Where exactly were you 14 years ago when you learned of the events of 9-11 ?

[Samantha]

32. I was working in DC also

Everyone was barred from entering the City and the metro was shutdown so many people had no way home. As you said, cell phone service was cut because the government wanted the VIPs to be able to communicate so they shut the rest of us off.

I went downstairs and walked out the front door to get some fresh air. A vendor was located there at the front of the building. He had a television on and was looking at the screen smiling. This man was not native to this Country, I am pretty sure, because he spoke very broken English and wore an outfit not often seen here in the United States.

Wondering why the man was smiling, I asked him if he knew what was going on. He pointed to the set and said the White House is on fire. I looked at the screen and knew right away that was not the White House burning. Soon a commentator announced the Pentagon was on fire as a result of a plane crashing into it. It seemed all so surreal, like a nightmare experienced not when one is asleep but preliminarily starts when one is awake (if that makes sense).

Later that day I learned the plane that crashed into the Pentagon flew very close by the apartment home of a coworker friend. Had she been home, she would have seen it.

Amazingly enough, the first thing I thought of when I found out George W. Bush* was in Florida was that he knew this was going to happen and that is why he left town. I angrily repeated this thought to a Republican I knew who defended Bush* from my accusation. I said he surely do know this was going to happen and he covered his own flank by leaving town without as much as a "heads up" to the rest of us. He went to Florida because he knew his brother Jeb could protect him.

I heard later that Florida had been declared under a state of emergency, but the odd thing was people in Florida never were told this ....

Sam