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>> She was supposed to be at the building.
My mom should have been at the Pentagon.
She didn't make it that day because she stopped
by her boss' office to check on him
and to get him before going to a meeting.
We all do that.
She asked if he was coming, he said hold on a second,
I've got a phone call from my sister,
something's going on.
She waited a few more minutes,
he said something's wrong, something's wrong,
a plane has apparently hit the World Trade Center.
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>> Well the day started for me on 9/11,
I woke up and it was a beautiful day
and I had a one year old daughter
who I hadn't had a chance to spend much time with
and I decided to take the morning off.
>> 9/11 started like any other day,
I actually was working a late shift
that day and,
you know I got a call saying
that the Trade Center had been hit.
>> Well on the morning of September 11th
I was working for Verizon,
I was a splicing foreman in Commack, New York,
and driving around, doing my normal duties,
checking up on my guys in the field
when I got a phone call from one of my friends
saying that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
>> I heard a loud boom behind me followed
by a reverberation of the window.
I turned to see the World Trade Center,
about ten floors were on fire.
>> So I actually turned on the TV
to see what was going on and the minute
I turned on the TV the second plane hit the tower
and at that point I knew immediately that it was an act of terrorism.
>> We ran down the 11 stories,
out the door, onto the street,
there were people everywhere,
it was a lot of chaos and confusion.
I walked about a block west of the office
where I could get a better view of the World Trade Center
so I can see exactly what was happening.
I don't think anybody could have imagined at that moment
that the towers would actually come down.
>> So, on 9/11 I was I law school, I had an early morning class.
I finished my class, went to the library and was studying
when some classmates of mine walked up and told me
a bomb had gone off at the Pentagon.
You know the wedge that ultimately was hit by the plane,
that wedge was her office space,
it was lots of people's office space
but that was my mom's office space.
>> Obviously the adrenalin started flowing in my body.
You know, you don't know what to do at the time,
you have to compose yourself.
We got the call from our Commander
to get ready, pack gear bags,
we might not be home for several days.
>> And so I went back to my apartment and we waited.
And we waited and we waited and we waited for the phone
to ring and the phone rang but it wasn't my mom.
It wasn't my mom for about four and a half hours.
Four and a half hours later my mom finally calls me
‘cause she had to walk from the parking lot of the Pentagon,
because she made it that far, across a lot of major thoroughfares,
back to Crystal City to her office.
She made it back to her office and the first thing
she did was she called me.
>> After working a couple of hours helping out on that pile of rubble,
just looking for people,
escorting people to ambulances,
all the agents in my group found ourselves walking funny
and our soles had melted a little bit
from the heat of that pile,
and agents had to replace their boots on a recurring basis,
those who worked there on a day to day basis.
There's a lot of things racing through your mind,
how could this be, how did this happen,
and hopefully there was something
that we could do that would save lives.
>> There was certainly that feeling that life as we knew
it would never be the same again.
Immediately after 9/11,
and certainly on the day as well,
I was overwhelmed with the feeling that,
you know,
I had to do something to help,
had to do something to make a difference.
>> After that day I knew I had to make a change
and I wanted to make a change the best I could,
to do the most good I could,
and Immigration and Customs Enforcement
was hiring so I put in for that job,
and in August of 2005 I started with ICE.
>> What working for the government meant to me before 9/11
and after 9/11 were two entirely different things.
>> I believe that 9/11 is very important to the United States
and it's important to ICE
because our job is to protect the people.
>> Working or ICE is a tremendous source of pride for me.
Immigration Customs Enforcement was borne out of the events of 9/11
and it was set up specifically to address threats
that face our homeland.
>> And that's our job, to go into harm's way when everyone is evacuated.
It shows how important that the job and the mission is for ICE
to keep the homeland safe, and the bottom line
is that we must protect the people of the country
and then, at the end of the day,
we all must go home to our families.
My job now I love.
I wake up every morning between 3:30 and four o'clock in the morning
and I don't hit the snooze.
I mean I'm making a change,
we're out there arresting bad guys
and making the community safe
and that's the best I can hope for.
>> There have been hard times certainly through my career
but what carries me through is knowing
that what I do makes a difference,
it makes a very big difference.
>> The mission of the Department and of the Agency is unparalleled.
The ability to provide the nation
with all the tools it needs to protect the country,
what would I say to the folks at DHS or the folks at ICE?
I would say thank you. Right?
I come from a place where I know this work is hard
and it can be trying,
but the benefit that we bring to this country,
in an effort to prevent
what almost happened to me that day, never again.
Never again. Not on my watch.
Not on my watch, um-um.
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