I had a similar experience. I was in the Army and had just completed a 24 hour duty at about the same time the first tower was hit. I was finally about to get s

I had a similar experience. I was in the Army and had just completed a 24 hour duty at about the same time the first tower was hit. I was finally about to get some sleep when there was a pounding on my barracks room door. I spent the next 24 hours on guard duty. Quite a long day. Consequently I completely missed all the live coverage and have only ever seen news blips. Prior to 9/11, one could freely drive on and off of Fort Benning. There were no security checkpoints whatsoever, which is unimaginable these days on a major military installation. On 9/11 we first had to secure our unit's compound and then eventually fanned out to lock down the roads on and off of post. We had rotating duty manning makeshift entry control points in the weeks and months that followed until permanent ones could be built and a (civilian) force could be stood up to take over the duty. Thousands of soldiers and civilians commuted daily between work on post and local off-post residential areas. It was quite a mess with extensive traffic and delays in the early post 9/11 days.