9-11 - One Survivor's Story

A friend of mine has given permission for me to re-tell the story of their son, who survived 9-11 at the World Trade Center. In his email, Bill wrote to me, "Joan and I feel that their are probably hundreds of stories like this, where people really do care about one another and it shows in times of crisis."

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - One doesn't have to look for six degrees of separation to find a friend or loved one that was directly touched by the occurrences of 9-11. A friend of mine shared his personal story with me and allowed me to share it with our readers:

Our son, William, shared about his terrible experience on September 11 not long after it happened. It was his belief in God, instinct, scouting survival experience, and the thought of his wife and infant son that got him through this horrendous ordeal.

William's office is located on the upper level of the building directly across from Tower II. That morning he was on the first level of Tower I during his daily commute from New Jersey when the American Airlines plane struck the building. He said he heard a loud noise and saw debris falling to the ground level on one side of the building.

His first reaction was that a "small" plane hit the Tower. He then continued on through Tower II where he located eleven of his co workers who were from a different department. He thought it better to keep moving to his office on the upper level of a building just across from Tower II.

Once he reached his office he gathered his small team and they turned on the news. All of them figured this was an isolated incident. The emergency responders were arriving and that their area seemed safe.

As things started to settle down, he sat in his high back chair, turned on his computer to start reviewing his e-mails. Since the news media was now broadcasting what was happening on just about every channel, he thought it prudent that he call his wife to assure her that all was well.

While speaking to his wife he saw a large dark shadow rapidly approaching Tower II and in an instant a horrific fireball explosion blew in all the windows in his office, knocked him backwards off his chair, and as a result of a vacuum, opened the file cabinets and sucked all the papers through the missing windows. His building immediately went dark and communications was lost.

No time to grab any personal items, suit jackets, attaché cases, wallets and purses were all left behind as he took charge and forced his shocked team of employees toward the stairs. As they made their way to street level, secondary explosions were occurring, sending shards of glass on people who were running from the buildings. He mentioned that it was like a scene from "Saving Private Ryan" as pieces of glass were striking people as they ran.

By this time, his adrenalin was flowing. He picked up an injured woman off the street who had been struck in the neck by a piece of glass and carried her to an ambulance. One EMT took the woman while another was pushing our son into the ambulance but he fought back stating that he was OK. The EMT thought that he was badly injured since his white shirt had been badly stained with blood, but that was a result of carrying the woman to safety. He did inquire about the woman and they told him she was badly cut but would be fine. To this day he still doesn't know who she was but only knew that she was a person in need of help.

When they seemed to be out at harm's way, he again gathered his small team but he noticed that one woman was missing. About that time he looked up at the Towers to see a man and woman at the edge of one of the open broken windows with both heavy smoke and flames at their back. Sadly, he saw them hold hands and then jump.

One of his major concerns had been to try and contact a family member but he had tried with no success. He just wanted to tell anyone that he was all right but unable since all lines were down and no cell service was working.

By this time, heavy smoke started to permeate the area so his team headed down to Battery Park which is the most southern portion of Manhattan. As they were reaching lower Manhattan and were at waters edge a New York City Fire Boat pulled up along side a dock and waved for their small group to climb aboard which they did.

They sailed to Hoboken, New Jersey. Only at this point were they able to see the extent of damage that had been done and that the Twin Towers were no longer part of New York City's landscape.

Six hours later, he did get a cell phone message through to our daughter saying that he was all right, which was a great joy; but this joy was somewhat hollow since no one could find his missing team member.

He personally took it to heart, that it was his fault that he could not protect her, especially when he received the tragic news that all eleven of the employees in Tower II perished. However, he did receive a call three days later that the police found her wondering around Northern Manhattan dirty, hungry and tired. For three days and two nights she had been in total shock and had no idea where she was. Thankfully that woman has since recovered.

Yes, to this day William cannot see pictures of the burning buildings because it renews his nightmare of what happen to all those people just going about their normal lives of working for a living, whether they were company employees, firemen or police.... innocent lives lost as a result of evil. Now, William and his wife are blessed with a second child and every September he just hugs his family and thanks God that he can be with them.

Bill & Joan

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