9-11.....Unfortunately I had a front row seat on history on September 11th 2001. I had retired from the Air Force 10 days earlier and was driving my daughter cross country in her car to Washington DC for an legal internship in the US Senate with John McCain for the fall semester of her last year in Law School. After seeing the country enroute we arrived at Boling Air Force Base in Washington DC on the night of Sept 10th 2001. We stayed that night in the Visiting Officers Quarters at Boling. The next morning when I walked out of our quarters, I saw the smoke plume rising from the Pentagon, a mile or two across the Potomac from where I stood. It was fresh...it had just hit. I well knew that some of my brothers in blood were casualties but there was little I could do in my new civilian status. The Air Force kicked into overdrive securing the base..as all the AF pentagon generals lived there. The US was under attack but we had business to do. I calculated the bad guys had taken their best shot and loaded up my daughter and commenced to getting her moved into her apartment downtown and locating the US Senate so she could start work the next day. We did it all in a city under seige...people were crying in the subways and streets and rumors were flying about what the next DC target would be.  I got stuck in DC for several days before I could fly out of Baltimore on an empty aircraft (business was bad). After the anthrax showed up in the senate I offered my daughter the opportunity to come home with honor. She declined, stuck it out and the rest is history. (A few days later I broke my back and the Air Force would not recall me to active duty)

 Vincent Leyendecker

Though I hesitate to give juice to unhappy occurrences, I think there are two events in our lifetimes that most folks remember all too well. Where were you when you heard of JFK's assassination and when 9-11 became known for what was really occurring?
The first; our family was newly moved into a house off base in Misawa, Japan. For whatever reason the image in my memory when the news came over American Armed Forces Radio is of the large oil burning heater with the humidifying pot of water on top next to the glass sliding doors framing the view of four feet of snow blanketing Tommysan's apple orchard outside....?
9-11; I was in Golden, B.C. with the Timber Framers Guild working on a new 150' span Burr Arch covered pedestrian bridge we were building for the town. We were at breakfast when news of the first plane crash arrived. We were perplexed. Paul Cooper, a pilot for Southwest Airlines and part time minister from Huffman, TX, recognized immediately that it was not an accident and led us in a group prayer for the victims. We decided to turn the TV off for the day and continue work as we had a deadline to meet with a crane arriving the next day. Amazing, and ultimately, mostly false, rumors provided by visitors to the site circulated all day and it wasn't until the evening that we became aware of the scope of events in the US that day. Of course, we were all effected in spite of the tremendous outpouring of condolence, solidarity and offers of help from the Canadians. One fellow left immediately for home as his brother worked in one of the towers and he could not contact him. Luckily, he was ok. Minorly, my return flight was delayed one day; but it was touch and go for awhile. 
Perhaps someone can suggest a positive world event that fixed a significant memory in our minds?
Ken, thanks for your efforts in getting this website up and going...somehow I feel more connected with everyone because of it.
Vincent

 Kenneth H. Pearce

Positive World Events: The first man to walk on the moon did so on July 20, 1969, the summer after we graduated from HS. I remember sitting riveted to the TV watching that event occur and then going outside to look at the moon where it was taking place. I also recall watching in the classroom many of the earlier US space launches and splashdowns that took place during elementary school hours--Gemini, then Apollo. I remember standing in line to get the polio vaccine in a sugar cube. WOW! What a decade!

Martha ("Martie") Cardenas Jacques

Karen Olsen Lebeter

Vincent - The day JFK got shot, I was sitting in history class at Eisenhower Jr. High. They turned on the P.A. and we were all confused (they didn't like radios playing at school). We were all stunned. Afterwards sitting in the gym on the bleachers with a huge bunch of girls, we all cried when one said, "How will she tell Caroline and John-john?" We also worried that Everyone would hate Texas.
I visited cousins in New Jersey June 1969, going into NY city twice and took the train to Washington, DC for an overnight trip. They hadn't built the twin towers yet (I think they may have been clearing ground). Now if I go back, they won't be there either. 
I was at home (Tacoma, WA)on 9/11 with my disabled husband, the TV was on. My son was 7 yrs old. We left the TV on all day.

The night of the first moon walk - I was at Tom Peterson's house with a huge number of people. Many of the adults were talking and drinking while most of us younger kids were sitting on the floor around the TV glued to the set. I was also a Trekkie back then. Now my younger son is also a Trekkie and watches the original Star Trek episodes on his computer.

I can remember a lot of large, wild parties out on his parent's ranch (when his parents weren't there). Wonder what ever happened to him?