9/11, 9/11/2001, by Spencer Stoner

From MemoryArchive

Who: Spencer Stoner
What: The Pentagon Burns on September 11th
When: 9/11/2001
Where: Washington, DC

When I first heard about the towers, I thought it was a friend's bad joke. I had just started school in DC and was coming out of my Spanish class, when Micah ran up to me and told me that terrorists had attacked the pentagon and twin towers. I refused to believe him at first, but then he had me listen to his radio and there could be no doubt. Micah told me you could see the Pentagon burning from the top of the campus dorms, so I ran up there and instantly saw a massive pillar of black smoke rising from across the river. Cars and trucks on Key Bridge had stopped and people had begun to come out of their office buildings nearby in Rosslyn to see what was going on. Nobody knew anything except that there was another plane out there somewhere still. I tried calling my parents in Texas to tell them I was okay, but I couldn't get through because the network was too jammed. Everybody sat around crying and I was just stunned. Nobody knew what to do, whether to leave or to stay. I just ran back to my room, got my camera, took a couple of pictures, then spent the rest of the day transfixed by the television set. I didn't feel scared, just numb.