NEW YORK -- "For years, authorities wondered about the
identity of a U.S. Marine who appeared at the World
Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, helped find a pair of
police officers buried in the rubble, then vanished.
...Thomas, who had been out of the Marine Corps about a
year, was dropping his daughter off at his mother's
Long Island home when she told him planes had struck
the towers.
He retrieved his Marine uniform from his truck, sped
to Manhattan and had just parked his car when one of
the towers collapsed. Thomas ran toward the center of
the ash cloud.
"Someone needed help. It didn't matter who," he said.
"I didn't even have a plan. But I have all this
training as a Marine, and all I could think was, 'My
city is in need.'"
Thomas bumped into another ex-Marine, ***********, and the pair decided to search for survivors.
Carrying little more than flashlights and an
infantryman's shovel, they climbed the mountain of
debris, skirting dangerous crevasses and shards of
red-hot metal, calling out "Is anyone down there?
United States Marines!"
The cops and firemen needed help. There were lots of men pitching in, some retired servicemen, and the ones who had uniforms available hurredly donned their old gear. Made things easier. The authorities weren't chasing away anyone in a uniform, and some guys did all they could and saved some lives that day. One incredible dumbass (that I love like a brother) stopped in his tracks and said, "but shit, we're not active anymore can we identify ourselves as Marines?" He would have been decked but someone was just too tired to exert the effort.
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