By MEGAN ANDERLE and DAN O’LEARY
As soon as Americans were under attack the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Cory Smith, Sgt. 1st class, knew war was imminent.
“I started to mentally prepare myself for what was to come,” Smith said. “Units started to get plugged into tasks, and force protection was urgent, as you can imagine.”
Smith, […]
By COURTNEY LEIVA
On Sept. 12, 2001, demolition supervisor John Feal was working with his team of Construction Demolition experts on cleanup and recovery efforts of Ground Zero. As Feal was supervising his team in cleaning up the debris, 8,000 pounds of steel came loose from a huge pile and crushed his left foot.
“I went into […]
By BECKY PENHAKER
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Chuck Johnson opened the weight room at Ridgewood High School the same way he had for the past 16 years-opening its doors at 6 am sharp. As the head football coach and physical education teacher, he was used to his routine.
Johnson’s regimented schedule, however, was put […]
By BECKY PENHAKER
Most people can give you the exact time and place of where they were when the attacks on the World Trade Center occurred. They can remember the immediate disbelief and confusion they felt in that moment. For Chuck Howard of Montvale, he can remember that feeling twice.
Howard, 63, worked for the Port Authority […]
By JILLIAN PARKER
On Sept. 10, 2001, a four year old boy was enjoying his first day at kindergarten at P.S. 150 in Manhattan. On his second day he lived through 9/11, which would change the rest of his life.
Brooke Peters grew up around the men of FDNY. His mom volunteered in Soho since 1997. His […]
By MEGAN ANDERLE, BECKY PENHAKER and ELYSE TORIBIO
Elizabeth Sullivan, of Ridgewood, was in eighth grade when she heard the news that her father’s best friend, Daniel McGinley, was missing on Sept. 11, 2001. Her immediate reaction was disbelief.
“He was a funny, boisterous man,” Sullivan recalls of man who she knew since she was a child. […]
By LAUREN MENNEN
“Can’t see nothin’ in front of me, can’t see nothin’ coming up behind. I make my way through this darkness – I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me.”
These lyrics tell the story of a firefighter climbing up the stairs of the twin towers right after the planes hit, and is […]
By MEGAN ANDERLE
Kevin Byrne, vice president of Fidelity, a stock brokerage company in Manhattan, spent the hectic morning of Sept. 11, 2001, taking the train out of New York after finding out what happened. It wasn’t until the afternoon that he found out his brother-in-law, William Erwin, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World […]