Remembering 9/11

Last year, Cindy Wolff and I interviewed local firefighters who made the scene at the Pentagon on 9/11 with Tennessee Task Force One.  About a week before the ten year anniversary of Sept. 11, these heroes bravely worked with us to bring buried memories to the surface.

You can click on their pictures with this interactive feature and read our vignettes. This was a project with lasting power, and I'm happy to share it again today.

 http://www.commercialappeal.com/remembering-911/

In August 2001, members of Tennessee Task Force One completed training to work in collapsed buildings, information they planned to retain along with other skills they learned.
Then came September.
Four hours after the attacks, 62 men and two women raced home, grabbed their gear - backpacks, steel-toed boots, knee pads, elbow pads, breathing masks helmets, leather gloves - then boarded buses headed to the nation’s capital while other teams from around the U.S. flooded into New York.
When they arrived at the Pentagon less than 24 hours after the attack, the Memphis area team - doctors, nurses, firefighters - joined federal agencies and others already there. They worked 12 hour shifts, slept three or four hours, searching for human remains, shoring up walls, removing debris - fueled by purpose and anger.