I have always admired the Twin Towers. My late father worked in the WTC in the late 70s for the NYS Insurance Department on the 90th floor, and I used to go to his office and enjoy the view. I remember looking out at the huge King Kong figure when they filming the movie in the 70s.

My father and I used to go to Saint Nicholas Church, which was in the shadow of the WTC, on Wednesdays to say a prayer and light a candle. It was a beautiful old church that was destroyed on 9/11 and finally rebuilt.

My wife of 31 years and I visited the observation deck on a date many years ago and took photos that I need to find. We even saw the drawing by the famous tightrope walker from France who walked from tower to tower.

911 was a beautiful day and as usual I took the subway from Atlantic Avenue Station in Brooklyn to Wall Street that morning. Had I gone upstairs in Brooklyn instead, I would have seen the first plane hit Tower 1.

I arrived by subway at Wall and William Streets. Upon walking to my office at 40 Wall Street, in the Trump building, I saw folders and checks scattered in the street, and papers streaming down like confetti through the air. I didn’t know what happened, but then I heard 1010 WINS on a nearby car radio reporting that a plane struck the WTC.

I went to my building and my co-workers had come down to the front lobby. We decided to go and see what happened. We worked for CNA in the Claims Division. We walked out of the north side of our building onto Pine Street and towards Broadway. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise and people started screaming and running back towards our building. A friend of mine was closer to Broadway and I asked him what he saw. He said a second plane struck the WTC ! I asked if it was a small plane (which is what we thought the first one was) and he said no, it was a jumbo jet. At that moment I knew our country was under attack! My late Aunt Ellen had been in the Empire Stare building when it was struck by a plane on a foggy day during WW2. I think this was the only other time an event like this had happened.

We went to our desks and were told to stay put, and that the company was calling home office, miles away and an hour behind in Chicago, for further direction. Phone service was sketchy, partly because of the damage done to the large antenna atop Tower 1. About 20 minutes later, the building started to shake and there was a long loud noise. People started screaming and said get to the middle (of the floor) as we thought the windows were going to shatter. Later, we realized this was the Tower 2 falling the first one to implode ! We never thought it would fall in that fashion, but had no way of knowing. The cloud of thick smoke ash rolling through the streets was pitch black, until it slowly settled. Then you could see a war zone, a thick layer of grey dust covered everything.

Shortly thereafter the same thing happened again. Tower 1 collapsed on itself. This time I remember thinking how awful it was that so many people must have died. We then started preparing to leave, I grabbed wet paper towels for my face. We walked downstairs and at the first floor was a maintenance man with an old fashioned full gas mask on. This was very scary, and we had no idea what we were walking into. We also had no idea if more attacks were planned.

Once outside, we walked north past Beekman Hospital and were given masks. My first priority was to try to call my wife at home on Long Island who was pregnant with our first son. My second issue was to try to find my father, who worked on John St & Broadway and had a recent knee replacement and unable to walk very well. He ended up being outside during the times when both towers fell. He was a Navy Vet and led people to an arch on a building on Fulton Street, so they could be safe from falling debris, and told everyone to pull their jackets over their heads to protect their faces. He was able to get a ride home from his good friend Steve Boon who ran an insurance agency, Harold Lee & Sons, in Chinatown.

Myself and my coworkers made it to the Brooklyn Bridge and north of it there was no more dust. I spoke with several police officers and no-one knew if the LIRR was running trains out of Brooklyn. The smell was awful, kind of like the smell after an electrical fire, and it lasted for weeks. The air was not safe to breathe for months, despite what he government told us.

I decided to walk to Penn Station, with F16’s now patrolling the skies, as my sister had an apartment nearby, and if there was no train service to Long Island, I would try to stay at her place.

I ended up catching a train home around 4 PM. CNA called all NYC employees and to report everyone in our company survived ! 9/11 was a Tuesday and we were closed for over a week, as power was diverted for the stock market, which opened on Monday. We re-opened the following Thursday.

I very much appreciate Mr. Sinise’s efforts to support our nations defenders, veterans, first responders and their families. He a true patriot. My son went to Wantagh High School in New York, and traveled to the WW 2 museum with the Soaring Valor Program and was matched up with a veteran, Mr. Charlie Moore. James learned so much from this experience and these veterans came to the WHS for his classes 2023 graduation. I had visited the D Day Museum back when it first opened. Our family also got to see and hear the Sergeant Dan Band at Constitution Hall in DC on Memorial Day weekend two years ago. It was an unforgettable night! Thank you for reading my experience of 9/11, it was indeed a paradigm shift in our world.