Twenty-five years later, members of the G.I. Jobs community share the ordinary moments they still remember from an extraordinary day.

Earlier this week, we asked our community a simple question:

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

The answers came from classrooms and kitchens. From job sites, offices and military installations. From parents getting their children ready for school and people beginning what they thought would be an ordinary day at work.

Some watched the events unfold on television. Others heard the first reports over the radio.

Some were children themselves.

Some were military families who realized almost immediately that whatever came next, their lives were about to change.

Today, rather than tell the story ourselves, we wanted to share some of yours.

September 11, 2026, marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Nearly everyone who lived through that morning remembers where they were when the news reached them. For many Veterans and military families, the attacks also marked the beginning of a new era of service. Here are their stories.

Our Community Remembers 9/11

Lora

At work. A friend called to tell me about the first plane. While we were talking about it and hoping it was a tragic accident, I heard my friend gasp and cry out. Another plane had hit the other tower.

I will NEVER forget.

Hannah

I was in class. The teacher had the TV on and let us watch instead of doing work.

Some did their work. Some watched the TV. Some did both so their emotions wouldn’t be seen.

Amberly

I was 5, in kindergarten.

Now that I’m older, I never forgot. I do the stair climb every year now.

Paula

I was at home, still in bed. It was about 7 a.m. on the West Coast.

My son called and told me to turn on the TV.

It was so hard to get your head around what was happening. I felt so helpless.

Linda

I was at work installing avionics in a Cessna 206.

It came over the radio. Everyone on the assembly line started shutting down their air tools and listening.

We couldn’t believe what we were hearing.

Maryanne

I was teaching elementary school music. Grade three.

An aide came to my classroom door with a note containing the news.

It took all my strength to continue with the lesson without letting the children know that our country had suffered a massive attack.

Melinda

I was at work in Connecticut with a TV.

It was surreal. All in black and white.

That’s how I remember it.

It was an old TV.

Jessica

I was holding my newborn son while watching TV.

Kevin

I was eating cereal at the counter, about to get ready and drive to class in college.

I’ll never forget.

Bob

I was at a car dealer while my car was being serviced.

A lady from the office came out to the waiting room, turned the TV volume up and said a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Lisa

I was teaching sixth-grade art.

Their teacher came in and took me aside to tell me what had happened.

Laura

I was on my way to work when it was announced on a local radio station.

I missed the beginning of the story and thought a commuter plane had hit the World Trade Center in Baltimore. Little did I know the devastation that was ongoing.

I stayed at work watching the attacks on TV until the schools closed. I left and got my kids, took them home and continued to be glued to the TV.

I was in complete shock, waiting to hear from my brother, who was working in Washington, D.C.

John

I was at work.

A few miles down the road from the Pentagon.

Pam

I was working in a building across the street from the National Guard headquarters in Milford, Massachusetts.

I knew something was wrong when they put out the concrete barriers.

Then we found out what had happened through phone messages from people who were watching.

Kimberly

We had just been stationed in Southern Virginia.

My husband had duty the day before, and I wasn’t sleeping well, trying to get used to him not being home.

He called and told me to turn on the TV because a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.

As I turned it on, I watched the second plane hit.

You could hear the commotion in the background.

He said, “We are under attack,” and he had to go.

He couldn’t come home for several days.

I WILL NEVER FORGET.

Chris

I was at work.

They called us into a meeting and told the ones who had family members on flights to go home and wait for calls.

Susan

I was at work in Conshohocken when we heard the news.

We got out a 10-inch TV and started watching.

At the time, we had a daughter going to Columbia and a son who commuted daily to New York City.

Our daughter was safe.

Our son saw the second plane hit from the Greyhound bus he was riding in. The bus turned around and brought him back to the station.

Safe.

Sandra

I was working near Reading, Pennsylvania.

We watched everything on TV and then learned that people from our home office were on one of the planes.

Very sad day.

Deana

I had just dropped my kids off at school.

I turned around, picked them back up and kept them home for the next week.

Aida

I was on an airplane coming home to Florida when the pilot announced it.

Because I’m deaf, my husband wrote me a little note.

I started crying.

I still have the note, although my husband has since passed away.

A sad day for us.

Rachelle

I was in college in Manhattan that day.

We rushed to the nearest hospital to donate blood for all the people we expected would be seriously injured. A lot of people had the same idea, and the line stretched for blocks.

Eventually they turned us away because they were at capacity.

The news came in fits and spurts, so no one was quite sure what was happening.

My father was flying from JFK to London that day, and it took me ages to get through to my mom to find out if he was safe. We didn’t know which flights had been hijacked right away.

I remember seeing the smoke even from uptown.

And people just hugging strangers in the streets and crying.

The memories of that day are etched into my mind.

– – – – – – – –

For Veterans, September 11 Changed What Came Next

There are moments in history we remember through dates and photographs.

And then there are moments we remember through tiny details.

The cereal sitting on the counter.

The radio playing at work.

The television rolled into a room.

A phone call from someone telling us to turn on the news.

A note quietly handed to a teacher.

A child being picked up from school.

A husband calling from duty and saying, “We are under attack.”

September 11, 2001, is one of those days.

Today, we remember the 2,977 people who were killed in the attacks.

We remember the passengers and crews aboard the four flights. The people working in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The firefighters, police officers and other first responders who ran toward danger when every instinct must have told them to run the other way.

We remember the families who waited for phone calls that never came.

We also remember what came next.

The Americans who raised their right hands.

The service members whose careers and missions changed overnight.

The military families who learned what new deployments, new dangers and long separations would mean.

The Veterans who still carry pieces of that chapter with them today.

For an entire generation of Americans, September 11 became a dividing line between before and after.

Twenty-five years later, the stories are still worth telling.

Thank you to everyone in our community who trusted us with yours.

And today, we remember.