Memories linger for millions 25 years after two commercial passenger airplanes were hijacked and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Members of Ohio Task Force 1 in Dayton were called to help in finding survivors and clearing tons of debris.
Rescue team manager Mike Muhl was one of those members who responded.
Muhl spoke with WOSU's Debbie Holmes about his memories of responding along with his team to the attack on the World Trade Center.
Debbie Holmes: What were your first thoughts when you found out what had happened?
Mike Muhl: I think like most of the country, we were in shock and surprise, but then we realized that due to the scope and breadth of the incident, that New York City was going to be in dire need of assistance. And at that point, our personnel were just focused on being able to get up there as quickly as possible and give as much aid and assistance as we possibly could.
Debbie Holmes: Were you hesitant at all to go to New York?
Mike Muhl: I think there was some hesitance just from the standpoint of not understanding how this might look on a more national and global level, but there was absolutely no hesitation amongst the personnel at wanting to engage. We had some personal relationships with many New York City police and firefighters, and at that point the people were trained, and they had spent years developing...and they just really wanted to engage and be able to be up there to offer aid.
Debbie Holmes: What did you see when you first arrived?
Mike Muhl: As we were coming across the bridges into Manhattan, we were able to still see the columns of smoke and the skyline looked very different for those team members who had been to New York City before. It was a very different appearance to the skyline, very eerie. It was also very eerie not being surrounded by traffic, which was very unusual. And then we spent the first few hours that morning getting set up in the Jacob Javits Center, which was our rear staging area, and getting down to Ground Zero in the Liberty Division and selecting a forward base of operations and getting all of our equipment and personnel staged.
Debbie Holmes: You arrived then Sept. 12?
Mike Muhl: We arrived at 5:30 in the morning of Sept. 12.
Debbie Holmes: And how many people were there with your group?
Mike Muhl: We took a team of 81.
Debbie Holmes: How difficult was the actual work to remove debris while trying to find survivors?
Mike Muhl: The work was extremely difficult. It was difficult physically. It was mentally challenging, especially as we were engaged for the first 24 to 48 hours and it became a little more apparent that survivors were going to be very scarce, and that we were dealing with some much different type of incident in the form of recovery versus rescue. It was very challenging for everybody to wrap their head around that.
Debbie Holmes: I assume you talked to first responders that were from New York City there. Can you tell me what their thoughts were, what they were saying?
Mike Muhl: They were very much in shock. A lot of them were emotionless. A lot of them were, you know, just trying to focus so intently on finding survivors that, you know, they were very, very focused, but, yet at the same time, very absent from any other type of conversation. So, our goal really was to try to integrate with them and to relieve them and assist them as much as possible because you could tell the amount of strain that this incident had already placed on them.
Debbie Holmes: I bet they were very thankful, though, for the outside help.
Mike Muhl: It was very strange because New York City is such a large department, and New York City is very used to being able to handle these types of incidents, anything that would have happened within the boundaries of New York City on their own. And this is the first time that they really had this much outside assistance coming in. So, it was very strange for them. But we did, we got a great reception when they realized that we had capabilities that could immediately be used.
Debbie Holmes: Did members of the task force have to deal with any health effects after being at Ground Zero?
Mike Muhl: We've had members who in the years past have developed some illnesses related to the World Trade Center, and we are continuously monitored with the World Trade Center Health Monitoring Program.
Debbie Holmes: How about you?
Mike Muhl: I do have a few conditions that are being treated. Fortunately, none of them are serious right now, and we're thankful for that, and we're fortunate that Ohio Task Force 1 has not suffered any losses due to that.
Debbie Holmes: What are you doing tomorrow to commemorate what happened?
Mike Muhl: Our team and the members, we have 15 members left who are still active on Ohio Task Force 1 that deployed to Sept. 11 and we’ll be getting together and spending time together. A lot of times in the years past, since our deployment, that's how we choose to spend that time is informal, and just spending time with each other and reinforcing those bonds of camaraderie that were formed during that deployment.
