For the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we asked readers to share their memories of that day.

Here are some of your stories:

A regular fall morning

I recall it was a beautiful fall morning, sunny skies, crisp air. I dropped my kids off at school and went home, turned on the TV and went into the kitchen. I read the newspaper and ate breakfast, totally oblivious to the news that was being relayed on TV. I got up from the kitchen table, turned off the TV, took a shower and headed out to pick up my youngest daughter from school at 11:15.

When I got in the car, I was confused as to why Howard Stern was still on WYSP at that time of day … usually his show was over by 10:30. I turned the radio off and drove to Jackson Elementary to meet her bus. Thinking back afterwards there was a weird silence standing there with all the other parents waiting for their children. The bus arrived and we got in the car and headed to downtown Allentown to pick up a package at the post office. As we approached 10th and Hamilton there were roadblocks everywhere. Police in riot gear and Army vehicles were everywhere. I remember starting to feel scared and immediately drove to my brother’s house a few blocks away.

As I pulled up behind his house, he came running outside with a look of terror on his face and said, “Can you believe this is happening?” I yelled, “What!?! What is happening?” He says, “What? you don’t know?!?” Nope, I had no idea.

I went inside his house and stared at the TV.

For the past three hours, I had no clue. I had no clue how different our world was going to be from that day on.

A cousin of a dear friend of mine died in one of the towers. Several years ago I found her name on the wall around the reflecting pools. I didn’t know her, but cried for the ridiculous, unnecessary loss thousands of families are going through.

— Debra Stevens, Alburtis

‘We’re at war’

I was already serving in the Army overseas when the attacks happened. I was a military police officer in Okinawa, Japan, and had just gotten off a 12-hour long typhoon shift (we worked during the storms). I was sitting in my barracks room about to log onto my computer to check in with my family in New York and happened to turn on the TV to Armed Forces Network. I saw the news and then watched long enough to see the second plane hit the second tower live. I messaged my family in New York on Yahoo Messenger, who lived about 45 minutes away from Manhattan, and told them about it, because they had no idea yet this was happening. One of the planes practically flew over their houses en route to the city.

About five minutes later, my squad leader came banging on my door, tossed me some body armor, told me “we’re at war” and said to report back to the arms room to draw weapons again for duty. I didn’t see my bed for another four days. I slept in patrol vehicles and on the MP station floor as I went from post to post locking down all the facilities the Army was responsible for on the island. The irony of all this is that we had been practicing “force protection” exercises for months prior to 9/11 after being told an attack was “imminent” but would likely be on overseas American assets. It wasn’t.

I grew up in what was essentially a bedroom community for NYC workers, especially police and firemen. I have several friends from high school who lost a parent or relative in the attacks. Whenever I visit any memorial, I look for their names. My local fire department, which was all volunteer and staffed heavily by current and retired FDNY guys, went to Manhattan as part of the recovery effort. They lost a lot of peers and friends that day. My brother, as a young volunteer firefighter, was included in those who volunteered for the recovery effort and he joined the  Marines about a year later, eventually deploying to Iraq. After I rotated back stateside while still in the Army around 2005, I also reenlisted in a military helicopter circling over the Ground Zero even before all the debris had been completely removed. It was something I will never forget.

— Michael Hawkins, Allentown

Stuck in D.C.

I was in Washington, three blocks from the White House attending a meeting. It was very scary. People were trying to get out of the city. Two lanes of traffic in each direction became four lanes of traffic trying to get out of D.C. Fighter jets were flying in the sky. You couldn’t use 911 … they encouraged you to use 211 if you had an emergency. I couldn’t get in touch with family to let them know I was safe, and they couldn’t call me … phones were blocked. There was a huge crowd of people at a nearby car rental business trying to rent a car.

I normally would always fly or take the train when traveling to D.C., but I had an engagement at a nearby city and decided to drive. It ended up being a good decision, as colleagues from around the country got stuck in D.C. for an extended period of time. It took me over nine hours to drive to Allentown. All bridges were blocked, so I was lucky to have someone from Scranton with me who could read a road map and was able to get us home safely. We were finally able to connect with family after we got out of the Maryland area. It was definitely a traumatic experience.

— Janis Geist, Allentown

No longer business as usual

I was a member of Allentown City Council at the time. The country was experiencing an exciting tech bubble, and I was leading an initiative to make Allentown a high-tech hub based on the amount of fiber-optic capacity available thanks to the advanced technologies of PPL and Service Electric.

The morning of Sept. 11, a group of us involved in the project were meeting in a conference room at Service Electric at 9 a.m. The first plane hit the towers while I was in the car. I had no idea what had happened. The conference room had a giant television screen. I walked into the room to see the north tower burning. At that time, everyone thought it was an accident. We muted the sound and began the meeting just as the second tower was hit. We all knew then it was no accident. It was difficult to assemble our group of VIPs because of everyone’s schedule, so we decided to try to continue the meeting.

And then the south tower fell.

I remember saying, “We’re sitting here watching thousands of people die.” We left immediately. I checked in at City Hall to see if there was anything I could do. Later, we sent our own first responders to help at the World Trade Center site.

The next month I went into the city, and because of my position as a city councilor from a city that had sent volunteers, I was given access to a special viewing platform overlooking the cleanup. The debris was still giving off faint wisps of smoke, and the smell was something I’ll never forget. In addition to the horror of the debris piles, so many neighboring buildings were in ruins. It all looked like a combination of a war zone and hell.

— Pamela Varkony, Allentown

A change in job plans

I was driving from the Lehigh Valley to northern N.J. to orient for a new job. As I was driving east on 78, I could see the smoke and I had the radio on so I knew what was happening. When I got to the office I was assigned to, most of the staff had loved ones working in the city. Orientation was suspended and I returned home on I-80. There was no traffic except for a line of ambulances going toward NYC. I couldn’t call my husband because the cell towers were out. I was a bit freaked out until I got home. I never took that job, too much bad mojo.

— Mary Ann Amole, Bethlehem

Song supports 9/11 heroes

I like most people remember where we were and what we were doing on Sept. 11, 2001. Someone interrupted a meeting with the news that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. We all thought it was a tragic accident. When the second tower was hit, we all knew it was no longer an accident. After that everything stopped and for the rest of the day everyone was glued to a television to find out what was happening. No one thought or talked about anything else for days. It was reminiscent of the day that President Kennedy was assassinated.

About three years ago I decided to write a song to continue the memory of the tragic day and use the song to help support the needs of past and present heroic first responders, military personnel and their families through the Tunnel to Towers foundation. The song “Remember 9/11” is now posted on the Facebook page entitled “Remember 9/11 the song” and popular music steaming sites with a link to donate to Tunnel to Towers.

— John Sadowski, Slatington

‘The last ones to remember’

It was still the beginning of the school year, only the fifth day of my senior year at Northampton Area High School. At the end of third period music theory class, my band director came in and told us that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and in D.C. Next period was AP English, which carried on undisturbed, but every class for the rest of the day we just watched the TV. After-school activities were canceled. The next day at marching band practice, a plane flew by, and I remember we all just watched it. Over the next few days I remember being aware even then that I was part of the youngest generation to consciously experience it, and that in the future we’d be the last ones to remember it.

— Becky Herd, Walnutport

Crying tears of anxiety

As an instructional designer, I was hired to observe how a Sears employee taught HVAC repair work to a group of male HVAC employees. My task was to refine the course so that it meet core learning objectives. In the middle of class on Sept. 11, one of the men’s wives blew open the classroom with an hysterical announcement about planes flying into buildings and that the news of this was on the television. My first reaction was to tell her to leave while others jumped out of their chairs to go to the nearest television. I knew, after seeing the news reels, that the class was over. The instructor thought we could just continue with class. Needless to say, everyone was on their phones calling their loved ones and making plans to get back to their home base. Of course, all flights were grounded and all rental cars were already rented. A bunch of the men rented a pickup truck to get back to their eastern seaboard homes. Meanwhile, I was stuck in an Orlando hotel for days until the flights resumed and I could get back to Chicago. So, I watched the news, checked in with my family, and waited.

I thought I was a model of calm until I checked in for my flight with a ticket agent at the airport and started crying tears of anxiety. It was embarrassing but an honest reaction to a terrible attack.

— Kathryn Ranieri, Bethlehem

Memories of the twin towers

I was working in N.J. at the time, at a company with 50 people or so, and that morning we had 11 people flying to Chicago for a conference, all out of Newark-Liberty airport. It was a nightmare of relatives calling to see where their loved ones were, and panic for those with family and loved ones working in Lower Manhattan. Fortunately, everyone landed safely, but it took many days for our employees to get home from wherever their flights ended up. I hope I never, ever have to experience such tragedy ever again. In Northern N.J., we all knew someone who was there, whether they got out or not. Just writing this brings out so many emotions.

I remember the towers being built. I lived at Exit 12 of the N.J. Turnpike, Carteret. At that time, the financial district on Sunday mornings was a ghost town. My dad would take us into the city, go to the top of the towers, and take pictures. He loved it, and it is a memory from my childhood that will stay with me forever. Later in life, I visited the towers for work meetings, and still have my ID from when I visited four months before the attack.

— Diane Fetzer, Coopersburg

The first news of that terrible day

I remember that morning of the attack on the World Trade Center. I was a receptionist at Muhlenberg College with a mother making an appointment for her student to visit the college. Out of nowhere she is screaming into the phone, yelling, “Oh my God, oh my God.” I asked if she was OK and she was screaming that an airplane flew into one of the towers and burning. She saw it happen from her home in N.J. and hung up her phone. I immediately asked a co-worker if he had a radio in his office and get on the N.Y. news about a plane crashing into the tower.

When my boss arrived and asked him to go the president’s floor to see if he had a TV in his office to watch the N.Y. news. I was the only one in the office with the first news of that terrible day.

— Rosemarie Missmer, Allentown

‘Pray for the world’

I was 7 years old and in the second grade at William Penn Elementary School in Bethlehem. My mother walked me the one block to school, which started at 8:50 a.m., and she told me that she would be there at the 3:25 dismissal to pick me up and then we would drive over to Northeast Middle School, to watch my older sister’s first middle school volleyball game. 3:25 came and as I walked out of the school, I saw both my mother and my sister — who was dressed in her uniform — there to pick me up and I was immediately confused.

During the short one block walk home, my sister told me “the game was canceled because of everything that’s going on.” I had no idea what she was referring to, which is when my mother said, “There’s just some very bad people, who did some very bad things, because they don’t like us, our country, or our way of life.” I was even more confused until we arrived home, and I saw the endless coverage on 6ABC, CBS3 and NBC 10. We were a big ABC family, and I recognized the World Trade Center from “Regis and Kathie Lee/Kelly” showing it when they’d say the time and temperature, or from cut scenes during “Friends.” We only had one television in the house at that time so watched a lot of adult programming even at 7. One of the networks showed video from over in the Palestinian territories where citizens were celebrating and dancing in the streets and burning American flags, happy over the horror I was seeing on the screen. I couldn’t understand it and that was the first time I felt scared.

My father was working overtime at the Just Born candy factory, so when the “phone tree” of Sts. Simon & Jude was activated, and our house received a call that there would be prayer service at the church at 6 p.m. I remember going into the dimly lit, quiet church, and kneeling down in a pew beside my mother and sister and after praying for the obvious things like the dead, the injured and their families, I really didn’t know what else to do or say. I tapped my mom and said “I don’t know what else to pray for.” She simply replied back “Pray for the world.” Now, 25 years later that statement still gives me chills as our world has changed so much since then.

We watched the news coverage all night. School was a beehive of activity with second graders not fully aware of everything. I can remember being annoyed at classmates who were saying inaccurate facts. The nerve of me. Maybe their parents didn’t permit them to watch all the coverage. Anyway, I have always been curious about news and facts, and I thought this memory was something I made up. Fast forward about 15-20 years later I am at Musikfest, and I run into my second grade teacher Joanne Jones and she asked me if I ever became a journalist because she’ll never forget thinking to herself, “How am I to explain all of this tomorrow to a classroom of second graders?” but that she didn’t need to as I was correcting everyone’s statements and inaccuracies for her!

— David Krauss, Bethlehem

B. Braun supplied NYC hospitals

I was the distribution manager for B. Braun in the Lehigh Valley at the time of the 9/11 attack 25 years ago.

We supplied many hospitals in NYC from our distribution facility in Breinigsville with lifesaving materials on a daily basis.

When the planes hit the Twin Towers that fateful morning, our entire office and warehouse staff immediately sprang into action in order to get our life saving materials to those hospitals.

Due to the lockdown that was immediately placed in the entire city and the closing of both the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel, I had to coordinate permission with all of the proper city, state and federal authorities in order to have one of our 45-foot tractor-trailers go over the George Washington Bridge and down the streets of NYC.

The only driver for the job was an excellent private fleet driver who was in our military and in Kuwait at the time of Desert Storm, Mike Weber.

After hours of coordination, picking, stacking, wrapping and loading pallets of our lifesaving materials for four different hospitals in the surrounding area of the Twin Towers, Mike set off in the late afternoon in order to save the lives of any and all survivors.

As Mike later reported to me, the entire city was like an empty darkened combat zone with flashing red traffic lights on every corner and no one on the streets other than the military and police at numerous checkpoints.

When Mike finally made his way to the hospitals, it became readily apparent to him that there were no survivors — and the hospitals were being used as morgues. As a result, he made his deliveries throughout the evening and into the night with a heavy heart.

— Robert K. McFadden, Upper Macungie Township