One of them was running late due to an early morning dental appointment and we were worried we'd miss our tee-off time.
The rest of us were standing around in my driveway waiting for him to show up.
In this part of Canada, summers are hot and tropically humid.
So a couple of guys got in their cars and turned their air conditioning on.
One of them heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into a building in New York City, so we all went inside to turn on the TV and see what had happened.
We were just in time to see live coverage of the 2nd plane hitting the WTC.
Right then, I knew Canada was at war.
The WTC was exactly that: A centre for World Trade. It was likely Canadians has died, too.
(And sure enough, dozens of Canadians were killed in the 9/11 attacks.)
That was an act of war against Canada. It was also an act of war against NATO.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the most powerful military alliance in human history.
NATO was invented by a Canadian diplomat named Escott Reid to counter Soviet aggression during the Cold War.
NATO's mutual defence treaty considers any attack on any NATO country to be an act of war against the whole NATO alliance.
The 9/11 attacks weren't just an assault on the USA, but all 28 NATO nations including Canada.
At the time, nobody knew how many flights might have suicide hijackers onboard.
Despite the risk, Canada took in literally hundreds of diverted domestic & international US flights when the US closed its airspace rather than let them run out of fuel and crash.
Only after all those people were safely on the ground did Canada close its own airspace:
Link - http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?La...
Link - http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/...
My buddies and I stood on my deck watching a sky convoy of passenger jets heading north and passing overhead as they headed for nearby airports in Toronto and Hamilton.
Afterwards, the only thing in the sky for a couple of days was a pair of Royal Canadian Air Force CF-188 fighters, which is a rare sight over this far south except at annual local air shows.
They're usually kept busy up north chasing away long-range Russian bombers flying reconnaissance missions over the North Pole or assisting NATO allies like Iceland that have no air force of their own.
Link - http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/national/...
Link - http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/26/...
(The Cold War may be over, but the Russian air force still practices trying to sneak its bombers into North American airspace and the Royal Canadian Air Force intercepts an average of 12 to 18 of those per year.)
It was a bizarre experience, one that hit home a few days later when I learned one of my childhood hockey heroes had been killed:
Link - http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2011/0...
(I still have the hockey card he autographed for me as a kid and will never sell it for any price.)
I was at my mother's house. I decided to turn on the television to watch a little CNN news. The first tower has already fallen, and the second tower fell a few minutes later. I was awestruck. It was such a surprise that it took me a few minutes to figure out what was happening. The World Trade Center had fallen. It was just so incredible that it was hard to believe. The tv stayed on the rest of the day.
i was at home watching cartoons, then all the tv channels, at the same time were focused on what happened in the united states (i'm italian). and i was really mad, given the fact that i was watching my favourite one :)
i was seven and at first i didn't realize that the "things" that were falling from the tower were human beings, until the journalist said so. few minutes later i shut off the tv, because i didn't want to hear any of this. that's all i remember from that day.
I was in my 3rd grade class taking a quiz on writing in cursive. We stood up and said the pledge of allegiance for the 2nd time that day and none of us knew why. I got home and saw burning buildings on the TV but since I was 7 I didn't really understand or care.
I was at work when one of my co-workers told me about it. I was surprised the WTC towers had been hit at the top and I felt bad about the people who were trapped in the buildings. I remembered it was like watching the movie.
Where were you when you found out about the attacks on 9-11? How did you react and what were your thoughts at the time?
I have to put together a group of testimonies, so I would be very greatful if anyone could answer. Thank you so much.
