Police Recall Responding to 9/11 Attacks [Video]

Many people remember where they were the moment they heard about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and for some Warren residents, the wounds are still healing.

Vounteers with the fire department and the rescue squad, as well as local police, provided crucial support to the response after the attacks.

For Warren police officers Danny Gleeson, Troy Cline, Herb Hentschel and Chief Russell Leffert, the sights and memories they have of the days after the attacks have shaped the officers they are today, and the ways they conduct their jobs.

These officers transported food and medical supplies in to the Ground Zero site in the days following 9/11, when the burning embers of the World Trade Towers provided an eery glow in the sky, and only emergency responders and military people were in lower Manhattan. 

They vividly remember the impact of seeing the "war zone" of Ground Zero up close, of how painful it was to see.

"Once you got there, you just wanted to crawl into a ball," Ofc. Gleeson said. "Everything was covered in ash."

Ofc. Gleeson, who declined to be videotaped, was a 25-year-old fresh-faced cop transporting food in for the workers at the site. He'd waited three weeks to have a chance to do something to help, just wanting "to be a part of helping."

"It didn't matter (what the job was)," he said. Once at the site, he felt a part of a "brotherhood."

"You felt the teamwork," he said. "That's enough for me to go for another 25 years in this career and know I did something. I was a part of a historic response."

The officers discussed the changes 9/11 brought to police work, including being prepared for more extreme situations than before, as well as communicating with other jurisdictions to prevent repetition of the attacks.

But it also changed the way they feel about police work, bolstering the core reasons why they became police officers.

"You want to feel you're worth wearing this badge," Ofc. Gleeson said. "I'm not talking about glory; it's about honor and integrity—and you don't walk away from the times when it's called on.

"I want to be there," he said. "I want to be part of it."