r/anchorage • u/MOA-ASM_MediaRoom • 4d ago
What was 9/11 like in Anchorage?
It’s been almost 50 years since the Municipality of Anchorage was established on September 16, 1975. Our local government – and our community – is younger than you’d think, yet we’ve come a long way in a short time.
For the next few weeks leading up to the 50th anniversary, let’s hear the stories of the good, the bad, and the wild here in Anchor Town.
Week 1 - Reminisce on years ending in “6”: 1976 / 1986 / 1996 / 2006 / 2016
Week 2 - Reminisce on years ending in "7": 1977 / 1987 / 1997 / 2007 / 2017
Week 3 - Reminisce on years ending in "8": 1978 / 1988 / 1998 / 2008 / 2018
Week 4 - Reminisce on years ending in "9": 1979 / 1989 / 1999 / 2009 / 2019
Week 5 - Reminisce on years ending in "0": 1980 / 1990 / 2000 / 2010 / 2020
Week 6 - We skipped because the President was in town. Sorry!
It's Week 7! Tell me a true story from the last fifty years in Anchorage that happened during a year that ends with “1”: 1981 / 1991 / 2001 / 2011 / 2021.
Featured Image from the Office of Emergency Management - I believe this is post-9/11 wildfire exercise. Big 2000s nostalgia.
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u/InternOne1306 4d ago
I remember watching the news that morning, and my parents sending me to school anyhow.
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u/biscuits-and-gravy 4d ago
My dad kept me home. He claimed he was worried about additional attacks, but tbh I think he just didn’t feel like driving across town.
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u/Ok-Hamster-1203 4d ago
As a school employee at the time, it seemed like we were on high alert. With the attacks in NY and DC and the unresponsive jet heading towards Anchorage, we didn't know what was happening. We were wondering if the whole country was under attack. I remember some administrators patrolling the school perimeter out of an abundance of caution in the morning. Pretty strange day. (year, decade)
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u/malachite_13 4d ago
I went to East in 2001 and I don’t remember ever saying the pledge before 9/11 and then saying it every day after 9/11.
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u/TXblindman 4d ago
Same, out in Chugiak. I just remember walking in the living room, looking up at the TV, and seeing the plane hit the tower on what must have been a replay by the time I woke up. was in like third grade so I don't even remember much about what school is like, I know my teacher joined the army at the end of the year though.
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u/TFdreamer92 4d ago
I think I was on my way to school when my mom and I heard it over the radio. I was like, 9 at the time, so I didn't really know what was going on.
It wasn't until like, 5 years later, or 10 years, that I saw an anniversary thing about it on National Geographic Channel, and I was able to understand the gravity of it all.
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u/----0___0---- 4d ago
Same, my dad drove me to school that day (uncommon) but I took my usual two people movers home.
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u/Rise_up_Dirty_Birds 4d ago
My aunt called my mom to wake us up and turn on the news at like 4 am, I definitely didn’t go to school that day.
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u/alaskadronelife 3d ago
I didn’t go to school because my extended family live in the city, so my mom woke me up after the first tower hit and I just continued on through the rest of the tragedy at home while trying to connect to any and all family in the area.
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u/MonkeyBrain3561 4d ago
It was eerily quiet with absolutely no aircraft noise except the occasional military aircraft. Lasted several days.
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u/907-Inquisitive 4d ago
Two friends of mine were dropped off by plane for a hunt. When the time came for them to be picked up, their plane was a no show and they had no idea why. They did notice the lack of air traffic and didn’t know what to make of it. Luckily they had enough food and water (beer) to sustain them for a few extra days. They had no means of communication. The pilot told them what happened.
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u/AKlutraa 4d ago
I (federal employee at the time) got the day off, so I went late season blueberry picking in Eagle River with a friend.
There were lots of F14s in the sky over Anchorage, nothing else, which was eerie, and I remember hearing later that hunters in the bush wondered why their air taxis weren't picking them up (this was before satellite communication via SPOT or InReach).
I went to NYU for my junior year of college and had been up the World Trade Towers many times, plus had friends and relatives in Manhattan, so it was pretty traumatic to see the destruction. My former neighbor's sister was an FA on the first plane to crash into the WTT. I can't imagine what it was like to be on your way from BOS to LAX, only to have your plane suddenly descend over NYC and turn into the tower.
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u/Poker-Junk 4d ago
Unsure - I was on the Slope
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u/Impossible_IT 4d ago
I was getting my 18 month old daughter ready for the baby sitter. Had the TV on and thought the jets hitting the first building was a trailer for a movie.
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u/Poultrygeist74 4d ago
I was working a swing shift, by the time I woke up around 9 everything had already happened. I heard Bob and Mark on KWHL talking about it, then I ran to the TV and was glued to it until I had to go to work. Running around that day everything seemed quiet except for the fighter jets circling.
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u/Top_Yesterday6965 4d ago
People here were pretty alarmed. There was a rogue plane as I recall that had to be escorted down by jets that morning. And when news of it got out a coworker of mine was running around our office like a chicken with her head cut off. We were in South Anchorage near 76th and King street in a two-story building. But by the way she was acting you would’ve thought we were in the Pentagon. My friend called me early that morning and woke me up and told me to go watch the TV. Seeing the twin towers coming down, it was clear that life would never be the same.
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u/jadawan 3d ago
I had an early class at UAA so I'd gotten up at like 5:00 a.m. to go study before my class started. I'm pretty sure my wife or a family member called me on my Nokia to let me know. As I was driving back going south on C Street I remember several F-14s flying directly overhead while I was listening to the news on the radio. With the rest of classes canceled for the day, it was an eerie feeling watching the news and listening to the F-14s periodically fly overhead.
This isn't my story but a coworker I had a few years later spoke about how on that day, they were flying back in from their cabin on the lake with their float plane, I think it was a Super Cub, and an F-14 slowed down enough to fly to their right. He could see the pilot through the cockpit and they pointed down indicating that he needed to land. I remember him saying how crazy that was since he didn't believe an F-14 could fly that slow. Haven't spoken to him in years. Makes me want to reach out and ask about the story again!
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u/Das_Bude 4d ago
Was working a night job at Northway mall, lived on Government Hill, got dropped off near and walked home near the A street bridge as traffic was backed up with everyone get called back to Elmendorf. Finally got to see the news after both towers had fallen, was surreal.
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u/AriPantz 4d ago
I was in the 6th grade. My parents had the news on, I didn’t quite understand the situation. My uncle lived in NYC at the time and was calling and giving us live updates. My parents dropped us off at school anyhow. My teacher had the news on the TV in class so we could watch live updates. If I remember correctly, the school sent students home early that day.
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u/Fine-Bed-9439 4d ago
The 176 Air Defense Squadron has a detailed history book of that day. They are watching the skies of Alaska right this minute.
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u/BelowAvrgDriver907 4d ago
Pretty Erie becuase it was a nice sunny day like it was in NYC & DC. Remember hearing jets fly over west side near, which is pretty uncommon.
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u/Macho_Ric_Hogan 4d ago
I was 19 and fell asleep on the couch the night before. I woke up and turned on the TV before the towers fell. I called my girlfriend and she rushed over, we all cried. I remember a friend of mine came in from the bush for Thanksgiving. He said he never saw any video of the attacks, only photos. What a time in history
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u/buckyworld 4d ago
I was up early to do my radio show and watched the 2nd plane lining up on final approach before the talking heads saw it. It was weird to do “comedy” that day. And yes, a few days of QUIET around town.
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u/pistonsnob 2d ago
Oooooooh, I gotta bite. What radio show?
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u/buckyworld 1d ago
when The End was on 87.7. The Morning Show with JJ & Bucky
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u/blissfully_happy 4d ago
The towers fell before most people were awake.
I spent the day fielding calls from stranded hunters via satellite phones who were confused why there was a no fly order. (I worked for fish & game.)
There was a big candlelight vigil held downtown.
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u/TraditionalManner582 3d ago
We were told to donate blood if we wanted to do something. So I did. I didn’t know what else to do. It was a very scary day. My in laws wouldn’t stop watching the same awful scenes all day long. I didn’t want my kids to see so we stayed downstairs.
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u/Electricalguro 3d ago
I was in fairbanks international waiting for a flight to Seattle with my kids when this happened.
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u/MrNewMoney 3d ago
I remember my mom being super freaked out saying they were going to send me to war. She’s not really the type to overreact that much, so it definitely rattled me a bit. Sent me to school anyway! 🤷🏻♂️
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u/megadots 3d ago edited 3d ago
Clocked in for work at the airport at 6:15AM. Hadn't heard a thing that morning, as my usual routine meant putting on a cd in the car to jam out and to help me wake up. When we assembled for our morning brief, we were told a plane had hit the WTC, that we were to only unload what cargo planes were already on the ground, clean up the ramp, and go home. We were also told to surround our ramp with the empty dollies and containers, which I thought weird but was like, whatever, also noticing that it was quiet. As the only TVs were upstairs in flight-ops and smart devices weren't a thing, we all just assumed it had a been a small leer jet or Cessna and shrugged it off thinking it was a crazy, stupid, or suicidal pilot, hoping he hadn't killed anyone.
When I came home later, my folks had the TV on. I walked in just as one of the planes hit the towers. Thinking they were watching a movie or something, I didn't interrupt, but when they showed the second tower getting hit - as the news was already in the cycle of repeating what was recorded - I finally asked, "What movie is this?"
My dad swore, said it was real and said something to the effect that they finally got us. It took a second to put two and two together when it finally clicked. Felt so fucking awful at that moment and couldn't believe it.
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u/Outrageous-Mood-4968 3d ago
My mom was in the Air Guard and I was 6. I only remember waking up and seeing my mom watching the TV, and she was just bawling. I had never seen her cry so hard before (1 of only a handful of times in life).
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u/Aksweetie4u 2d ago
I was walking to the school bus and my gramma (who was I think stuck in an airport coming back to Alaska) called my phone a bunch. I finally answered and she was freaked out thinking something happened to me.
Was in 6th grade - we sat in a dark classroom most of the day around the tv watching the news. My teacher was worried because her fiancé was going to get deployed out for it and I think they ended up getting eloped real quick so she would still be able to have contact with him.
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u/pistonsnob 2d ago
I was a freshman in high school, went to Dimond. I was also Mormon at the time, and right in the middle of seminary class (which started at 6am every single school day), my dad, who is not mormon and if anything was anti-religion, showed up and dragged me and my older sister out. Walking down the church hallway towards the exit, he told us that New York was under attack and we hadn't been able to get in touch with my uncle, who worked just a few blocks from the WTCs.
We drove back home hearing the uninformed radio DJs trying to piecemeal together some kind of news of what was happening, spewing misinformation about who could be attacking us, and word-of-mouth rumors spreading across the country.
When we got home, went to my parents' bedroom and saw my mom with her hand over her mouth, eyes glued to the television. It was about 6:30am, and the second tower had just collapsed.
Still no word from my uncle.
We get sent to school anyway, and my mom gives my sister the only cell phone my family had, one of those Nokia phones, a 3310, I think. Phones were nowhere near allowed at school, but we told our first period teachers the situation, and they allowed it just for that day.
Before my first class ended, my sister came to my class and pulled me aside. My uncle showed up at home in Brooklyn on his motorcycle hours after the collapse due to traffic, but he was covered in white ash and still in shock. He apparently got to his motorcycle and got it running just as the first tower collapsed.
Relieved he was fine, we went back to class.
All of the teachers did their best to press on with their scheduled lessons, but the air was heavy. During lunch, my friend Patrick and I went to our history teacher's classroom and he let us eat lunch there. He had a big TV that just barely got a scrambled signal of one of the TV stations which was running the news nonstop. We saw news footage of the burning buildings, the planes hitting the buildings, and news casters speculating about what was falling out of the buildings before they collapsed.
After school, I remember talking to my dad, who was laying on his bed with a somber look on his face, eyes glued to the TV. The newscasters said that all flights had been grounded and that there were still some commercial airliners in the sky.
I went outside and sat on my front steps for a while. We lived not far from the Anchorage International Airport, so it was uncanny to hear a mostly quiet sky. It was only unterrupted occasionally by fighter jets flying overhead. Otherwise, it was really quiet. Everyone was inside watching the news. Even though we were thousands of miles away, it felt like the country stood still.
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u/trickyracy20 4d ago
I remember I was a freshman at Bartlett and before school my friends mom came in and said the twin towers were hit in new York, then in first period TV's were brought in to show the towers on fire, I think the TV was shut off before they went down though.
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u/Syonoq 4d ago
Others can correct me here, it's been a long time. But I remember there was a Korean Air plane that was either transmitting a distress code or not responding. The Atwood and BP buildings downtown were evacuated and fighters were scrambled. Lots of misinformation that day. The plane was rerouted to Canada and was met by Mounties and deplaned safely and with no incidents.