By Terri Tobin
Chief of Interagency Operations, NYPD
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Twenty years. Two decades. In police parlance, it is an entire career.
In some ways Sept. 11, 2001, feels like it was just yesterday and, in other ways, it feels like a long time ago. There are, however, reminders every day.
In the New York City Police Department, in addition to the 23 members who were killed responding to the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001, we have lost an additional 269 members who succumbed to 9/11 health-related illnesses, with 82 cases ongoing. Among their illnesses are cancer, rare blood diseases and dementia. Their families have suffered along with them.
At the University at Albany, we lost 19 alumni. Now, as the University begins Fall 2021 semester, the majority of incoming freshmen were not even born yet.
As the United States exits Afghanistan, we are reminded of the toll it has taken. According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University: At almost 20 years, the military mission in Afghanistan is America’s longest war.
2,442 U.S. troops have been killed along with 3,800 U.S. private security contractors.
Some 20,666 Americans have been wounded.
At least 47,245 Afghan civilians had been killed as of mid-April.
As much evil there was on 9/11, there was so much good seen in the aftermath. People arrived in New York City, not only from across the state and the nation, but from all over the world. We could not have recovered as well as we did without that support. And the support came in all different forms: from those who worked the “pile,” to those who stood for hours along the West Side Highway to cheer and clap as first responders headed down to the site. We came together globally and we found that what makes us human is that people hurt the same way; not one of us suffers without all of us suffering.
On this Sept. 11, as with almost everyone before it, I will be standing at the World Trade Center site when the bell rings and the first of 2,977 names is read aloud. They are the names of the people killed in the terrorist attack and of the six killed in the bombing of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993.
I will join the throngs of people holding photos of someone who was so dear to them and, in many cases, so young, and just know their life was never the same after that day. We will be standing there when the bell rings five more times: at 9:03, when a plane struck the south tower; at 9:37, when a plane hit the Pentagon; at 9:59, when the south tower collapsed; at 10:03, when a hijacked plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers staged a revolt; and at 10:28, when the north tower fell.
I will then travel to FDNY Ladder 20 and lay flowers at the base of the 9/11 memorial, where the photo of my cousin Robert Linnane hangs. He was only 33 years old.
I think about the ending of the movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” in which Tom Hank’s character says to Private Ryan, for whom several troops died trying to save him, “Now earn it.” Twenty years later, I hope and pray I have earned it.
Chief Theresa Tobin is a 38-year veteran of the New York Police department and was critically injured as a 9/11 first responder. She earned her PhD in criminal justice from UAlbany in 2011.
By Terri Tobin
Chief of Interagency Operations, NYPD
Twenty years. Two decades. In police parlance, it is an entire career.
In some ways Sept. 11, 2001, feels like it was just yesterday and, in other ways, it feels like a long time ago. There are, however, reminders every day.
In the New York City Police Department, in addition to the 23 members who were killed responding to the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001, we have lost an additional 269 members who succumbed to 9/11 health-related illnesses, with 82 cases ongoing. Among their illnesses are cancer, rare blood diseases and dementia. Their families have suffered along with them.
At the University at Albany, we lost 19 alumni. Now, as the University begins Fall 2021 semester, the majority of incoming freshmen were not even born yet.
As the United States exits Afghanistan, we are reminded of the toll it has taken. According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University: At almost 20 years, the military mission in Afghanistan is America’s longest war.
2,442 U.S. troops have been killed along with 3,800 U.S. private security contractors.
Some 20,666 Americans have been wounded.
At least 47,245 Afghan civilians had been killed as of mid-April.
As much evil there was on 9/11, there was so much good seen in the aftermath. People arrived in New York City, not only from across the state and the nation, but from all over the world. We could not have recovered as well as we did without that support. And the support came in all different forms: from those who worked the “pile,” to those who stood for hours along the West Side Highway to cheer and clap as first responders headed down to the site. We came together globally and we found that what makes us human is that people hurt the same way; not one of us suffers without all of us suffering.
On this Sept. 11, as with almost everyone before it, I will be standing at the World Trade Center site when the bell rings and the first of 2,977 names is read aloud. They are the names of the people killed in the terrorist attack and of the six killed in the bombing of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993.
I will join the throngs of people holding photos of someone who was so dear to them and, in many cases, so young, and just know their life was never the same after that day. We will be standing there when the bell rings five more times: at 9:03, when a plane struck the south tower; at 9:37, when a plane hit the Pentagon; at 9:59, when the south tower collapsed; at 10:03, when a hijacked plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers staged a revolt; and at 10:28, when the north tower fell.
I will then travel to FDNY Ladder 20 and lay flowers at the base of the 9/11 memorial, where the photo of my cousin Robert Linnane hangs. He was only 33 years old.
I think about the ending of the movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” in which Tom Hank’s character says to Private Ryan, for whom several troops died trying to save him, “Now earn it.” Twenty years later, I hope and pray I have earned it.
Chief Theresa Tobin is a 38-year veteran of the New York Police department and was critically injured as a 9/11 first responder. She earned her PhD in criminal justice from UAlbany in 2011.
