Hello, my name is Kieran Ramsey.
I am the special agent in charge of the Portland Field Office for the FBI.
On 9/11 I was a young agent assigned to the Seattle Field Office having only been in the
FBI for just under three years at that time.
So, I turned on the TV and I watched what millions of Americans were watching at the
time… that being the burning tower, the North tower.
And, as we were talking about three minutes later or four minutes later, I watched in
horror with the TV going as the South tower was impacted.
As we were coming down into the area, you know there were people lined up with flags
and with signs supporting all the first responders there.
But it just… it kind of changed as you almost rounded the corner and could see everything
there.
My team was initially set up around the perimeter of Ground Zero.
And we were literally assigned to look in trucks as they were bringing out debris from
Ground Zero to look for human remains and personal effects and anything else that stood
out to us.
Just finding those little things, and the whole time you’re wondering “did this
person survive or did they not?”
When we were there, for as much activity that was going on…
I mean there was major construction equipment moving things, there were literally thousands
of police and firefighters and first responders.
There were tons of volunteers, but it was still quiet.
There was this weird sense of quiet.
And, I just remember thinking, like there are literally tens of thousands of people
around here at this mass casualty terrorist attack and yet you could hear a pin drop when
they called for silence.
Later, about a week or two into it, we were switched out to the Fresh Kills Landfill in
Staten Island.
There, they were again having people go through the debris, literally raking it by hand with
shovels and rakes and the like… again looking for human remains, personal effects, what
have you, alongside NYPD, FDNY, and other government personnel that were there assigned
to help.
I came off the plane from 9/11 after having been there, and one of the first things I
told my wife is we needed to have kids.
She thought I was crazy.
She looked at me, like, are you, are you okay?
No, but I just saw the absolute worst in humanity.
We need to start having kids so that the world is populated by good people that would never,
ever do something like that or allow something like that to happen.
The second time we went the woman was talking how about first responders were at Fresh Kills,
and they kept having to get new boots because their boots kept melting.
Well I was one of those people.
When I was there, my boots … it was the weirdest thing.
I noticed my soles were feeling… or my feet were like sliding… and, whatever it was
had burned through the Tyvek suit, and then it burned through the soles of my boots.
It just made me really, really emotional, and it is one of the, one of the few times,
I think, my kids have seen me cry.
You knew that this was something that, again, it would be altering for anybody.
I think there’s no doubt that anybody who was alive at that time, whether you were from
New York or Washington or whether you, whether you were in law enforcement let alone the
FBI, that it didn’t affect you in the most personal and emotional way.