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 The day began with a single American Airlines passenger plane
diving into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York
City. Soon after, a second plane would follow suit into the south
tower. The complete destruction of those towers and surroundings in
the city,
plus
the loss of life, was overwhelming.
But as the morning passed, Americans would learn that it had been
only one target in a multifaceted assault on this country. As news
came that the Pentagon had been similarly hit and that another plane
on an additional mission had failed due to the heroic measures of
the passengers, this country -- the entire world -- sat in stunned
silence, but only for a moment.
America was not paralyzed as terrorists had hoped it would be.
Instead it was unified and mobilized into action as across the
country, those who could went to the aid of those who were lost or
hurting, and those who could not went to their knees and prayed.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Mark Miller was an assistant chief with the
Lincoln Fire Department and an instructor at Richland Community
College, training young adults to become firefighters.
On that particular day, he wasn't on duty, nor was he teaching. He
was at home, enjoying a day off, when the phone rang early in the
morning.
"It was my father-in-law. He said, 'Something's going on in New York.
You need to turn on your TV.'"
The call came early in the event, and like millions of other
Americans, Miller was in front of the television when the second
plane hit the south tower. He remembers that he watched in shock and
in awe of the scene.
He also remembered a class he'd taken as a firefighter when the topic of the World Trade Center came up. In that class the
instructor had told his students that the World Trade Center was
built to stand. No one ever expected that the towers would collapse
the way they did.
As the day progressed, news continued to come forward about the
events taking place in the East. The attack on the Pentagon, the
crash of a flight in Pennsylvania -- it was all being talked about as
quickly as reporters could organize the information.
As the day progressed, television crews moved in closer to the scene
in New York, and from there comes the indelible memory that Miller
will carry with him for the rest of his life.
It wasn't a picture, or a reporter, but rather a sound. A sound that
only a trained firefighter would understand the significance of.
Incorporated into the breathing apparatus that firefighters wear
inside burning buildings, there is an alarm system called a PASS alarm,
meaning a Personal Alert Safety System. The PASS contains a motion
sensor that will sound a distinctive alarm when a firefighter stops
moving for a period of 15 to 30 seconds.
When a firefighter is in trouble, the alarm will sound, giving
fellow firefighters the opportunity to locate the fallen and offer
help as needed.
Miller on the day of Sept. 11 watched the television. As
camera crews moved closer and closer, "I could hear the alarms," he
said, then paused only for a second, "and I knew, men were down."
In any fire, there is a possibility of firefighters
getting lost or confused about where they are. Buildings on fire are obviously
filled with smoke. Items that should look familiar become alien
objects as firefighters try to get through a burning building.
Miller said he could imagine the amount of confusion that occurred
when the towers began to crumble. With so many firefighters and
civilians still inside, it would have been chaos, and the urgency to
find not only innocent civilians but also fallen firefighters would
have been overwhelming.
As Miller talked this week about his memories of 9/11, he talked about
the special kinship between firefighters. There is a sense of
family that exceeds geography.
He emphasized that thousands of lives were lost on Sept.
11, and no one wants to diminish that fact in any way, but for
firefighters across America, they took this attack very personally.
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"When people are overseas in the military, they expect that they
will be attacked. Here in America, I don't think anyone ever
expected that our first responders would be part of such an attack.
I think that is why we (firefighters) claim this as ours," Miller
said.
In New York City, 343 firefighters died on Sept. 11. In
addition, there were thousands of innocent people who were doing
nothing more than trying to go about their ordinary lives. There
were also police officers and emergency medical technicians who gave
more than they should have had to -- their lives -- at the hands of
terrorists who wanted nothing more than to kill Americans in
quantity.
Around the nation, in the days following Sept. 11, firefighters made their way to New York. They went to help with the
cleanup, to try to fill gaps in departments left by lost souls,
and to be there as an act of solidarity for the departments and the
families of those who perished.
Hundreds of firefighters, including several from Lincoln and Logan
County, also traveled to New York for memorial services.
Miller wasn't able to go for the memorials, but three months after
the attacks he and a good friend and fellow firefighter from
Decatur, Toby Jackson, drove to New York and spent a week with their
comrades.
They were assigned to work in the lower Manhattan area, which was
close to ground zero. They spent time with Engine 23, stationed right
off of Central Park, and they spent time with Rescue 1 in the same
vicinity.
Miller remembers going to ground zero.
"We went to the site and it was just dirt and debris. There were
trucks hauling away the debris, and it was just truck after truck
after truck. The streets were torn up, buildings around the area
were damaged. It was like an earthquake."
Miller also recalled that as they went from area to area, there
didn't seem to be very many firefighters who were willing to talk
about what had happened. The reason for that, he believes, is because
for a large majority of those who did survive, it was because they were
not on duty that day and not standing with their fellow
firefighters when tragedy struck.
While he was in New York, Miller took a special helmet with him and
collected signatures from various units. In an accompanying story,
he talks about the helmet and the good it did for the family of
a local firefighter.
When tragedy strikes, regardless of its form, for most of us to go
on with any kind of normalcy, we have to be able to find a good that
comes out of it.
Miller said he felt like the Lincoln Fire Department found that good,
because it made them all more aware of the risks they take when they
respond to a fire. It brought the department together, making their
bond stronger and reminding them to always look out for each other.
In the story of the 9/11 helmet, you'll see firsthand an example of that bond and that selflessness in the local
department.
[BY NILA SMITH]
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