Today I will get my FDNY uniform on and join my Brothers at the WTC and stand in honor and respect.   I will pass the exact spot where I stood as the north tower fell and like always....wonder why I am still here.   The north tower took maybe 18 seconds to fall.  I was frozen still as it did.  In my mind it was over and I stood wondering what it was going to feel like...horror! 

I didn't even kneel or try and run.  I stood.   I was in the rubble of the south tower at the corner of Liberty & Greenwich.  My vision was poor from the heavy dust that filled the area when I heard a train or a windstorm.  The sound was not good is all I knew.   It was muffeled to a low pitch that grew stronger sending vibration thru my body.  I could not move,

My first movement came from the storm of dust and wind that pushed me to my knees.   I remember grabbing onto some metal.   The shower of dust covered me as my arm sheilded my face and eyes under my helmet.   The only protection I had was my old turn-out coat and my old helmet I grabbed from my house in Staten Island.  

Moments after things settled I heard nothing!   The quiet was scary.  Papers flew around raining down onto the rubble for hours.  The scene began to move with people, mostly Firefighters covered in thick dust.  They coughed and dusted themselves off and walked slowly in a daze.  It was the silence that made an erie scene worse.

 The firefighters migrated to eachother as the dust rose.  Everyone spitting and trying to take a breath of clean air...there was none.    I seen a firefighter on his knee struggeling to get to his feet as he held his ribs.   I grabed his arms to help and he lifted his face.  It was my best friend Lt. Tom McGoff from E217   His face covered as he recognized me   KEV?  are we in hell?

That was his first words to me.  I nodded yes we are!   

So today on the 9th year of that day I will wear my uniform and stand with Tom McGoff and honor the memory.  We will walk by protesters who scream about the lie of it all.  Kids mostly who believe the goverment did all this.   We will shake our heads and move on.

Mostly we will see families holding pictures of the people they lost.  We will see firefighters from around the FDNY as well as around the world.  We will stand as one. 

MY view is the FDNY did what they had to do but to the Firefighters from around the world who came to our sides...YOU did more for us than you will ever know....YOU HELPED RESCUE THE FDNY!

NEVER FORGET

Kevin O'Brien

FDNY-Special Operations  retired!

www.fdnygolf.com  my tribute to our Brothers!