Where Were You When the Towers Fell?

Tuesday is the 11th anniversary of the day the Twin Towers fell in New York City. The event left a mark on every American that day.

Here are a few memories from people in Broadneck who were touched by the tragic event.

“I remember it well. I was a firefighter at home while on vacation. I was still in bed when it all began. I got a phone call asking what was I doing, did I have the TV on. I turned it on right as the second plane hit. I was in shock as the rest of the world was. I went to my fire dept, which was Ronald Reagan National Airport. I made two trips to the Pentagon that day. I never got into the building, but, I did take medical supplies there and later was called on to take a Special Light Unit to the scene. I was on duty for close to four days.”

 -Wayne Snodderly, a retired firefighter, of Arnold

“I was Chief of Public Affairs, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, KY. My wife called me out of the shower to see video of the smoke & fire caused by the first plane that had struck the World Trade Center. I was saying out loud, "It's such a clear day, maybe the pilot (small plane) had a heart attack and the plane fell into the building...," as I watched live the 2nd plane hit the WTC. The next words out of my mouth was, "Terrorists!"

"I rushed to work and would spend the next 18 hours fielding endless media calls, attending classified meetings and reassuring my family that we were safe at Fort Campbell.

"Not realizing the fort would be locked down, my wife ran a short errand off post and was stuck in gridlock for 4 hours in sight of our quarters through the fence-line with a toddler, one diaper, 2 videos and $1.30 in the cup holder of the van.”

-Paul Fitzpatrick, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, of Arnold

“I was in Washington DC at my office at Capitol Hill. I was there when the two towers were hit and the Pentagon was hit. I guess my reaction was initially, ‘What a terrible accident.’ But when you saw the second one hit, you knew that this was not accidental. The anger that I felt was palpable.

"After that the Pentagon was hit. My partner was there, who was a retired marine, and it was all we could do to not go over there and do something. But there was not much that we could do.

"My reaction was fear, anger. I thought, ‘Now what do we do?’ And it was just a lot of unknowns. To reflect on where the world had gone when this kind of an event could happen, and to wonder what possessed the people who were behind this to come and do that.”

-Dick Ladd, Anne Arundel County Councilman for 5th District, of Broadneck

"On September 11, 2001, my husband was active duty Air Force and the Commander of the 47th Flying Training Wing at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio Texas. We had just arrived in Del Rio and I happened to be in Rick's office. The base was immediately locked down and the command center activated. We had a lot of close friends in the Pentagon, as well as family in Arnold and Long Island New York. I quickly realized that my husband's mission, our families future, and the future of our country was going to change."

-Elizabeth Rosborg, president of the Arnold Preservation Council, of Arnold

"On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was a 35-year old Cape mother of two young kids, ages two and almost four. My husband was in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center working on a proposal for his fledgling aerospace engineering company. I was headed to the Cape dance studio for my daughter's Tuesday morning ballet class.

I heard about the plane that flew into the first tower on the radio as I drove down to the shopping center. As us moms sat in the waiting area with our younger children, we learned about the second plane and began to get a sense of the bigger scope of the attacks. When news came in on the studio radio about the Pentagon and the possibility of another hijacked plane in the air, we all started to come a little bit unhinged. New York was bad enough, but DC? Way too close for comfort."

- Christy Roberts of Cape St. Claire

“I was at work in Washington D.C. I was able to see it on television. At first we were all thinking why did the plane crash in the 1st tower, and then we knew it was not an accident when the second tower fell. We were allowed to leave early, but by that time the streets of Washington D.C. were so filled with cars trying to leave D.C. I walked around my building and it was scary. It was the first time I saw armed federal security in the streets.”

-Serena Jim Boyd of Arnold.

What's your Sept. 11 memory? Tell us in the comments.