They survived 9/11; 25 years later, their bonds remain unbroken

“You can’t sanitize history,” said Jones. “You can’t sanitize what happened. But at the same time, you have to be sensitive. The horrible images we all remember of people falling or jumping—those people are someone’s husband, wife, child, or parent, and we have a duty to be sensitive to that. We tried to choose archival material that reflected the experiences our participants were having at that moment.” Herlacher braved the falling debris and panicked people running through the streets to help her and was horrified to find the fragment had cut through her back. He waved down a passing ambulance driver who transported St. John to a hospital. She was the first 9/11 patient admitted and the last to be discharged 18 months later after 50 surgeries. St. John spent years working on her rehabilitation, marrying her fiancé, and having children, but she never forgot the man who saved her life. “I remember speaking to Debbie on the phone and she said, ‘I’d love to meet Stefan,’” Jones recalled. “I asked, ‘Well, what would you like to do?’ And she said, ‘I want to take him horseback riding.’ Because she had such terrible injuries and couldn’t walk. She just said, ‘I want to show him how far I’ve come thanks to him.’ So we did that.” Cmdr. Craig Powell was working at the Pentagon when the third plane hit, as was Lt. Col. Marilyn Wills. Wills had been in a meeting and recalled a fireball flying past and singeing her bangs. Trapped in the burning wreckage, Wills led a group of survivors down the corridor, crawling, because she knew there was a window there. The window was bomb-proof and initially wouldn’t open, but Wills and her commanding officer kicked until it popped open. They were on the second floor, so Powell and others on the ground below formed a fireman’s catch as people jumped, one by one. Powell admitted to some apprehension about reuniting with Wills, mostly because of the cameras, but Wills took control of the situation and helped him through it. “I wanted to participate to close the loop,” said Powell. Despite his experiences with active combat, the events of 9/11 hit differently. “It was an attack on American soil,” he said. “It really hit close to home and made me very concerned about the safety of my family.” He was diagnosed with leukemia in 2015, related to his rescue work at the Pentagon that day, but the treatment worked, and he was able to walk his daughter down the aisle for her wedding. “My greatest appreciation is that my kids are alive and I got to watch them grow up,” he said. Kevin Shea had just joined the FDNY’s Ladder 35 unit, and his shift was ending when the first tower was hit. He volunteered to stay on, and his supervisor agreed, but there was no room for him on the trucks. Shea planned to find his own way to the site and meet up with the team there. But when he reached the staging area, he couldn’t find Ladder 35. His crewmates were filmed walking into the South Tower several minutes before it collapsed—the last time any were seen alive. Shea was standing just outside when the tower collapsed. It’s the last thing he remembers. Paramedic Al Kim was working triage in the South Tower Marriott lobby and survived the collapse. He recalled hearing beeping alarms sounding in the wreckage—motion sensors worn by all the firefighters that trigger alarms when the wearer stops moving for a prolonged time. Kim started combing through the wreckage looking for survivors when he came across an unconscious and badly injured Shea, and he salvaged medical supplies from one of the burning ambulances to stabilize the firefighter. When the North Tower started to buckle, he moved Shea to the safety of an underground parking garage nearby, leaving him in the care of another physician who had taken shelter there. Kim never saw Shea after that—until they were reunited for the documentary—and found no other survivors. Shea spent several weeks in the hospital. He had broken his neck in three places and credits Kim’s on-site care not just with saving his life, but with preventing him from becoming quadriplegic. Perhaps the most well-known story—depicted in Oliver Stone’s 2006 film, World Trade Center—is the rescue of Port Authority Police sergeant John McLoughlin. McLoughlin and colleagues William Jimeno and Dominick Pezzulo were on the main concourse between the two towers when the South Tower collapsed, trapping them in the rubble 30 feet underground. Pezzulo was attempting to lift debris off his comrades when the North Tower collapsed 30 minutes later and he was buried by falling debris. McLoughlin was buried up to his elbows, slowly being crushed under the weight, and recalled hearing Pezzulo take his last breath—but not before firing a single shot into the air to alert any rescuers to their location. Meanwhile, above ground, Scott Fox had joined the rescue effort, despite having retired nine months earlier from Rescue 5, as the FDNY formed makeshift companies out of surviving firefighters. So did John Busching of the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit. They risked their lives navigating increasingly unstable debris to help dig out first Jimeno (after 13 hours), then McLoughlin (after 22 hours)—a small victory in the midst of tragedy. McLoughlin was gravely injured and spent six weeks in an induced coma, underwent 27 surgeries during his three weeks in the hospital, and then went through rehabilitation. He still walks with a slight limp. But thanks to Fox, Busching, and several others, “I got to see my kids grow up and meet my grandchildren. How do I thank you for that?” “It’s a big deal to ask someone to share the story of the worst day of their lives,” said Jones. “It is emotional, and it is hard for them, but I was astonished by the bravery of the people who participated. They wanted so badly to meet the person who saved them, or the person they saved. In those fleeting moments, amidst all that chaos and horror, these incredible bonds were formed that can never be broken. Many survivors also have a real sense of gratitude and of a duty to keep telling their stories, to remember that day and all the people who didn’t survive.” Fair warning: 9/11: Reunited is an undeniably powerful documentary series—how could it not be, given the subject matter?—and exquisitely well done. But it’s not an easy watch, and for many who lived through that day, even 25 years might feel a bit too soon to relive those painful memories. (As a former New Yorker who had just moved to DC four months before the attacks, I couldn’t bear to watch more than one episode at a time, and felt pretty wrecked by the end. But nonetheless, I’m glad I persevered.) “It’s a tough watch, and it is emotional,” said Jones. “But I hope what comes out of the series is a sense that, out of all this tragedy, this was a day when people turned up for each other. There was a human instinct to help each other regardless of what you look like or believe in. People just wanted to help. Personally, I found that incredibly moving.” 9/11: Reunited premieres August 21 on National Geographic. It will be available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu the following day. Credit: National Geographic Credit: National Geographic