It has been 10 years but there is one memory, one set of conflicting emotions, that will never leave me and always brings me to tears just thinking about it.
As a first responder to WTC at ground zero, I vividly remember the wave of emotions that hit as we approached the site. Due to the congestion, barricades, and people, we had to park the fire apparatus far away. As we walked, people cheered...came out to greet us....shook our hands and the feeling was incredible. Yet as we got closer, the tone of the crowd changed. We were now approached by friends and families of the missing - each asking us to look for their husband, wife, son, daughter...each showing us pictures...each one crying as they begged for us to find their loved ones. Then we actually reached the site. TV images could not prepare someone for the horror they were about to see, to smell, and to taste. That wave of emotions, the highest high followed by the lowest low, within a span of minutes will forever stay with me.
Through all the bad, it was also a proud time. Neighbors came together. For a short time, we were all a bit nicer to each other as a nation. It was a great feeling.
Since the attacks, it is an event that is never far from my mind. On certain days, a plane flying in the sky....at just a certain angle...brings me back. I would be remiss if I did not mention a friend - Jimmy Zadroga. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was named for a friend who was the first documented emergency responder (police officer) to die from 9/11 complications.
In all that happened during the attacks, rescue, recovery, and aftermath...I have been forever changed.
Scott Hughes
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