On that day I was with a team of people in the Everglades doing water sampling in the canals west of Homestead and Florida City. The people in one of the trucks were listening to the radio as we drove from one sampling station to the next and heard what was happening. At first we weren't sure it was true (another Orson Wells "End of the World" story?) but eventually realized it was. Then the question was do we keep on sampling (was there really a need to?) or pack up and head back to Gainesville? After confirming the client (US Army Corps of Engineers) was not cancelling the project we decided to stay and finishing doing our work. Besides, we figured we were a lot safer on the back roads of the Everglades with no one else around than driving back on the Florida Turnpike!
We, Linda and I were living and working at AUTEC on Andros Island, Bahamas. My schedule that day was general Safety and Environmental base roaming. I stopped in the Contractor Administration Building to buy some cold water and saw some people gathered around a small TV the first plane had hit the first tower. I immediately went to my office to see if I had any messages from NUWC. I checked my email and saw where all Government Employees were dismissed UFN. I went back to my quarters and found the TV on and Linda setting on the couch looking very scared. We held on to each other and watched the rest of the attack unfold.