| Never forget the heroism of ordinary Americans on 9/11. Thank you Sgt. Thomas. |
Even the producers of the new film chronicling the rescue, "World Trade Center," couldn't locate the mystery serviceman. The only name he'd given at the scene was "Sgt. Thomas."
The puzzle was finally solved when one Jason Thomas, of Columbus, Ohio, happened to catch a TV commercial for the new movie a few weeks ago as he relaxed on his couch. His eyes widened as he saw two Marines with flashlights, hunting for survivors atop the smoldering ruins. "That's us. That's me!" thought the New York native, now working as a court officer in Ohio's Supreme Court.
Thomas, 32, hesitantly re-emerged last week to recount the role he played in the rescue of Port Authority police officers Will Jimeno and Sgt. John McLoughlin, who were entombed beneath 20 feet of debris when the twin towers collapsed.
Now a father of five, Thomas had been out of the Marine Corps for about a year when the terrorists struck. He was dropping a daughter off at his mother's Long Island home when she delivered the news. "My mother insisted it must be an accident," he said. Thomas believed differently.
Rushing to his car, he dug in his trunk, retrieved his Marine uniform and put it on.
Minutes later, he was speeding toward Manhattan, eventually finding himself on the West Side Highway following a convoy of police cars. He had just parked when one of the towers collapsed. "All I saw was ash. Ash coming in my direction," Thomas said.
As it billowed around him, he knelt by the side of his car and pulled his shirt up over his mouth. Then, he got up and ran at the center of the 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 spent hours putting people on stretchers and setting up triage stations before bumping into another ex-Marine, Staff Sgt. David Karnes. Like him, Karnes had also grabbed his fatigues and headed into Manhattan when he learned of the attacks.
Acting on their own, the pair decided to search for survivors. Carrying little more than flashlights and an infantryman's shovel, they climbed the mountain of debris and began an hours-long hunt, skirting dangerous crevasses and shards of red-hot metal, calling out "Is anyone down there? United States Marines!"
It was dark before they finally heard a response. The two crawled into a deep pit to find McLoughlin and Jimeno, injured but alive. Even then, getting help wasn't easy. Thomas clambered back to the surface and feverishly tried to flag down other rescuers in the dark. Karnes phoned his sister in Pennsylvania and had her relay their location to 911 dispatchers.
Jimeno would spend 13 hours in the pit before he was pulled free. Thomas stayed long enough to see him come up, but couldn't find the strength to wait for McLoughlin, who remained pinned for another nine hours. "I was completely exhausted. I just had to get out of that hole," Thomas said.
He stumbled away and drove home, stopping to hose himself off in his backyard. "I knew my wife would kill me if I went in to the house with all that ash," he said.
Thomas said he returned to ground zero every day for another 2 1/2 weeks to pitch in, then walked away and tried to forget. "I didn't want to relive what took place that day," he said.
As for his story, Thomas said he is gradually becoming more comfortable telling it. "It's been like therapy," he said.