By the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Transatlantic Division Public Affairs Office and Command Team (With excerpts from James D'Ambrosio, USACE New York District)
WINCHESTER, Va. (Sept. 11, 2021) – As we stand at the 20-year mark and look back at one of our nation’s greatest tragedies, what do we remember? What do we hold onto? And what do we carry with us into the decades to come?
Service members, and the civilians and contractors who serve alongside them, are good at carrying things - often very heavy things for long distances. But we also learn to choose carefully what we carry to ensure it serves us and our journey.
Along with what you carry with you from 9/11, I would ask that you add this to your ruck – Unity. You might find that it lightens your burden to carry the knowledge that one of our nation’s greatest tragedies has also been one of our nation’s greatest unified responses.
Americans watched in horror as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
We reacted as individuals in those first moments.
But we responded as a nation with an incredible sense of unity. Unified in our shock and pain and grief. And then unified in our response.
For those at ground zero, I can’t imagine the reality of those first moments and those first reactions. For those of us in the widening ripples from it, the reactions and emotions took longer to settle in and take hold. But the response was immediate.
We responded with action in the moments, days and nights that followed as survivors were rescued and treated. The first responders set an example of bravery and self-sacrifice that is not often seen outside of combat zones.
We responded with strategy in the immediate aftermath to this violence directed at our nation as our government and military engaged across the globe. Ultimately, the Army Corps of Engineers would be the only Army major command with boots-on-the-ground missions in the wake of 9-11.
The New York District’s James D'Ambrosio summed up the Army Corps’ response in an article released this week. He wrote:
“The Army Corps’ emergency response mission supported the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Resources were drawn from all 41 Army Corps of Engineers Districts across the U.S.: Experts in debris removal, structural analysis, urban search and rescue, and emergency electrical power were brought in. At the height of the mission some 300 Army Corps employees were involved.
In the days that followed, Army Corps’ vessels from Caven Point Marine Terminal in New Jersey ferried more than 3,000 people stranded in Lower Manhattan to safety; on return trips they brought emergency equipment and supplies for first responders ─ enabling search-and-rescue efforts to continue 24/7. In addition, the Army Corps’ 249th Engineer Battalion ─ experts in electricity ─ helped restore power to Lower Manhattan by installing 50 1,500-kilowatt generators for the City.
The largest task of 9/11 was removing the 60-foot-high pile of rubble from the Towers’ collapse ─ 1.6 million tons of steel, concrete and furniture. The volume of wreckage and congested roadways made removal by truck impractical. To that end, arrangements were made for emergency dredging of the Hudson and East Rivers to allow barges to transport debris to the Staten Island Landfill where the District’s Construction Division provided oversight for the debris inspection. Some 10,000 tons of debris were removed each day.
This mission was made more difficult as the Towers’ debris was part of an ongoing criminal investigation involving dozens of federal, state and local government agencies combing debris for human remains, personal effects and evidence related to the attacks. All told, police officers recovered 90,000 pieces of personal property and human remains and identified 150 victims.
The disaster response would last nearly a year. Much was accomplished to execute a difficult mission, but the Army Corps’ work was not complete: An assessment after the mission documented lessons learned and areas to improve. The main conclusion acknowledged there will always be man-made disasters that occur without warning and no time to prepare. Since then, the Corps has been practicing for those incidents and held more frequent trainings. As a result ─ across the work force ─ personnel are better prepared to respond quickly.”
We responded with compassion in the months, and then years, that followed, for the victims, their families and those first responders who risked their lives, and gave them, to save their fellow citizens.
To help those still struggling after the attacks, dozens of resources, services, assistance programs and academic scholarships continue to be available to victims, their families and first responders through federal programs, non-profit organizations that began in the aftermath of the attacks, and organizations that created scholarships for victims’ family members.
We responded with selfless service year after year as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, civilians and contractors by volunteering to fight in the Global War on Terrorism. A war from which we are – incredibly – just coming home. Since 2001, 2.77 million service members have served on 5.4 million deployments across the world with Soldiers from the Army accounting for the bulk of them. The numbers of civilians and contractors serving alongside servicemembers at times matched that one for one. And towards the end, often were double.
And along the way, our unified response shifted from shock, grief and pain, to strength, determination and resilience.
That same unity of response – that strength and determination and resilience – can be seen today as our nation, and our Division, comes to grips with the tumultuous exit of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan.
We are responding with action. We are responding with strategy. We are responding with compassion. We are responding with selfless service.
While the mission has changed, the Transatlantic Division continues to respond to the needs of those we have served and those who have supported us during our mission in Afghanistan.
It can be hard to see the progress from the front line but being on that front line also makes the efforts and the progress that much more meaningful. We have spent the last two decades assisting in building foundations in Afghanistan, and we continue to assist in supporting Afghans as they fight to build their future on those foundations.
The Transatlantic Division leveraged the talents of the USACE Contingency Deployment Center (UCDC) and established the Document Request Support Team to respond to the many Afghan National requests for assistance for U.S. Refugee Admissions Priority 2 Program referral and U.S. Department of State’s Afghan Special Immigrant Visa consideration.
The Team is working around the clock to provide support to these requests and to the Division’s workforce as we navigate the changes to the U.S. Central Command’s mission in Afghanistan and beyond.
The Army Corps of Engineers is also supporting FEMA and U.S. Army missions providing temporary housing, medical, and logistical support to the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security for Afghan special immigrants, their families.
We are also supporting our veterans, service members, civilians and contractors who have served in this Global War on Terrorism as they come to grips with the closure of the longest war in our nation’s history.
The enduring power of the Sept. 11 attacks is clear. As is our enduring power. The power of our unified response. And we will carry our strength and determination and resilience with us into the decades to come.
Please take a moment to reflect and embrace those things most important to you as we selflessly serve together. Our thoughts are with each and every one of you.
(Full New York District Article: 20 Years After 9/11: Revisiting an Army Corps’ Disaster Response Like No Other: https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Stories/Story-Article-View/Article/2766098/20-years-after-911-revisiting-an-army-corps-disaster-response-like-no-other/.)
| Date Taken: | 09.10.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 09.10.2021 20:56 |
| Story ID: | 404959 |
| Location: | WINCHESTER, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 136 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Responding to 9/11 – A nation united, by Catherine Carroll, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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