Reddick==
[[Jon Reddick|Jon]] was sixteen years old and attending [[Haines City High School]], just ninety miles from Kennedy Space Center. It wasn't uncommon to watch the conn trail of a morning or afternoon launch in the sky to the northeast during school hours.
<blockquote>''By the time of the Challenger, I had watched so many shuttle launches they almost seemed commonplace, so that morning I was at school and on my lunch break, but forgot about the launch and was just killing time hanging out with my friends in the band hall. 

''Shortly before noon some other kids who had been out on the loading dock of the band hall waiting to watch Challenger go up came running in very agitated yelling, "Hey, the space shuttle just blew up!" 

''I was sure they were kidding, but after a minute or two was convinced enough to go outside and see for myself. What I saw was striking. For better or for worse, I can say that while I didn't see the actual explosion, I witnessed that now infamous forked smoke pattern in the sky to the east caused by the solid rocket boosters tearing the shuttle apart. Not on TV, not on the news, but in person and with my own eyes. 

''As chance would have it, one of my [[Jason Harden|very best friends]] had stayed home sick that day, and had been recording the launch live on television. After school I went to his house and we watched and re-watched the VHS of the explosion as it had happened earlier in the morning.''
</blockquote>

==Ro Reddick==
<blockquote>''[[Ro Reddick|I]] was living in Mobile, Alabama and working for the University of South Alabama Department of Neurosurgery as a medical transcriptionist. I heard about it at work, as all around the building everyone was buzzing. I didn't get to see the footage until I got home where I watched it again and again.
 
''I couldn't believe how much it touched me. I followed the news for days afterwards just trying to understand how and why it happened. Why did it have to happen on this flight? Why with the first civilian? I guess I wasn't aware of how much hope that particular flight gave me -- gave everyone. It was one of those "a giant leap for mankind" kind of things, but the whole world watched that "leap" spiral from the sky that day.''</blockquote>

==Colin Toenjes==
[[Colin Toenjes|Colin]] was eleven years old and was attending Waterloo Junior High School.

<blockquote>''I didn't know about it until the afternoon. I heard people talking about the Shuttle throughout the day but didn't find out the details of what happened until after school. My mother worked in the Junior High/High School Library at the time and when I went down to wait for her to finish work for the day, she told me all the details. I saw the explosion for the first time on the news that night. I have watched a lot of the subsequent shuttle launches on television, and I still shudder and hold my breath when the flight controllers say "Shuttle go at throttle up."''
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==Denise Duggan==
[[Denise Duggan|I]] was attending the University of South Carolina at the time. We had a bus that shuttled students around campus. It was officially called the ShuttleCock (Gamecocks is the school mascot) but everyone just called it the shuttle. Someone told me that the shuttle blew up and I presumed they meant the ShuttleCock. Then they explained. I think that was also the first thing I remember being shown on tv again and again and again and again.

[[Category:Where Were You?]]

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September 11, 2001 attacks

Challenger Disaster