In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, people were nicer to each other. I noticed it everywhere — at the grocery store, in professional settings, among neighbors. It even seemed like people were using their turn signals more often. Everywhere you looked, there were stories of people reaching out to help others, to be more patient, to be kind.
It didn’t last.
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Only months later, people were back to cutting in line, leaving their shopping carts loose in the parking lot, engaging in road rage — all those signs of pettiness and anger reemerged everywhere. There was even a physical altercation at Ground Zero between firefighters and police officers.
While the everyday courtesies faded, what happened on Sept. 11 did not. Every person who was old enough to remember that day was forever changed — firefighters in particular. Everyone has a story about where they were when they heard the news and what they did in the aftermath of the tragedy.
But it’s different now. Most new firefighters entering the service were not even alive on 9/11. So as the 25th anniversary approaches, it seems more important than ever to share with them what it meant to be a firefighter then, and what the legacy of that sacrifice still means today.
FireRescue1 recently put that question to readers directly, asking: What do you wish younger firefighters understood about living through 9/11? The responses reflect several commonly held feelings:
- Service before self.
- The reality that you never know what any shift might bring.
- FDNY firefighters did their job, no questions.
- The fact that people are still dying because of their response to the devastation of that day.
There’s also a subtle current of survivor guilt in some of the comments.
But perhaps one of the most important lessons was expressed years earlier by an FDNY firefighter who worked at the scene of the World Trade Center: “It was horrible, but in the terrible things that happened, a lot of amazing things also happened. The way we all worked together afterward was critical, and I’ll never forget it. It was a unique time in the fire department, in the year that followed. We bonded in a way I don’t think I’ll ever bond with a crew again. We all really needed each other.”
Firefighters do need each other, and this is demonstrated every time they enter a burning building or any other hazardous situation, knowing that the people with them would do anything for them in those critical moments. I never had any doubt that any one of my coworkers would die for me, if it came to that.
Unfortunately, that sense of deep need and connection is sometimes lost under different circumstances. People irritate one another, they sometimes behave badly and even do cruel things, and they even forget that the person they might be harassing in the moment could be the difference between life and death for them just an hour later. They may lose touch with the importance of every single individual, regardless of personal differences or past history.
That may be one of the most important lessons to pass on to the next generation of firefighters after 9/11. As one person commented on FireRescue1: “I wish younger firefighters had a chance to talk with the family members of the firefighters who were killed on September 11 so they would learn that 343 isn’t just a number to be viewed as a whole entity, but rather it’s 343 individuals with a full life of family and friends left behind.”
That understanding shouldn’t stop at the 343, or at New York City. It extends to those who responded to the Pentagon and in Shanksville, those who served in the military, and all the civilian responders who jumped into action and, in some cases, gave their lives that day. And the toll of that day is still climbing. Hundreds more have become sick and died from what they breathed in at Ground Zero, in the weeks and months that first responders searched the rubble for remains.
The lessons of 9/11 must not be forgotten. Those who were firefighters on that day should share their experiences with those who are new to the service and may only know about that day from movies and history books. But even more importantly, those who experienced that day should show those younger people what it meant to be part of the emergency services on 9/11. They can demonstrate through their actions how essential it is to value every individual, the power of empathy and kindness, and what committed teamwork looks like. Living and leading more in this way might be the best tribute to those who gave so much 25 years ago.
