I was driving in to work listening to WTOP (news radio) when the first reports of a "small plane" crashing into the north tower were aired. When the 2nd plane crash report came in a bit after 9AM, I immediately thought 'terrorist attack', esp. when the corrected news reports stated that it was a 767 that crashed into the north tower, not a "small plane".
After parking my car at my office building in Crystal City (less than a mile from the Pentagon), I immediately went up to a fellow supervisor's office who had a TV, and we channel-hopped with a growing crowd outside his door.
When the third plane crashed into the Pentagon, we were ordered to evacuate the building and go home. By that time, the entire area was gridlocked as the police were not letting any vehicles near the Pentagon, which basically shut down I-395 northbound. So instead of sitting in my car going nowhere, a bunch of us went to a sports bar to watch CNN. I could smell the smoke from the Pentagon fire. When I finally decided to leave around 1PM, tt took me until 7PM before I got home, cell phone not working due to system overload, wife & parents concerned.
Three weeks later I was one of the first 3 people from my company to fly on official business (recruiting trip to Puerto Rico). Guess I was the most expendable 😛. While on U. of Puerto Rico's Mayaguez campus, we got reports of the initial operations against the Taliban, so we decided to cut the trip short and return home.
Some of my friends were recruiting in California on 9/11, and had to rent a car and drive back to Washington as all flights were grounded. One guy got so tired of the other he actually drove off at a gas station, leaving the other guy stranded 😀. Of course he eventually thought it over and returned to pick up the 2nd guy, but they didn't speak to each other for the remainder of the trip.