Prefacing this with it being a serious discussion, so please keep memes and kiis out of this thread.

I appreciate there are a fair amount of ATRLers who were not old enough to remember 9/11 properly. However, on the eve of 25 years later and having gone down rabbit holes of past Internet forums and live reactions, I'm curious what other members who were cognizant of what was going on at the time remember.

I still remember it being like almost out of a movie. I was 8 years old at the time, and I could tell in real time that nothing would be the same again. It was horrific. No one knew what was going on that day, and it was hours before it felt like it was "over".

That event permeated the rest of my childhood and the politics at large in the US. It really was the true beginning of the modern era. Nothing was ever the same.

Curious what other ATRLers remember from that day and what stories you all have to share.

I was in 4th grade. I was about to take a science test. Then I got called to the office. My parents were there to pick me up. Walking to the office I could see teachers kinda whispering and shuffling and I had no idea what was going on until my mom told me when I got in the car. She had walked into the living room and my dad had the TV on right as the second tower got hit. She asked him what movie he was watching and he said "no this is the news" so she immediately said "we're going to get the kids NOW"

We had the news on the TV for the rest of the night because we had family and friends in the city and wanted to make sure nothing else was coming. Of course they played replays all day of the footage and I remember not believing something like that could actually happen. I also remember how serious it truly was because when I'd come home from school I'd listen to the radio or turn on the tv, and almost every radio and tv station was broadcasting some sort of news coverage that day.

Obviously the fallout afterwards was felt. It truly felt like the america we knew and loved died that day and we entered a much darker era. even at my young age i could feel the shift. The biggest one I remember being no longer being able to escort your family members to their gate at the airport.

I also remember all the benefit concerts and songs. I was listening to one the other day that had all the pop girls on it. obviously terrible circumstances for it to happen but still pretty iconic to hear beyonce and britney duetting and all the a-list talent at the time on one song

Edited September 11Sep 11 by yonsé

I also fell down rabbit holes but for things that feel too insensitive to mention. My heart still goes to all the victims, especially the ones who had to choose between two equally awful ways to leave this world.

Edited September 11Sep 11 by GentleEarthquake

I remember that day like it was yesterday and I was just an 11 year-old arriving from school when I just sat in front of the TV for hours to see the craziness. The next day at school, everyone was only talking about it. I definitely felt a shift everywhere and the world was not the same place again after that event....

I remember that for about 2 weeks our television program was just that and nothing else.

Scary times.

I cannot imagine the pain and suffering of the victims and their families... The scariest part for me personally was seeing people jumping out of the windows into their deaths. Father and mothers, sisters and brothers, friends who just went to work, had their lives ahead of them and then the planes hit and your situation was either to burn to death or jump out of the window and some jumped.

Unimaginable.

I have this somewhat morbid fascination with this, absolutely horrible act. I don't know if my memories are even mine or just what I've been told before. I was 10 days away from turning 4, I remember being at my mom's work (an elementary school) and all the teachers in the computer room which was the only room with a TV at the time and watching the news that a plane had crash.

They sent us home early from school. I remember it being the first time we ever saw that level of violence on television (at least that I can remember).

It kind broke that so called "safety bubble" and the world was never the same afterwards.

Kind of crazy to re-read forums like this again, where people were live posting.

https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=105795

I was very young when it happened (I was 3) but the images of the burning towers were so vivid that it entered my subconscious at such a young age without even knowing what it was about.

It was nighttime in the Philippines during 9/11 and from what I could remember was that my parents were watching the television up until midnight (which I thought was unusual because they usually put me to bed at around 10pm but for that night they were so focused on the tv that they forgot to put me to sleep).

Obviously I didnt understand what the hell was happening as a 3 year old but I could strongly remember the images of the towers burning. Those images were so memorable and imprinted on my young mind that they would often appear in the nightmares that I would had as a child (which often revolve around me being scared of a fire or a loud sound and looking for my parents). It wasnt until I was in middle school (so late 2000s- early 2010s) that I only realized that the images that became a fixture of my deepest fears were from the 9/11 attacks.

It was a really haunting thing. The videos don't do justice to what it felt like to witness it live happening that day.
It will live forever in my memory and september to me is always associated with that even if i been trying to erase that association
I was able to watch everything unfold live. I was in 4th grade. 8-9 years old kid
That day i remember not havin school? or arriving very early?
I don't think my southamerican country had ever been so completely paralyzed by the news-any of our news as it was that day.
To me that was the most impactful event of the world back then.....then covid happened

I think what impacted me the most was seeing all the desperate people jumping from the buildings, along with that huge cloud of dust-debris and people running through the streets to save themselves. The noise of the collapse. The people trapped waving for help near to the fires
Just got tears in my eyes writing about this. The sufferin the people went through that day. Very horror-esque

A day I will never forget. RIP to all those beautiful souls from all over the world-all nationalities in those airplanes-skyscrappers-el pentagono. 🕊️

This should also be a reminder to certain groups and communities in the West-USA to stop glamorizing terrorist organizations-violent insurgent groups. I'm from South America, from a country that has experienced violent terrorist groups their whole story, and trust me: they are not your friends even if they have the "fighting for the people" facade. These groups are driven by bloodshed, evil, destruction and a thirst for power. Sometimes people think is all games and fun till they experience the threath itself and theyre bombed,kidnapped,chopped into pieces. They would kill you with no remorse. Their god is Death.
Dont quote this last paragraph. Just take my advice. thanks.

9/11 was definitely a day that changed the history of the entire planet and shaped how things would unfold over the following decades.
Here the pic of the anti-osama bin laden operation.

Edited September 11Sep 11 by AvadaKedavra

america kill the same amount of people each day on their "wars" so i don't really give af

On 9/11/2026 at 12:41 PM, MonsterJohn said:

america kill the same amount of people each day on their "wars" so i don't really give af

And none of the people who died on 9/11 were responsible for that just as the majority who've died in the fall out were not responsible for 9/11.

It is indeed possible to hold space for both the countless innocents who have died in the middle east as a result of America's unjustified conquesting and monstrous bloodlust and for the people who showed up to work one morning and never came home.

Don't address your anger toward the people who never lived to see an invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan or hear of something called al-Queada or know a world in which Islam and it's practitioners are so vilified and hated. Address it toward the people who decided the best way to "honor" those people was to kill a bunch of other people who had nothing to do with those people's deaths.

It's hard to describe to those who weren't there...but it was like the whole world literally paused. The videos and images were everywhere and the anniversaries were honoured even here in the UK with minutes of silence for years in schools.

It was also only a few weeks after the death of Aaliyah and so it was quite sombre watching music video channels for the next year as there were so many tributes to Aaliyah, 9/11 and then in 2002 Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez running concurrently. "More than a Woman" and "Rock the Boat" were played HEAVILY and I remember the "More than a Woman" video had a tribute to her passing at the end.

It was the first instance as a child of seeing someone you idolised pass suddenly and unexpectedly. Then 9/11 happened and it was just this universal sense of grief and anguish that hadn't really been seen since Princess Diana's passing in 1997 (also in August, like Aaliyah's).

On 9/11/2026 at 5:41 PM, MonsterJohn said:

america kill the same amount of people each day on their "wars" so i don't really give af

Such a tacky post.

23 hours ago, Mr. Mendes said:

And none of the people who died on 9/11 were responsible for that just as the majority who've died in the fall out were not responsible for 9/11.

It is indeed possible to hold space for both the countless innocents who have died in the middle east as a result of America's unjustified conquesting and monstrous bloodlust and for the people who showed up to work one morning and never came home.

Don't address your anger toward the people who never lived to see an invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan or hear of something called al-Queada or know a world in which Islam and it's practitioners are so vilified and hated. Address it toward the people who decided the best way to "honor" those people was to kill a bunch of other people who had nothing to do with those people's deaths.

Americans have since decades voted for war monger goverments and turn their heads away from all the disgusting war crime America inflicts on many countries. On top of that, you guys keep voting for no universal healthcare, no gun control so kids can keep being shot in school, restrict basic rights of woman, LGBT+. You guys clearly do not value human life so why should I feel pity for americans?
Don't play innocent and put all the blame on the goverment only, bunch of low educated, obese and selfish people thinking their country is the best

Edited September 14Sep 14 by MonsterJohn

5 hours ago, MonsterJohn said:

Americans have since decades voted for war monger goverments and turn their heads away from all the disgusting war crime America inflicts on many countries. On top of that, you guys keep voting for no universal healthcare, no gun control so kids can keep being shot in school, restrict basic rights of woman, LGBT+. You guys clearly do not value human life so why should I feel pity for americans?
Don't play innocent and put all the blame on the goverment only, bunch of low educated, obese and selfish people thinking their country is the best

It wasn't just Americans who died.

I think the collective trauma of watching 3,000 people burning alive on TV has never really been addressed and continues to impact people today.

On 9/13/2026 at 1:37 AM, Mr. Mendes said:

And none of the people who died on 9/11 were responsible for that just as the majority who've died in the fall out were not responsible for 9/11.

It is indeed possible to hold space for both the countless innocents who have died in the middle east as a result of America's unjustified conquesting and monstrous bloodlust and for the people who showed up to work one morning and never came home.

Don't address your anger toward the people who never lived to see an invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan or hear of something called al-Queada or know a world in which Islam and it's practitioners are so vilified and hated. Address it toward the people who decided the best way to "honor" those people was to kill a bunch of other people who had nothing to do with those people's deaths.

So either Americans are accountable to their "democratic" government's actions and leaders or the US is in fact a dictatorship of Zionist capitalists…

You can't hold equal space for a small day of loss of civilian life and the everyday horrors this country and yes, its own people, inflict on the rest of the world. This is why the rest of the world (outside of Eurolib American bootlickers atleast) and even younger generations who grew up in a state of constant US overt imperialism, war, and genocide collectively roll their eyes at this country's selective outrage over 9/11

6 hours ago, Gov Hooka said:

So either Americans are accountable to their "democratic" government's actions and leaders or the US is in fact a dictatorship of Zionist capitalists…

You can't hold equal space for a small day of loss of civilian life and the everyday horrors this country and yes, its own people, inflict on the rest of the world. This is why the rest of the world (outside of Eurolib American bootlickers atleast) and even younger generations who grew up in a state of constant US overt imperialism, war, and genocide collectively roll their eyes at this country's selective outrage over 9/11

Look friend I agree with you on a lot. Most of what you say is spot on, and I'm right there with you.

But there is nothing that will ever make me believe that any of those men, women, and literal children (who cannot possibly ever be expected to answer for anything their government does as literal children) deserved to die, especially the way that they did. They didn't deserve it any more than you and I do for what our country is doing now.

I don't believe in collective punishment, and I do not believe that average citizens should have to die because of what their leadership does. It is that exact mindset that is getting Palestinians killed behind the excuse of Hamas being a "terrorist organization."

I was 9 months old when 9/11 happened so I certainly do not have any emotional attachment to it. I grew up in the era/generation that you speak of as the unjustifiable wars in the middle east raged, and like you (I hope anyway) am sickened by it and what we did. Yes I roll my eyes at the selective outrage.

That does not mean I cannot also believe that no one who died on that day was deserving of what happened to them, not least of all at the hands of al-Queda, a group who also delighted in killing people in the middle east and did absolutely nothing to help the region due to their leadership's own selfishness. Bin Laden was no freedom fighter and he didn't really care at all about the plight of Muslims in the middle east under US hostility. All he cared about was power and fear, and he was all too happy to kill the same people he claimed to be fighting for to get that power.

That does not mean that I cannot hold sympathy in my heart for people who died in a horrific way for things that they did not do and actions they never lived to see take place.

I respect you far too much to argue with you so please let's not get into this and accept that we have a different view on this topic despite the same views on others.

Edited September 15Sep 15 by Mr. Mendes

21 hours ago, MonsterJohn said:

Americans have since decades voted for war monger goverments and turn their heads away from all the disgusting war crime America inflicts on many countries. On top of that, you guys keep voting for no universal healthcare, no gun control so kids can keep being shot in school, restrict basic rights of woman, LGBT+. You guys clearly do not value human life so why should I feel pity for americans?
Don't play innocent and put all the blame on the goverment only, bunch of low educated, obese and selfish people thinking their country is the best

You're treating America as one giant collective of likeminded individuals who're in idealogical lockstep with one another when it isn't. It hasn't been that for a long, long time, if ever.

Many millions of Americans want universal healthcare and have fought decades for it. Many millions of Americans are extremely against this country's military industrial complex and have exercised every option available to them to push against it, and continue to even in the face of resistance and censorship Many millions of Americans despise the atrocities we commit in the world every single day and do everything that they can to try and stop it.

There are very loud, evil people in this country who are exactly as you describe and I despise them with every fiber of my being. But that is not all of us. It never has been. Many of us are just as sick and tired of the US bullshit as you are, and try every goddamn day to put an end to it.

Unfortunately we cannot snap our fingers and undo two and half centuries of garbage in an instant. It's a long, slow fight that many are trying to fight and hanging on despite the very systems we're trying to dismantle pushing back on us at every turn.

On 9/14/2026 at 4:15 PM, Gov Hooka said:

So either Americans are accountable to their "democratic" government's actions and leaders or the US is in fact a dictatorship of Zionist capitalists…

You can't hold equal space for a small day of loss of civilian life and the everyday horrors this country and yes, its own people, inflict on the rest of the world. This is why the rest of the world (outside of Eurolib American bootlickers atleast) and even younger generations who grew up in a state of constant US overt imperialism, war, and genocide collectively roll their eyes at this country's selective outrage over 9/11

This is an image of 6th graders who were on board the hijacked plane. They were excited to be selected for the National Geographic ecology conference that they were going to. This was the last image before they boarded the flight.

There were other young people that died that day, some babies also. Tell me, how was it their decision that caused 9/11?

There were also many people who weren't even American who died that day in fact, over 100 countries had citizens who perished. Many of those people were immigrants.

On 9/14/2026 at 10:21 PM, Mr. Mendes said:

Look friend I agree with you on a lot. Most of what you say is spot on, and I'm right there with you.

But there is nothing that will ever make me believe that any of those men, women, and literal children (who cannot possibly ever be expected to answer for anything their government does as literal children) deserved to die, especially the way that they did. They didn't deserve it any more than you and I do for what our country is doing now.

I don't believe in collective punishment, and I do not believe that average citizens should have to die because of what their leadership does. It is that exact mindset that is getting Palestinians killed behind the excuse of Hamas being a "terrorist organization."

I was 9 months old when 9/11 happened so I certainly do not have any emotional attachment to it. I grew up in the era/generation that you speak of as the unjustifiable wars in the middle east raged, and like you (I hope anyway) am sickened by it and what we did. Yes I roll my eyes at the selective outrage.

That does not mean I cannot also believe that no one who died on that day was deserving of what happened to them, not least of all at the hands of al-Queda, a group who also delighted in killing people in the middle east and did absolutely nothing to help the region due to their leadership's own selfishness. Bin Laden was no freedom fighter and he didn't really care at all about the plight of Muslims in the middle east under US hostility. All he cared about was power and fear, and he was all too happy to kill the same people he claimed to be fighting for to get that power.

That does not mean that I cannot hold sympathy in my heart for people who died in a horrific way for things that they did not do and actions they never lived to see take place.

I respect you far too much to argue with you so please let's not get into this and accept that we have a different view on this topic despite the same views on others.

Nah you can't make blatant mischaracterizations and then say "let's not get into it." You are literally putting words in my and that users mouth because we refuse and truly don't care to get into the sympathy theater and trauma propaganda around 9/11 this horrific country and a good majority of its complicit complacent population get into every year.

Literally No one is saying or implying what you're writing in bold, or the ridiculous irrelevant tangent you went on after.

but because sooo many Americans (who can still claim to be against the actions of the gov/military/society supported and upheld by the Us populace) still can't actually truly put into scale one single day of death they had to face versus the MAGNITUDES GREATER amount of death and destruction the US imposes on the rest of the world (and its own marginalized populations lest we forget the US gov slaughtering Lakota natives en masse or Bombing black neighborhoods in Philly), anything other than an ostentatious pity parade is seen as saying the "US deserved it."

then the audacity to analogize it to the victims of decades of genocide and ethnic cleansing. My guy, Americans ARE the settlers and imperialists who are going to be resisted against often in violent ways as a result of the blowback of the violence this country INITIATES. Just like the violence that Israel INITIATES. You cant decontextualize violence into some abstract notion of "all human life matters" when citizens in this country are all taxpayers and often participants in the far greater violence we export abroad.

My heart doesn't ache for the American victims who number in the thousands as a result of their tacit complicity in the actions of their gov. It aches truly far greater for the millions of folks in the Middle East and global south who truly didn't ask for any of the US's bombs to fall on their houses, on their fishing boats, on their elementary schools…

And this post goes towards @Tropez too. Miss me with the same False characterization. I can literally pull up a video of the wedding being bombed in Iran two weekends ago and the child who was bombed yesterday in a double tap strike in Gaza, not to mention the millions of more photos. Hold the American gov responsible rather than laundering their atrocity propaganda.

Edited September 16Sep 16 by Gov Hooka

On 9/14/2026 at 10:32 PM, Mr. Mendes said:

You're treating America as one giant collective of likeminded individuals who're in idealogical lockstep with one another when it isn't. It hasn't been that for a long, long time, if ever.

Many millions of Americans want universal healthcare and have fought decades for it. Many millions of Americans are extremely against this country's military industrial complex and have exercised every option available to them to push against it, and continue to even in the face of resistance and censorship Many millions of Americans despise the atrocities we commit in the world every single day and do everything that they can to try and stop it.

There are very loud, evil people in this country who are exactly as you describe and I despise them with every fiber of my being. But that is not all of us. It never has been. Many of us are just as sick and tired of the US bullshit as you are, and try every goddamn day to put an end to it.

Unfortunately we cannot snap our fingers and undo two and half centuries of garbage in an instant. It's a long, slow fight that many are trying to fight and hanging on despite the very systems we're trying to dismantle pushing back on us at every turn.

Also the victims of US/Western imperialism have every ******* right to despise the populations in the imperial core for their lack of inaction while they in the global south engage in true movements of resistance to the US military and their proxies over the course of decades. To quote norm Finkelstein, "I wouldn't dare question my parents' undying hatred of Germans" and in a similar manner, USians need to actually sit with what their country has really done to this world. I'm just now finding out that We literally murdered 1 million Filipinos (and carpet bombed several of their villages) when we colonized that country after the Spanish American War, another blatant display of this country's deplorable history. Is the hatred misguided, sure? Is it entirely irrational, hell no. This whole "well not allll Germans, well not alll Japanese, well not allll Israelis, well not allll Southerners" argument is frankly an insult to the people who have legitimate grievances against the USA. Rest in the feelings of discomfort and use it to fuel your continued resistance to what this government and its supportive population continue to do abroad and at home.

Edited September 16Sep 16 by Gov Hooka

I live in south america so I didn't feel any sense of impending doom but of course I was still a kid. I remember my sister waking me up because the first plane had hit the north tower. She was also a kid so she called it the "Empire State Building" instead of the Twin Towers. I also remember the 2nd plane hitting and then when they collapsed. I was still on my summer vacation so when I went back to school like a week later, the 9-11 attack was the first thing that the other kids started to talk about. It's like everyone had been waiting for school to start to mention it.

Something else I remember is that I watched a lot of cable TV back then and so many channels were showing the live footage, not just the news channels. Even MTV was talking about it.

Edited September 16Sep 16 by Glam

2 hours ago, Gov Hooka said:

Nah you can't make blatant mischaracterizations and then say "let's not get into it." You are literally putting words in my and that users mouth because we refuse and truly don't care to get into the sympathy theater and trauma propaganda around 9/11 this horrific country and a good majority of its complicit complacent population get into every year.

Literally No one is saying or implying what you're writing in bold, or the ridiculous irrelevant tangent you went on after.

but because sooo many Americans (who can still claim to be against the actions of the gov/military/society supported and upheld by the Us populace) still can't actually truly put into scale one single day of death they had to face versus the MAGNITUDES GREATER amount of death and destruction the US imposes on the rest of the world (and its own marginalized populations lest we forget the US gov slaughtering Lakota natives en masse or Bombing black neighborhoods in Philly), anything other than an ostentatious pity parade is seen as saying the "US deserved it."

then the audacity to analogize it to the victims of decades of genocide and ethnic cleansing. My guy, Americans ARE the settlers and imperialists who are going to be resisted against often in violent ways as a result of the blowback of the violence this country INITIATES. Just like the violence that Israel INITIATES. You cant decontextualize violence into some abstract notion of "all human life matters" when citizens in this country are all taxpayers and often participants in the far greater violence we export abroad.

My heart doesn't ache for the American victims who number in the thousands as a result of their tacit complicity in the actions of their gov. It aches truly far greater for the millions of folks in the Middle East and global south who truly didn't ask for any of the US's bombs to fall on their houses, on their fishing boats, on their elementary schools…

And this post goes towards @Tropez too. Miss me with the same False characterization. I can literally pull up a video of the wedding being bombed in Iran two weekends ago and the child who was bombed yesterday in a double tap strike in Gaza, not to mention the millions of more photos. Hold the American gov responsible rather than laundering their atrocity propaganda.

I 100% get where you are coming from. I don't connect with your idea that every American is at fault for 9/11 when children died. I just don't think children deserve to die regardless of what country they are from. No child's life is worth less or more than another. So I don't get why that is disconnecting with you. How are children at fault here when they can't even vote?