WEBVTT 00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:22.320 If a generation is 20 years long, September 11, 2001 was a generation ago. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:30.560 None of my generation will ever forget 9/11, some of my generation will never forgive 00:00:31.360 --> 00:00:40.080 9/11. As a nation we take great pride in the tens of thousands of acts of bravery, of valor, 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:48.080 and national unity we witnessed on September 11, 2001, and the days that followed, and properly so, 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:56.880 but we rarely speak of the enemy and what 9/11 taught us about the nature of a determined 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:03.600 enemy. I know that on 9/11 some of my generation relearned a lesson 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:09.360 that we could have learned and should have learned from my father's generation in World War II, 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:16.000 and my grandfather's generation in World War One. Because there is an important lesson there. 00:01:18.160 --> 00:01:21.280 Only a few of my generation will even speak of that lesson. 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:28.960 It is uncomfortable to contemplate, uncomfortable to articulate but dangerous to ignore. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:35.840 We know, through experience, that very few people of any generation 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:42.880 will care to hear, or care to learn, in times of peace what their fathers learned in times of war, 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:48.720 but I will offer this, the lesson my generation 00:01:48.720 --> 00:01:54.160 could have learned from my father's generation and from my grandfather's generation is this, 00:01:56.320 --> 00:02:04.320 you have enemies, every nation in history has had enemies, it is likely that trend will continue. 00:02:05.360 --> 00:02:10.400 You may not know your enemy and the only sure way to discover your enemy is by their deeds. 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:16.480 You are no more than a symbol to your enemies, a citizen of the United States, 00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:25.360 you have no value to your enemies as an individual, none. Your enemy does not see you as a fellow human 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:32.240 or an individual with hopes and dreams and family and friends, you're only seen by your enemy as 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:41.120 an enemy. History shows, and our fathers and grandfathers learned, and 00:02:41.760 --> 00:02:49.840 we relearned once again on 9/11, that for your enemy there is no act of violence so destructive, 00:02:50.640 --> 00:02:58.000 no betrayal so infamous, no violation of human decency so gross that your enemy will renounce 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:05.120 it. There is no lie so heinous they will not tell it, there is no oath so sacred they will not break 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:10.240 it, there is no target they will spare, there is no instrument of war they will deny themselves, 00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:16.000 and some of your enemies will knowingly sacrifice their own lives 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:26.240 on the altar of their beliefs just to do you harm, because, you are, to your enemy, an enemy. 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:34.640 There is one kind of armor, and one kind only that I know of, that will give you any level 00:03:34.640 --> 00:03:45.840 of protection from your enemy, and that armor is this, know with certainty, you have enemies. 00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:50.720 The people in this video live the 9/11 experience 00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:56.560 in an intensely personal way. These people bear witness to the unforgiving nature 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:01.440 and bitter fruits of terrorist warfare conducted by a determined 00:04:01.440 --> 00:04:09.680 enemy. They described what they experienced, how they felt, what they saw and their remarks give 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:15.760 you a small window into the experience that they will now carry within themselves forever. 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:27.840 I appreciate and applaud their willingness to share that experience with us. 00:04:27.840 --> 00:05:54.688 Music 00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:01.840 9/11 became a very gorgeous, sunny day with not a cloud in the sky and it was 00:06:01.840 --> 00:06:06.800 quite a beautiful September day and I recall driving down the West Side Highway 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:16.000 the stark difference between how blue the sky was and the plume of smoke and fire coming 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:22.800 out of the trade center, you start to think this wasn't an accident, there's no way this could 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:27.360 have been an accident with no clouds in the sky and being so beautiful and the trade center 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:33.040 sitting there so crystal clear, so I definitely remember the juxtaposition of the flame 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:39.040 and the cloud versus the the bright blue skies on a beautiful morning. I'm what's called a 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:43.280 Senior Inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service, currently acting as an instructor with our 00:06:43.280 --> 00:06:47.840 training division and further I'm on loan to FLETC as a detailed instructor to tactics. 00:06:49.280 --> 00:06:56.000 Back on September 11, 2001 I was a new member of the U.S. Marshals Warrant Squad. So, I recall being 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.840 at breakfast in Harlem at a place called Floridida, eating a lovely Spanish breakfast 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:08.640 and that's the time when the TV in the restaurant, which had the sound off, showed a plane that 00:07:08.640 --> 00:07:14.640 crashed into the trade center. At the, time all of us thought it was pretty much just like some 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:21.520 Cessna, some small plane or whatever, but then the TV showed a second plane slam into it so we 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:28.480 all realized this was something insane going on. Cell phones were pretty non-existent back 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:35.120 then, for the government anyway, but two or three of us had cell phones and beepers. So those 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:40.400 cell phones were going off and they were calling the office and the word was get downtown ASAP. 00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:47.120 So I remember distinctly no one talked, no one said anything, we just threw money on top of the table 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:52.400 and ran for our cars and proceeded to race down what's called the West Side Highway in Manhattan 00:07:53.200 --> 00:08:00.000 and going as fast as we possibly could down through rush hour traffic. At some point the 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:05.600 West Side Highway kind of curves to the left and you get a commanding view of downtown Manhattan 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:10.080 and that was the first time I clearly saw the trade center, which I'd always seen and it always 00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:14.640 takes your breath away, but this time it had giant fireballs like shooting out of it and a lot 00:08:14.640 --> 00:08:21.040 of black smoke, so at that point we realized something was seriously, seriously wrong, like World 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:26.880 War III wrong. We turned around and came outside and right away saw a bunch of our colleagues, 00:08:26.880 --> 00:08:33.840 other task force officers, and they said the "tower has collapsed," what do you mean it collapsed? 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:39.920 They said the tower, tower, the tower collapsed. What? And I just remember thinking, like, what do you mean 00:08:39.920 --> 00:08:44.160 collapsed? I would think, if something would have happened, a chunk of the building would have 00:08:44.160 --> 00:08:49.840 fallen off or would have cracked, you couldn't conceptualize that it would collapse. So we 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:54.960 heard the tower collapsed, and we actually missed the sound of it all because we were inside 26 00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:01.840 Fed, but as we proceeded on to our other office, the Federal Courthouse down at 500 Pearl Street, 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:06.960 that's when we started to see a stream of , I call them like "the white zombies," they were just 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:13.520 like people that were obviously within a block or so of the debris field when the tower collapsed 00:09:13.520 --> 00:09:21.040 the debris just toppled over and caked everyone who was in that path with this white powder and 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:26.000 they started to just wander up the up the streets away from the trade center just heading north. 00:09:27.280 --> 00:09:32.320 Arriving at the, what we now call the pile, or ground zero, for the first time was uh 00:09:33.040 --> 00:09:37.520 really, really stunk because it was, you could tell right away by looking at that there were no 00:09:37.520 --> 00:09:43.680 survivors, I mean the thing had so completely flattened it was pretty evident it was 00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:48.000 going to be a recovery not a rescue operation and that was particularly disturbing because 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.240 as a lifelong New Yorker I knew probably several dozen people that worked in the trade center, in 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:59.440 the downtown Manhattan area, so, my first thought at seeing the pile was how many people do I know 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:03.840 that are underneath this this wreckage? It definitely you know took me aback. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:10.160 Beeping noise. 00:10:10.160 --> 00:10:15.280 The firefighters have like a duress alarm, it's a high-pitched squeal, and you can faintly hear 00:10:15.280 --> 00:10:20.160 the squeals from like some of the duress alarm from firefighters? I didn't know at 00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:24.080 the time what it was, but once I knew what that was it was kind of very disturbing to know that that's 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:31.200 a spot where possibly a firefighter was. What I remember most about the feeling on 9/11 and the days 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:36.080 surrounding it was how unified as a country we were. It didn't make a difference what what party 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:42.000 you were, what race you were, ethnicity, if you were a cop or a banker or whatever but, like, the bond 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:48.240 between all Americans was just so, so visceral and so real, everyone just really was unified. I 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:56.589 just was such a overwhelming spirit of being an American that transcended any other divisions. 00:10:56.589 --> 00:11:01.920 Music 00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:08.720 So, 20 years ago I was living in Edison, New Jersey. For the people that live in New Jersey, 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:13.360 exit 10 off of the New Jersey Turnpike, that's what everyone always says, "what exit were you on?" 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:17.680 And so, I would obviously have to drive in to work every day because I was a Special Agent 00:11:17.680 --> 00:11:22.560 with the United States Secret Service and our office was located in Seven World Trade Center, 00:11:22.560 --> 00:11:27.040 so I would have a g-ride and I would drive to and from work every day, it was required, 00:11:27.040 --> 00:11:34.080 and so that day, I remember very plainly, a day a lot like today, sunny day, very nice pretty day, 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:39.520 I left home my usual time, I'd say around 7:30 that morning, you know, kissed my wife goodbye 00:11:39.520 --> 00:11:44.160 and, you know, told her I'd see her later, and that's the expectation we all have when we 00:11:44.160 --> 00:11:51.200 when we leave for a day's work. Arrived somewhere around the neighborhood of, I guess, 8:30 and we had 00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:57.600 several parking spaces that were allocated to the Secret Service under World Trade Center One, 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:03.120 and so I parked in one of those spots and took the elevator up in the trade center and I then 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:09.600 walked across what we would call the plaza area to my office over in building seven, and we were up on 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:16.000 the 10th floor, and so I had taken my seat at my desk and probably had only been sitting there for 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:23.840 just a few minutes when really and truly the worst explosion I've ever heard in my life occurred... 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:31.286 Jet flying over sound. 00:12:31.286 --> 00:12:34.960 Explosion. 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:39.520 ...and it literally felt as if the foundation of the of the building had been shaken, 00:12:39.520 --> 00:12:45.520 and the entire wall beside us was all glass so I just immediately looked to my right and I could 00:12:45.520 --> 00:12:52.080 see that the north tower was in a blaze. You know, being a Secret Service Agent, our natural instinct 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:59.040 to cover and evacuate kicked in, so we didn't wait for any message to come across 00:12:59.040 --> 00:13:04.720 for us to stay put or evacuate the building, we began evacuating immediately, obviously taking the 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:10.400 stairwell down. Well, once we got outside, you know, there were people everywhere, there were people 00:13:10.400 --> 00:13:14.400 screaming, there were people with just an entire look of terror on their face, you could tell a lot 00:13:14.400 --> 00:13:21.200 of them were in shock, there were a lot of people that were injured, and so we were trying as 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:26.720 best we could to try and direct people to safety and help people to get out, but just mass chaos 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:31.760 everywhere you would look. So, it took some time, we were we were not really certain again, that 00:13:31.760 --> 00:13:37.280 it was a bomb, we didn't know what it was but then a short time later when the second plane 00:13:37.280 --> 00:13:42.240 came in and hit the other tower then there was no question in my mind that we were under attack . 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.720 Well, as I think I've said, we were the largest field office for the Secret Service, so we had 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:52.800 a lot of people in the New York office and we had a lot of people that were unaccounted 00:13:52.800 --> 00:13:57.120 for and so that was our motivation to go back, is to try and find our colleagues 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:02.240 and see if they needed assistance in getting out. I didn't know what to expect, I knew it was going 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:09.440 to be bad, but, but I didn't know how bad. As we got back in the general vicinity of the north tower, 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:15.040 before we could really even, you know, make any progress with what we had returned to do, 00:14:15.040 --> 00:14:20.480 the south tower started to to fall. It collapsed first because it was struck at a much 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:26.160 lower impact than was the north tower. So, as soon as the south tower started to fall, you know, that 00:14:26.160 --> 00:14:30.560 just complicated matters even more that we were not able to do what we had intended to do and we 00:14:30.560 --> 00:14:35.840 had to then evacuate the area for our own safety. You know, fortunately I was able to get back to 00:14:36.560 --> 00:14:42.320 an area quite a bit north of there, it was actually an outdoor ball field, and we were attempting to try 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.720 and finally make communications with our family. A lot of people don't realize this, but Verizon 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:52.720 had their their tower, their switching tower was located there in the north tower and I 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:58.560 think the repeater antennas were up on top of it, so that was all knocked out, so the communications 00:14:58.560 --> 00:15:03.600 as far as using the cellular service was just about impossible. I was actually able to reach 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:09.200 my parents who lived in South Carolina at the time, before I was able to reach my wife who was 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:14.640 across the river in New Jersey, and so they relayed the message back to her before I was able to to 00:15:14.640 --> 00:15:19.040 actually communicate with her that I was alive and okay. I think the worst thing that comes to 00:15:19.040 --> 00:15:24.560 my mind, is while out on that ball field and looking back at the towers, I, saw you know, several 00:15:24.560 --> 00:15:30.400 people leap to their death from over 80 stories high, and the thing that impacted me more than 00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:36.000 anything else, is just the thought of that personal decision, to know that you're jumping to your death, 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:42.000 and that that's the best alternative as opposed to what faces behind you, that inferno that was 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:53.840 ensuing, so, you know, just what a horrible decision that those people had to make on that day. 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:58.868 Music 00:15:58.880 --> 00:16:04.720 You know, as time elapses, you know, I've got 18 year old twin daughters and the only thing they know 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:11.200 about 9/11, they were not alive, the only thing they know is what they hear Dad say and what they see 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:17.600 on the news. So, if Dad's not willing to talk about it anymore, you know, the more time elapses the less 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:22.800 you hear about it on the news, the less our new generations know about it, so you know, I think 00:16:22.800 --> 00:16:28.800 it's absolutely critical that we don't let complacency set in, we don't let our guard down. I 00:16:28.800 --> 00:16:33.920 think the creation of our department, Department of Homeland Security, didn't exist prior, the 00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:40.480 creation of it has certainly moved us forward great leaps in making sure that our nation is 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:45.760 prepared that we don't ever have to deal with a situation like this again, and God forbid, that we 00:16:45.760 --> 00:16:50.320 do have another major situation, that we're able to more quickly and efficiently respond to it. 00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:57.040 Music 00:16:57.040 --> 00:17:01.840 I woke up that morning, left the house, I had a government car at the time, it was an old 00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:08.720 beater because I was a brand new agent, I had a 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais, brown, with 178,000 miles 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:13.280 on it and no air conditioning, so the fact that it was such a perfect day actually worked out for 00:17:13.280 --> 00:17:17.680 me because I was able to drive in with the windows down and I remember not a cloud in the sky, it 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:22.960 was just truly a beautiful day, and my boss called me when I was just north of, I believe, the 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:28.320 Williamsburg Bridge to tell me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I couldn't see the 00:17:28.320 --> 00:17:32.880 towers from where I was because of the skyscrapers that were between me and the buildings, but as I 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:37.520 made a little bit further down the FDR Drive I was able to see ground zero and I was able to see that 00:17:37.520 --> 00:17:42.400 one of the planes, rather one of the towers, the north tower, had some damage to it and there was 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:46.720 smoke coming out of it, but at that point I still couldn't tell that the gravity of the situation, so 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:53.680 I quickly got across Manhattan driving west, was able to head south on on Greenwich Street, which 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:58.560 feeds into the World Trade Center site, and for the first time in a long time, I was actually able 00:17:58.560 --> 00:18:04.000 to find a parking spot right away, and I remember as I parked the car, somewhat like what happens 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:07.200 when you get a little too close to an intersection when you're driving you got to kind of lean 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.960 forward to look up at the light, well I remember having to lean forward to look up at the building, 00:18:11.520 --> 00:18:18.160 and I saw that there were people both, you know, very close to and and shortly above 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:24.400 the impact site leaning out the windows waving white cloths or whatever they had to try to get 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:30.000 attention from people that were down on the ground, So, at this point I got out of my car, 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:35.120 walked a little bit north on Greenwich Street to the next intersection which is called Vesey Street, 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:40.320 I made a left and started walking towards, I know there's a stairwell that leads up to 00:18:40.320 --> 00:18:45.200 the World Trade Center's plaza, as they called it, and I remember that's when I saw a plane engine 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:50.800 on the ground, right on the corner, completely detached from the plane, and it was massive, and 00:18:50.800 --> 00:18:55.760 it was at that point that I realized that we were dealing with a commercial airliner. I mean the 00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:59.280 damage to the building was significant but still at that point it never dawned on me just 00:18:59.280 --> 00:19:03.040 what we were dealing with and at that point I was shocked to see, "wow" this is a commercial 00:19:03.040 --> 00:19:09.360 airliner that hit the building. Then I ran into a colleague of mine, John Faust, a detective, 00:19:09.360 --> 00:19:14.240 he had a police radio, which was useful, and he had a plan, and it was a good plan at the time, it's 00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:18.960 we're going to stick together, so we went up to the plaza, which it wasn't street level, like I said, it 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:24.000 was one story up, and did the same thing we were doing down below, which was to try to keep people 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.520 moving because, you know, obviously it's a scene, the firemen had to get in there, other rescue 00:19:29.520 --> 00:19:35.200 workers, and there was still stuff occasionally falling, so we just tried to keep people moving, 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:41.360 and while we were up there that's when the second plane hit. At that time I remember, you know, 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:47.200 just feeling the heat of the plane come through the building, because if there was a fireball, 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:51.520 was even though it was many, many stories up, you felt the heat, and I remember hearing the sound, 00:19:51.520 --> 00:19:55.440 it was deafening, and it was at that point that I noticed, you know, I mean there was a lot of 00:19:55.440 --> 00:20:01.360 paper that was falling from the impact of the plane, and obviously one of the things 00:20:01.360 --> 00:20:04.960 we were concerned about was debris falling so you would constantly look up and I remember one time 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:11.440 looking up and seeing a person had jumped from the building. I never saw somebody actually jump, 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:16.080 so it was actually a horrifying thing to see and a horrifying thing to hear, because it made a 00:20:16.080 --> 00:20:20.720 horrible noise, and I remember just trying to process, like, how bad can it be up there? Like, 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:25.200 what's going on? Why are these people now all of a sudden starting to jump? Like, was it 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:29.520 the heat? Is it getting too hot? Is it that they've given up hope? I remember trying to process 00:20:30.320 --> 00:20:36.080 what was leading to them to do that and it gave this horrible feeling of helplessness, 00:20:36.080 --> 00:20:40.080 but at the same time, you know, people jumping now and other debris falling, I realize this 00:20:40.080 --> 00:20:45.600 isn't a safe place to be, so we left. And at this point I looked across the street 00:20:45.600 --> 00:20:52.733 back towards the towers and I saw a bunch of NYPD cops that were walking into the plaza and 00:20:52.733 --> 00:20:57.520 I knew three of them, three of them I knew very well, Vinnie Dans, John Coughlin and Walter Weaver, 00:20:57.520 --> 00:21:04.160 they were emergency service cops and I watched them walk into the site and it was, as I was 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:09.120 fixated on them, for some reason I was staring, I wasn't really paying attention to what was 00:21:09.120 --> 00:21:13.520 going on around me and Jason Zamaloft, the agent I spoke about earlier, grabbed my shoulder with, like, 00:21:13.520 --> 00:21:20.080 force, and he only said one one word, "RUN," and I remember looking up and from where we were 00:21:20.080 --> 00:21:24.240 standing, if you ever see the footage of the towers when the south tower fell, it 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:28.480 it looked like it was falling like a domino towards the east side, but what happened was the top of 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:33.200 the building canted as it collapsed down, but from where I was standing it looked like it was falling. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:39.360 Eventually it collapsed more downward but I did what Jason said, I ran, I ran as fast as I could 00:21:39.360 --> 00:21:43.840 north on Church Street and I remember thinking, I got to get cover, and there were some parked 00:21:43.840 --> 00:21:48.480 cars and there was a fire truck, I decided that I would fit better under the fire truck. 00:21:49.040 --> 00:21:52.720 So I went under this fire truck that was parked between the two towers, 00:21:53.360 --> 00:21:57.920 and trying to take cover there, and I remember the fire truck was shaking, the ground was shaking 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:01.760 and things were hitting the fire truck and then all of a sudden the dust cloud blew through, 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:06.640 and it was weird because that cloud wasn't just like a fine dust, it was like a thick 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:13.440 uh particulate sort of material, so when it got my eyes, to blink my eyes hurt, like, it felt like 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:18.400 sand paper and it also became difficult to breathe, and I don't know how long I was under 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:24.000 that truck, it felt like 30 seconds, 40 seconds, it could have been less, it could have been a lot less, 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:28.320 but I came to this realization, like, "hey stupid, you're going to die here you're going to suffocate," 00:22:28.320 --> 00:22:33.520 so I rolled out from under the truck and started to run north as best I could without being able to 00:22:33.520 --> 00:22:37.920 see very well, and I had met up with our other assistant special agent in charge, not the one 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:43.120 I met earlier, but, so I was talking to Bill, the other ASAC, when the north tower collapsed, 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:50.400 and we ran into a store and and sought, you know, shelter from the the debris and from the 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:55.120 dust cloud. I wasn't as close to the north tower as I was the south tower so I wasn't as fearful 00:22:55.120 --> 00:22:59.360 that I would get injured, and then after the dust settled again we came out and trying to look 00:22:59.360 --> 00:23:03.920 for survivors see if we could help anybody but it was the same scenario, either people were able to 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:12.320 get out of that area or they perished. It's easy to focus on the horrible things that that I saw. 00:23:12.320 --> 00:23:20.720 It's easy to let those thoughts take over, unless, you also think of the amazing heroism that you 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:28.000 saw that day, I mean we were all covered in dust, we were all ashen gray, nobody cared what your 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:33.280 politics were, what agency you were with, whether you were Hispanic or white or black, none of 00:23:33.280 --> 00:23:40.560 that mattered, we came together on the the second half of 9/11, I say 9/12. We were one, we 00:23:40.560 --> 00:23:45.040 functioned together, there was a sense of pride in being Americans, realizing that we had a lot more 00:23:45.040 --> 00:23:48.307 in common than we have differently. I have this thing I say all the time, "let's live every 00:23:48.307 --> 00:23:58.188 day like it's 9/12." So, that heroism, that togetherness I saw is what I like to remember 00:23:58.188 --> 00:24:07.520 Music 00:24:07.520 --> 00:24:11.120 It looked like a clear day from what I could tell, the temperature was nice, 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:19.120 the sky was clear, didn't look like it was going to rain or feel that way at all. I'm site director of 00:24:19.120 --> 00:24:26.160 FLETC's training point in Cheltenham, Maryland. I was the director of operations for the 33rd Field 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:32.080 Investigation Squadron which was part of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and I was 00:24:32.080 --> 00:24:36.880 on Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. I was sitting at my desk and there was a little bit 00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:40.880 of commotion out in the hallway and one of the guys, I yelled, they said "hey boss, 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:47.600 you need to come see this," and they had a TV setup in one of the other offices and 00:24:47.600 --> 00:24:56.400 I walked over there, and was watching the TV and they were replaying the first crash into 00:24:56.400 --> 00:25:02.640 the World Trade Center towers and, you know, they're just repeating it and repeating it 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:09.840 and then every now and then they'd go to a live shot you could see basically a smoking hole, and 00:25:09.840 --> 00:25:15.840 as we were watching I was trying to figure out, "What in the world happened,? You know, trying to make 00:25:15.840 --> 00:25:21.840 sense of this crash and thinking, "Gosh," you know, "Could it have been a mechanical problem? Could it 00:25:21.840 --> 00:25:29.200 have been an air traffic control? What in the world, how could it have happened?" And as we were 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:36.160 watching this smoking hole in the building we saw live another second plane crash into the other 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:42.880 tower of the World Trade Center there, and then it was like, I just couldn't comprehend it, 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:48.800 I didn't really understand what was going on, but when the second plane hit then we started to think, 00:25:48.800 --> 00:25:56.160 "Okay, this was not a mechanical error, this was not an air traffic control situation, this, this had to be, 00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:02.960 had to be on purpose," and then the phone rang, and I went over picked it up and he said "hey, we have 00:26:03.760 --> 00:26:09.360 what we believe was a bomb that exploded at the Pentagon," and that's how I received notification 00:26:09.360 --> 00:26:13.840 of the attack on the Pentagon, and then we said, "Okay, it's time, we need to get people 00:26:13.840 --> 00:26:19.120 over there, we need to get folks over there to assist to find out what's going on," and at that 00:26:19.120 --> 00:26:24.560 time, I had some forensic scientists who immediately deployed to go over there to try and figure out 00:26:24.560 --> 00:26:32.160 what in the world is going on and then when we realized how serious it was, how significant a hole 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:40.720 in the Pentagon there was, how much damage, we just started working and we went to work and we worked 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:48.240 for months without a day off, 12-hour shift, just an unbelievable amount of work and effort. 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:54.480 I didn't get to go over to the Pentagon myself right away it was quite a while, so I wanted to 00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:58.800 know what was going on and I wanted to get a first-hand account, and so when the buses 00:26:58.800 --> 00:27:05.120 loaded up, I liked to be there, you know, to just say "hey," just check on them, and make sure people 00:27:05.120 --> 00:27:09.680 were okay and they were ready for it. We just didn't know what to expect, what we were going into, 00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:15.280 and I remember one of the forensic scientists, who was on the bus getting ready to go, 00:27:15.280 --> 00:27:23.760 had called me over and said, "hey, we've got an agent here who's got some serious asthma condition, 00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:32.000 and I can't get him off the bus. He, he won't get off the bus. He wants to go over the Pentagon," and 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:37.360 the environment they were in at that time very dusty, very dirty, just sifting through the what 00:27:37.360 --> 00:27:42.080 we call the rock pile, is where, when they did some of their immediate stuff they just piled 00:27:42.080 --> 00:27:46.640 up a bunch of debris and eventually we had to go over there and go through it piece by piece 00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:52.080 looking for any evidence or clues, things that, you know, try help us figure out what had happened. 00:27:53.600 --> 00:28:00.080 And the forensic scientist said, "this guy really shouldn't go this this will hurt him 00:28:00.080 --> 00:28:05.200 if he's with the asthma," and so I had to call him off the bus and I explained to him I said, "look it, 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:10.320 you know I appreciate your dedication, I genuinely do, but you this is this is your health we're 00:28:10.320 --> 00:28:19.280 talking about," and I literally had to order him off the bus not to go, because he wanted in the 00:28:19.280 --> 00:28:26.000 fight, he wanted to be a part of that, and I think he's still mad at me to this day because 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:34.000 I wouldn't let him get back on the bus. The hole in the Pentagon, the size of the hole that that 00:28:34.560 --> 00:28:42.080 aircraft made as it crashed into the Pentagon, and very little remains of the plane were left. 00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:49.280 I mean, it had thousands of gallons of AVGAS on it when it crashed, and it was just a fireball 00:28:49.280 --> 00:28:54.160 in there, burned everything through a crisp in there and then the fire departments came and put 00:28:54.160 --> 00:29:01.440 out the fire so they mixed all that water and just looking, it was just a, and at that time it was pretty, 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:07.840 it was cleaned up a much, much better than it was initially, but I just couldn't get over the size 00:29:07.840 --> 00:29:14.000 of the hole in that building, and I couldn't get over that you couldn't tell what had happened, I 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.880 mean, by just looking, I mean, there was no tail of the plane sticking out, there was nothing that you, that 00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:26.000 I could look at and focus at and say "yep," but as they dug into it and it became 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:32.320 apparent what it was, but I was just in awe of just how much damage there was done to that building. 00:29:34.800 --> 00:29:42.400 I hope that we don't minimize what happened, okay, we were attacked. People tried to kill us, 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:49.840 and it did kill a lot of us, and my concern is as we get farther from that and gets farther from 00:29:49.840 --> 00:29:55.840 our memory and the folks who never experienced it, can't or won't appreciate it, and then when you 00:29:55.840 --> 00:30:01.840 have people who are trying to make light of it, "oh, it's no big deal," that was a tremendous deal, 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:07.840 and I hope we don't forget that, and I hope as parents, or grandparents, 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:17.040 that we take the time to tell our kids about it. You know, on 9/11 let's take a few minutes 00:30:17.040 --> 00:30:22.080 and sit down, tell them where they were when it happened, tell them what they were going through, 00:30:22.080 --> 00:30:29.440 what they thought and what they felt, don't let them forget it. We have an obligation as parents 00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:35.840 and grandparents to pass it on exactly what we did, what happened, how we felt and how we responded, 00:30:37.040 --> 00:30:44.298 rather than make light of it and try to forget it, because then we hadn't learned a lesson. 00:30:44.298 --> 00:30:52.160 Music 00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:56.320 In the years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, 00:30:56.320 --> 00:31:01.760 our nation erected monuments and memorials to honor the memories of the heroes and victims 00:31:01.760 --> 00:31:07.520 of that terrible day. Here at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers' Headquarters, 00:31:07.520 --> 00:31:12.160 at Glynco, Georgia, we too have a memorial to honor and never forget. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:21.200 Incorporated into FLETC's memorial is a piece of the World Trade Center towers. This I-beam was 00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:26.720 cut from the twisted remains of the Twin Towers and it represents our history of 9/11, 00:31:27.280 --> 00:31:33.360 while the monument itself represents our future and serves as a constant reminder to never forget. 00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:40.720 The beam, which is the centerpiece, is shielded by white marble stands, nine on the left side of 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:47.600 the beam and 11 on the right side. Together, they mark the date 9/11. The base of the 00:31:47.600 --> 00:31:54.960 memorial is 110-inches wide, representing the 110 stories of the World Trade Center towers. 00:31:55.760 --> 00:32:01.360 The steps of the base begin with broken concrete and are refined in materials until they end at 00:32:01.360 --> 00:32:10.080 the top in polished granite. Each step is 17 and a half inches wide in remembrance of Flight 175, 00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:14.880 and there are three 9-inch risers etched with words starting at the bottom 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:20.000 in memory of Flight 93. The bottom riser is inscribed with the word 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:27.840 "Service," the middle riser has the word "Country," and the top riser has the word "Family." 00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:33.200 The riser surrounding the base is inscribed with the word "Courage," 00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:37.760 in respect for the courageous men and women who protect our nation every day. 00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:43.680 The events of 9/11 changed us as a Nation forever, 00:32:44.640 --> 00:32:52.480 this monument represents our unyielding American spirit and resolve to never forget our past 00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:55.840 as we continue to move forward towards our greater future. 00:32:55.840 --> 00:32:59.920 Music 00:32:59.920 --> 00:33:04.720 Two thousand, nine hundred and seventy-seven people were killed in the attacks on September 11, 2001. 00:33:05.600 --> 00:33:11.680 343 were New York City firefighters. 71 were New York City and other New York and New Jersey law 00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:18.480 enforcement officers. One U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Officer died in the crash of United Flight 00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:25.600 93 just outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Since that day, 20 years ago, more than 1,500 00:33:25.600 --> 00:33:32.080 additional people have died of various illnesses and more than 23,000 people are living with cancer 00:33:32.080 --> 00:33:38.240 and other illness brought on by their exposure to the debris of 9/11. FLETC and our partner 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:43.040 agencies had many people respond to Ground Zero, respond to the Pentagon and respond to 00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:48.960 Shanksville, Pennsylvania in heroic fashion. Those people worked for days, weeks and even months on end 00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:54.480 by joining the rescue and then later the recovery efforts that were underway. Some of them are now 00:33:54.480 --> 00:33:59.120 among the fallen and many of them are living with illnesses brought on by their heroic efforts. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:06.320 Just inside FLETC Glynco's main gate stands building 912. Named in honor of the heroes and 00:34:06.320 --> 00:34:15.520 victims of 9/11 it recalls our nation's pride and unity on September 12, 2001, 9/12. Building 912 is 00:34:15.520 --> 00:34:22.320 home to our 9/11 Memorial and to the FLETC Graduates Memorial. On the Graduates Memorial are the names 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:29.120 of 263 fallen agents and officers who since 1970 graduated a FLETC basic training program 00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:35.040 and then later died in the line of duty. Among these 263 names are the names of federal 00:34:35.040 --> 00:34:42.000 officers and agents who died responding to 9/11, agents and officers that died in both Iraq and 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:46.960 Afghanistan and those heroes that have since fallen to their illness from their incredible 00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:55.227 work in response to the cowardly attacks on that clear, September Tuesday morning, 20 years ago. 00:34:55.227 --> 00:37:04.167 Music