On September 11th, when the world again pauses to join our nation in honoring the more than
3,000 innocent victims of the 2001 terror attacks, it will be for the 20th time.
As we mourn the senseless killing of so many men women and children that bright Tuesday morning,
including members of our own Secret Service family, let us also carry forward with pride
and purpose the memory of everything we've accomplished since then. In cities, towns and
communities across the country, our national identity was challenged like never before.
Through some of our nation's darkest days, a groundswell of pride and patriotism emerged,
lifting our spirits and showing the world how a free and compassionate society
responds to unthinkable atrocities and abject evil.
We must never forget our immeasurable losses, but let us always be grateful for the resolute courage
and bravery of every American dedicated to preserving the universal freedoms that propel
our nation ever forward. Our agency may have lost its physical home in New York City with
the destruction of our Secret Service field office at 7 World Trade Center, but new buildings often
rise where older ones have fallen. Our spirit has endured, our mission has endured, and now
20 years later, we stand together as one team, one workforce and one nation, immovable in our
resolve and determined not only to remain worthy of trust and confidence, but also to reflect the
strength and fortitude of the world's greatest and most resilient democracy. Our memories of that
awful day remain clear, and we are humbled and proud to share just a few of those with you now.
It's been 20 years but I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was a beautiful day. The sky was blue, the sun was out. It was peaceful, it was serene.
I don't, I don't like to talk about the day.
I - I've probably talked about this more today than I have in the last 20 years.
Things can happen on a beautiful day at any time. My story is easy compared to others.
This just in, you are looking at obviously a very disturbing live
shot there. That is the world trade a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.
I was based out of Seven World Trade Center. Number seven world trade. Which was just
across the street from the north tower. That's our largest office so it was concerning. We activated
the fire alarm. I ordered everybody to evacuate the office. Our personnel were evacuating.
The lobby to Seven World Trade opens up to Vesey Street, there was debris scattered all across
the street stuff was falling down. And at some point I ended up on the back side of our building
and I just remember hearing a loud like engine.
Oh my God, Oh my goodness, Oh God there's another one that looks like a second plane.
At that point in time we knew that this was not an accident,
we knew that hundreds of people had just perished. You could just feel the tremendous amount of heat
and all this debris just raining down on us then I looked up and I started seeing people falling from
the buildings and that was like the that was… the sound I'll never forget the sound of bodies
hitting the ground I'll never forget seeing people holding hands as they jumped and there was nothing
you could do to go help those people I thought the world was coming to an end
it's hell on earth it's hell on earth it's… no way to describe it.
Vice President Cheney was at the White House and I just remember us trying to track like
where are all of our protectees. We took the protectees away from the prime targets.
May god bless the victims their families and America. We needed to move the president as
quickly as we possibly could get him on Air Force One, get him up in the sky. You can
see the armed guards on top of the White House keeping watch. We had to get the first lady out
of the capitol a decision was made we're going to move her here to Secret Service headquarters.
My responsibility that day was for the safety of the vice president. I just put the earpiece
in and turned the radio on and I heard the radio call and it was inbound plane to the White House.
The White House west wing has been evacuated. I jumped up started running keyed my mic and told
Jim Scott take him down now and actually grabbed him by the belt and said let's go.
Down it starts to come it just sounded like a freight train coming down the street
a monster a metallic monster it was absolute chaos all you can do is run debris from the tower just
rain down on us and you come out of the dust on the other side and then you kind of think
okay well now we've got to see who we can help and what needs to be done. Tommy Armas comes to mind,
Tommy Armas caring injured to ambulances there was a fire truck that was unmanned and four agents
were actually fighting fires we still had people in our duty desk area I ended up landing phones
the two-way sky-tail pager system communication of course was completely dependent on that. Our
lifeline is that New York duty desk. That tower is sort of starting to burn somewhere in this process
the page comes through move north toward Chelsea piers at all costs. I don't know how long I'm
going to last here it's too dangerous the tower is leaning if the top falls it's going to land
on seven up until that point I was still getting pages from Eugene Gurevich they wouldn't leave
and I said we're leaving let's get going here they had to order them to leave and they eventually did
and that's when we heard the tower collapsing.
All the sirens that you had heard and all the whistles you had heard was gone it was
pure silence and we made our way all the way up to Chelsea piers at some point I commandeered
a coast guard boat as well as a Nassau county police boat they put together this uh
this little navy of theirs and we brought four boats and a ferry into Manhattan
we got them on a boat took them across to Hudson he had buses waiting for them there
on foot by boat swim I was getting home it wasn't until I was able to finally walk at the Chelsea
pier and we found an office that had a hard line and all of us were lined up in the hallway
just waiting to use the phone. I was able to get through and I called my mother and I said ‘Mom,
I'm alive’
That's what happened her mother called me
and told me that she had heard from her. You know I went home just glad to get home.
Once the dust settled we started taking names and just trying to account you know for each and every
individual. I remember that we're at Chelsea piers that's when I first found out about Craig Miller
that he was missing. Joining Dale I'm Kathleen Matthews and we want to take you back several
hours to about 10 o'clock this morning when a plane crashed into the pentagon.
Investigators are still sifting through a crater in Pennsylvania tonight that's all
that's left of United Airlines flight 93. The president began this day in Sarasota, Florida
where he was going to be promoting his agenda on education then flew to Louisiana
then flew to Nebraska and finally when the Secret Service and U.S. law enforcement thought it was
safe now bringing him back to the White House. I remember we were all watching as Marine One landed
on the south grounds and watching President Bush get off and just make a beeline for the
oval office. The president's saying nothing as he walks by. You could just tell on his face
the seriousness the determination and I think we all knew that this was going to be something that
was going to shape our lives and the history of our country. We have been led to believe by some
sources the president would come directly back to Washington. We had gotten punched in the nose and
nobody was going to scare us nobody was going to push us away, work continued work had to continue
we couldn't just stop what we were doing we had to get offices we had to get equipment we had to
ensure everybody was okay, leads that were coming in that needed to be run down so we set up task
forces between the FBI, ATF. we had to recreate all of our cases we lost everything we even had
a couple limos brought up from D.C. put right in front in case anybody came up we had some armored
limos. Quickly the protection started to roll in because everybody wanted to come visit New York
City and visit ground zero it was announced the president was going to come to New York on Friday
this is Wednesday. One of the things was we had to figure out a way to get a motorcade down there I
remember standing with the PPD advanced team that came up around the debris field trying to figure
out where we could put the president. We were making this work the president was going there and
this is what we train to do, we're going to make it work. You had the smoke, you had the debris,
you had the flames. You have to remember I mean he came to the pile there were bodies still being
pulled out of that rubble. One of the people in the crowd said we can't hear you ‘I can hear you’
that wasn't coordinated, no I mean it was a shout from the back ‘I can hear you the rest of
the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.’
I was five feet from the president working my counter surveillance that was a very proud moment.
You knew at that point a sleeping bear had been
awoken it was just an unbelievable sight very emotional and then at the time when it
was over I had to get everybody there on the bus and I had to get them back out that day.
Those three or four months after that day were probably the most difficult time of my life.
You know I think in in many respects it made me
a better agent because I think anybody who was on the job on that day realized that
you know we have a job to do for the country and for the American people.
I continued to work at ground zero for two months until November I worked there every day
we spent a you know a bunch of time up at uh at the landfill sifting through debris
looking for human remains you just wanted to have closure for Craig Miller's family and you
want to have closure for all the thousands of other people that were there we wanted to do
for him what we would want someone to do for us. We worked very hard here with the city in
recovering Craig Miller's remains and it took a few years a true hero obviously a veteran of
the war medic and a great family man we lost that day and represented the Secret Service very well
no matter what grade you were what title you were what your responsibilities were everyone
and especially administrative staff wanted to help out and do the right thing. Even in the days that
followed you know we all came together and we did what we can to help I feel bad for my wife at the
time because uh she couldn't really relate to what I was going through and why I would stare at the
wall or stare at the TV. That's going to stay with me that's going to stay with me I just know
it's no way to get that memory out it's going to be no way so I just have to live with that.
That was the real tragedy of 9/11, the human loss and the impact on the families but I'm so
thankful to this day I'm thankful that I worked for an agency that treated me
like a protectee that day. You know the guys and the girls all you know jumped in
and uh you know everybody worked together and uh it was a an honor.
It's just uh it's just a heavy thing to carry you know every day I'm like I do it and I'm fine
but I just want people to remember those that are no longer with us um not only in New York
but the pentagon and Shanksville um everybody who was lost that day just please don't ever
forget those people. Value everything you have because every day is a blessing
and especially now in such a polarized world uh really just take stock of what's important;
family, friends, share your emotions let people know that you care for them
that they're loved and because at the end that's what matters.