David Ferrugio lost his dad on 9/11. Ferrugio was 12 years old at the time. His dad, David Francis Ferrugio, worked as a bonds broker for Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of Tower 1 at the World Trade Center.
“It changed the world,” he said of both the personal losses and sea changes the attacks ushered in that infamous Tuesday morning.
Robert Menig, a retired New York City firefighter, lost his entire FDNY firehouse on 9/11.
Menig was headed to a doctors’ appointment on 9/11 when the hijacked airplanes struck the Twin Towers. Menig tried to return to the Upper West Side fire station after the first plane struck.
“They were already gone. Everyone in the firehouse got killed,” said Menig, who now lives in Arizona.“It sucked.”
He worked for weeks at Ground Zero, recovering those killed in the unprecedented attacks on American soil.
Menig is now in need of a kidney transplant as health problems for those exposed to the toxins from the WTC site continue to mount.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the attacks that saw close to 3,000 people killed in lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and a downed hijacked airliner in Pennsylvania.
Bells will ring again this year for those killed in the attacks. That includes honoring those who sacrificed their lives trying to save others.
For those who lost loved ones and many others, including in public safety communities, 9/11 still rings with resonance 25 years later.
But just like the Pearl Harbor attacks and the Kennedy assassination, as the years pass, so do the memories and imprints of 9/11.
“It just keeps getting farther and farther away from the day. It just becomes more of an eerie recollection. It feels like a dream,” said Ferrugio, who now hosts a podcast, DEAD Talks, which deals with grief and loss.
Ferrugio said the podcast has helped him deal with the grief of losing his dad and hopes it helps others.
“There’s always that pain of grief. It’s different when the whole world is part of it and it’s remembered every single year,” said Ferrugio, who now lives in Los Angeles. “Everyone remembers where they were that day.”
‘GIVE SORROW WORDS’
Michele Weldon, an author and emerita journalism professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, said processing the losses of an event such as 9/11 can provide help in dealing with grief in other instances.
She points to William Shakespeare’s proclamation of “give sorrow words” in “Macbeth.”
“Our words have power and have since the beginning of time,” Weldon said.
She said writing, journaling and creative expressions can help process grief and loss.
“You can capture that. You can capture the expressions of your heart,” Weldon said.
‘DEFINING MOMENT’
There are observances of 9/11 across the country, including the annual reading of the names of those killed in the terrorist attacks at Ground Zero in New York and Washington D.C.
Fire departments and police agencies across the country still commemorate the 2001 attacks with events.
In the Pacific Northwest, the North County Regional Fire Authority (NCRFA) in Washington will hold a 25th Anniversary 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony.
“Twenty-five years later, September 11 remains a defining moment in our nation’s history,” said NCRFA Fire Chief Dave Kraski. “This ceremony is an opportunity for us to honor those we lost, recognize the courage of those who responded, and reaffirm our commitment to serving and protecting our community.”
In D.C., the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund will read the names of the 667 law enforcement officers lost on 9/11 and after due to health complications for those at Ground Zero.
NLEOMF CEO Bill Alexander was a police officer in Prince George’s County, Maryland, outside Washington D.C. on 9/11.
“9/11 is very, very real for me,” Alexander said of the attacks, which included the Pentagon just across the Potomac River.
He said it is important to keep honoring and remembering those lost and recognize the changes that the terrorist attacks propelled.
Alexander said before 9/11, local police departments were not focused on potential terror attacks.
“I don’t think it was really on anyone’s radar,” he said.
That changed, he said, noting a new local law enforcement focus on homeland security and intelligence operations after the coordinated hijackings.
There is also more cooperation between federal, state and local agencies.
“That was a very, very real and dramatic change,” Alexander said.
‘THIS GENERATION’S PEARL HARBOR’
Sal Lifrieri, a former NYPD police detective who also served as director of intelligence for New York City’s Office of Emergency Management, said the threat expectation before 9/11 centered on a smaller general aviation airplane targeting the towers rather than coordinating hijackings.
“We never expected two jets,” said Lifrieri.
Lifrieri said 9/11 needs to be remembered not only for those lost, but also the lessons it taught in terms of security.
“9/11 was this generation’s Pearl Harbor,” he said, adding concerns about fleeting knowledge of the event.
Lifrieri, who is now an author and security consultant, said interagency cooperation and threat assessments have improved but security agencies now have to battle against dark corners of social media and a preponderance of lone wolf attackers.
He also said 9/11 taught police and intelligence agencies humility and the pitfalls of ego.
“We never anticipated jets hitting the buildings. We always thought it could be a Piper Cub plane.” he said. “The attack put all other threats on the table, no threat was beyond reach.”
Lifrieri said New York City had 60,000 first responders, including approximately 40,000 sworn police officers, on Sept. 11.
“We never thought we would ever be overwhelmed,” he said. “We were.”
‘A CLEAR DAY’
The day still brings memories for many.
Matthew Snyder, Board of Elections director in Watauga County, North Carolina, was in the film production field in 2001 and was at Giants Stadium (now MetLife Stadium) in northern New Jersey shooting a Wendy’s commercial on Sept. 11, 2001.
“It was a perfectly clear day, not a cloud in the sky,” Snyder said. “It was very odd that a plane would run into the World Trade Center.”
The day turned very dark. The city and region were shut down by the attacks.
Snyder said the production crew and 300 extras who gathered for the commercial shoot ended up spending the night at the northern New Jersey football stadium.
Snyder remembers scores of first responders all over the region gathering in the stadium’s parking lot waiting to be dispatched.
He also remembers the change in tone in the city and country after the attacks, with New Yorkers cheering for dust-covered iron workers and other responders working the Ground Zero site.
“They were just covered in dust with an American flag on their vehicle,” he said.
Snyder said that Wendy’s commercial “never saw the light of day.”
AFTER THE TOWERS
Recovery work at the Ground Zero site was macabre and traumatic, Menig said.
“You just milled around looking for body parts really,” Menig said, recalling the discoveries in the rubble encased by gray, concrete dust.
“The stench was just horrible. A lot of guys didn’t wear masks,” Menig said.
“I never found anybody fully intact,” he said, noting the discoveries of a shoe with a foot as well as an “entire spine.”
Menig said the bodies of firefighters killed at the World Trade Center were sometimes recovered still in their FDNY gear.
“They had no head, no feet, no hands. Their name was on their jackets,” Menig said, noting contemporary accounts of the attacks being more sanitized than the grim realities on the ground.
An Ohio-based group called Kidneys for Communities is helping Menig secure a kidney transplant.
The group helps other first responders, including those impacted by 9/11-related illnesses and health impacts.
“We support a lot of communities,” said Atul Agnihotri, board president and CEO of Toledo-based Kidneys for Communities.
Agnihotri is a former corporate executive who received a kidney transplant in 2015 before establishing the group in 2016.
“We are focused on living donors,” Agnihotri said, noting that kidneys from live donors have greater and longer transplant success rates.
The transplant organization helps those in need of kidneys and those considering donating an organ navigate fears and the process.
He said it can be difficult for many people, including emergency responders, to ask others for an organ.
“For them, it’s very difficult to ask,” Agnihotri said.
Part 2: How events and advocates across country are remembering 9/11.
