COLUMBIA, MO. -- As we approach the 10th anniversary of 911, KRCG News is having a series of special reports reflecting back on that important day in our history.
The terrorist attacks had a tremendous impact on our lives and our nation.
Mid-Missouri has a special connection to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. Members of the Missouri Task Force One Search and Rescue Team spent 11 days searching through rubble only to find no survivors. Retired Columbia Firefighter Dean Martin was one of the Missouri Task Force One Members to experience the attacks first hand. Martin said his experience at the World Trade Center has changed his life.
Martin said, “It makes me appreciate my family a whole lot more. I was deployed to one of the most dangerous scenes that there have ever been in the United States history.”
KRCG randomly asked some people outside of Columbia’s post office how 911 impacted their lives.
They said, “You get a little more cautious in certain situations that you might not have before that you kind of take for granted.”, “I went back to New York and we actually saw the site where it happened. I think overall, it makes me proud to be an American citizen just looking back at how the whole country came together.”, “I think I’m more patriotic than I was before 911. Financially, it has affected me because of gas prices and everything else going up.”, “Whoever does something terrible like that to the united states will be found and will be dealt with. We made that very clear. We hunted him down until we got him and that made me feel better. America will get those that hurt us.”
Since 911, more than 1000 first responders who were on the scene within the days after the attacks have died. Those who are still alive say we are better prepared 10 years later.
Just 6 days after the World Trade Center attacks, KRCG’s Mark Slavit reported from Ground Zero along side members of Missouri Task Force One and Red Cross Volunteers from Jefferson City.
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