USA: Five years after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Americans are still horrified by the memories of that day

Days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the U.S., John Cartier walked by Ground Zero, taking a long hard look at the site where he spent more than seven months trying to recover his brother James' body. On September 11, 2001, 26-year-old James was trapped on the 105th floor of The World Trade Center. He telephoned his brother after the first plane hit the towers and the two made plans to meet on the street, where they would look for their sister Michele, who worked in Tower 2. Roaming the chaotic streets of downtown covered with hot ash and silt, John and Michele found one another, and after the collapse of the first tower, the pair headed home. James never made it out. He did manage to call his family several times, telling his sister Marie on the last call, "tell mom and dad I love them more than anything." "If I could talk to him now, I'd tell him I'm sorry - that I would trade in all the times that I helped him out to switch places with him and to have gotten to him that day," John says, as tears well in his eyes. "I've even calculated in my own head, he's 105 floors up, each floor is about 13 feet, floor to ceiling, the machine rooms are a little bit longer, machine rooms are about 15-20 feet. So I've calculated how many feet I was away from him. This is what you do, you calculate numbers." A few days after the attacks, John began volunteering at Ground Zero, determined to find his brother's body. While he never recovered the body himself, over the course of the next three years, various body parts were found in the recovery efforts. As a result of the trauma, John says he can't be in situations where he is not in control. "I can't go to a rock concert or something because I have to be near the exits, I can't take the trains. I can't, I can't be in a place where I am not in control of being able to either get to my family or to get out." Attempting to cope with their loss, the Cartier family founded Give Your Voice, an organisation dedicated to helping WTC victims' families. John also made several personal tributes to James, including a tattoo of James on his right arm. He also spent $20 thousand (USD) refurbishing James' beloved Harley Davidson, adorning it with images of James, his siblings and the Twin Towers. Just down the street from Ground Zero at St. Paul's chapel, others pay tribute to those that lost their lives. The small building became a memorial site in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Flowers, photographs, keepsakes and tokens lined the halls and the grounds of the chapel. The site is still a memorial of sorts, lined with photographs of the missing and banners sending messages of love and hope. While they've come to see Ground Zero and the surrounding area, some Americans say they're still haunted by the attacks. Alan Bridges lives just two blocks from the site. He says he'll never forget the sound of the first sirens on the scene. But he is more concerned about his young daughter. "I have a daughter who was eight years old at the time and she has not been the same, she still has nightmares about this." Lee Daley says she too is still terrified and says she shrinks at the thought of the attacks. It's too much to bear, she says. "It's just like a haunting feeling, where you look, you feel, you remember. And its hard, very hard." But Daley says she has a whole new appreciation for fire-fighters and police. She considers them almost "as close as family" now. Artists too are paying tribute to fire-fighters with photography exhibits celebrating the rescue workers. Ladder 79 Battalion Chief Michael Puzziferri, who was at Ground Zero within hours of the attack, says he was just doing his job. Puzziferri says the image of faces of people trapped behind windows up in the World Trade center just before it collapsed, has only stiffened his resolve as a firefighter. The 52-year-old commander of the Fire Department of New York's Battalion 27 in the Bronx, said in an interview that nothing in more than 20 years with the fire department prepared him for that day's events. "The people on the top floors, behind the windows. They appeared not to be injured but they were trapped and they all died in the collapse and some even jumped. That's horrific to me and that's one of those things that makes me want to help change the world." Following September 11, the number of fire-fighters retiring from the department spiked. In 2002, a total of 1,221 retired compared to the usual annual average of about 500. But the number of people who wanted to join the department was as high as ever, with firefighting jobs the most sought after civil service posts in the city, a department spokesman said, indicating the extraordinary danger and deaths of 2001 were no deterrent.

ITN Source | September 7, 2006

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