Where were you 25 years ago

[joltinjeff]

While it is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up and we have had worse tragedies since, especially 9/11, but do you remember where you were that day...if you were an adult like me (at least agewise) remember what you were doing....an unbelievable day and say what you will about Ronald Reagan, but he had such a calming affect on the nation....let me know if you remember and where you were, id like to hear....

[Mapex Drummer]

I remember that day well. I stayed home from school because I was sick. I was really into space exploration at the time and always liked watching the shuttle launch. I was watching it on tv and seen it happen. I didn't quite understand at first. ( I was 12 at the time) Then they said what happened and I couldn't believe it. It was truly a sad day. For me it falls rite next to 9/11.

[mjb]

Man, can't believe its been 25 years! i was in Bamberg West Germany, I had arrived a week earler just out of jump school and when i got to my unit i had to stay in head quaters company for about a week cuz my whole battakion was in the field for a big to do called Reforger; where you were in the field training with other european militaries the day they came back and i went to my actual unit, was the day it happened, and what i remember was everybody comming back, wet, dirty, pissed off at the new guy (me) calling me newb and all kind of stuff and i remember someone bringing a tv out in the hallway in the barracks so everyone could check it out as they were bringing in all their gear. at the time, i remember my captain being very sad and almost human like for that moment and talkin to me just like one of the guys. that would change by the next day. i was sad also but also was very caught up in being in a different country and being around strange people and trying to be a good soilder. it wasn't till years later that i understood the signifagance of it all.

[Jim Price]

As I recall, I was eating breakfast and watching The Weather Channel when one of their forecasters mentioned the "space shuttle accident." I quickly flipped the channel and ended up riveted to the tube the rest of the morning, staring in disbelief. I'm sure like a lot of people, I was hoping against hope that the crew somehow survived that, but it became more and more apparent that nobody did.

Something else I remember about that day as well was that up until then, we had seen so many space shuttle missions go smoothly without major problems, those missions became a routine thing; we automatically figured it was business as usual. And the only thing that really set this mission apart from others before the explosion was that school teacher Christa McAuliffe was one of the passengers. So when Challenger blew up, it brought us back to the hard reality that the space program is still risky business, and things have the potential to go seriously wrong.

[Banned]

Hmmm, I was sitting in a classroom. Other than that...I got nothing. Sorry.

[Colton]

I was three. Probably playing with legos or something.

[onegunguitar]

I was a senior in high school-that's about all I remember.

[Charltor]

I was a senior in high school-that's about all I remember.

that's what alzheimer's does to a an old guy.

[onegunguitar]

I was a senior in high school-that's about all I remember.

that's what alzheimer's does to a an old guy.

Yea,and alcohol didn't help that over the years

[UNEARTHA7XMatt]

I was sitting in the Auditorium/cafeteria/gym of Adams elementary school in Tyrone. We had an assembly to watch the Shuttle launch. I remember the teachers scrambling around after the explosion to shut it off so we didnt see or hear the announcers. I believe I was in 2nd Grade.

[songsmith]

I was up rather early for me, talking to an old girlfriend on the phone about The Young & the Restless (longtime soap fan, though I no longer watch), and when it exploded, I knew right away, I had no confusion. I even said it looked like the fuel tank ruptured. The girl thought I was full of it, that it hadn't actually exploded, I remember having to tell her to watch the news that night, that I was right.
My generation had invested a lot in the Shuttle. I was in first grade when we landed on the moon, and during my childhood, NASA was very busy, with everything from Skylab to Voyager to multiple moonshots. We sort of expected great space-exploration advances on a yearly basis, and to see the Shuttle fail in front of the vast majority of schoolchildren in America was just such a terrible shock.
I'm sad for how it ended, but glad that Christa McAulliffe will live on as a hero forever.

[moxham123]

I was standing in line at the Johnstown Bank & Trust branch along Broad Street in Johnstown and somebody told me. A very sad day indeed.

[PanzerFaust]

Sitting in Smith Bldg at the Altoona Campus PSU watching it on TV's the A/V guys brought out for us to watch.....

[RobTheDrummer]

I was in kindergarten.

[RamRod 1]

I was taking a bus full of people to Altoona when a passenger boarded and told us. When we go to Altonna I went into Sears and watched the display TV's.

I was working on my house that year and the sky above the house was always full of planes but there were none that evening. Then right after dusk a military plane came really low. We think it was a stealth.

[Sapo]

I was in Army AIT at Goodfellow AFB, TX. We were all sitting around waiting to go on detail just watching CNN. Sat there and watched the coverage for hours.

[shredder138]

4th grade watching it on tv.