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ELKINS – New York City was not a popular destination in the days following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, the current mayor of Elkins, Jerry Marco, had no choice but to get to the Big Apple because at that time he was in the middle of a 28-year career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“In fact, when September 11th happened, I was in Salt Lake City, Utah, helping to prepare for the Olympics” Marco, who was a frontline supervisor at the time of the attacks, told The Inter-Mountain.
“We had a meeting scheduled with the Governor of Utah that day and my alarm went off when I heard the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. So I turned on the television and just like I did, the second plane fell. It was one of the surreal moments when you can’t believe what you see.
Immediately after the second plane landed in the Twin Towers, Marco picked up the phone and called back his office on the east coast.
“At that point it was all in turmoil, so my colleague and I who were with me thought we needed to get back east as quickly as possible because we were part of a rapid deployment team. “ he said.
Because most flights across the country, and in particular to New York, were suspended after the attacks, Marco and his colleague spent the next three days crossing the country in a one-way rental.
“A few days after this happened, I was in New York with a team working on recovery and identification,” he said. “It was just a surreal moment and the thing I remember most is the stench – the smell of combustion and fuel. And even when I go back there today, even though it doesn’t it’s not there, I still feel it because I was there and I felt it everyday for so many weeks.
Marco said seeing Ground Zero for the first time was like getting a punch that you never got over.
“When you see something like this and you realize that someone has walked into your house and done it, it is something that you will never get over.” he said. “It changed the way Americans lived their lives and changed the mission of the FBI as a whole.”
Marco, from Elkins, spent two weeks in New York after the attacks. After getting a break to go home for a short time, he then returned to New York to continue his work.
“Our team was responsible for a lot of identifications at Ground Zero”, Marco said. “It was miserable work that you never want to do again, but at the same time you could close families. The work itself was not good because you are in the mud and the mud seeing these bodies. But being able to end families and friends was the silver lining in it all. “
While working in New York City, Marco said his emotions and those of his colleagues changed from time to time and they sometimes got very angry with what had happened. But then they started talking about the resilience of the country and how everyone was going to fare.
“Our emotions were definitely changing all the time”, he said. “Especially when you see how many siblings were lost by the firefighters and police officers we were working with. Your heart has really gone out to them.
After completing his work in New York, Marco decided to continue the fight against terrorism.
“I could probably have finished after my job in New York, but they asked me if I would be interested in going abroad”, Marco said. “I told them absolutely because I felt I had to help make a difference for our country.”
Over the next 19 years, Marco spent time sailing the seas and following tracks, with his primary focus being the Middle East. Most of his time has been spent in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.
“I saw a lot of things that I never want to see again during my time overseas, but we have done a lot to help protect the United States,” he said. “I know we have helped stop other things from happening in this country.”
Asked about the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 celebrations that are planned across the country this weekend, Marco replied: “I don’t want to call it a celebration, there is nothing to celebrate, but we have to honor all first responders and the innocent victims.”
“Your heart goes out to them and to those who served in the army and went abroad to try to obtain justice for us” he said. “Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice and we have to give them the proper respect.”
Marco said the only positive thing that came out of that tragic day was the unity it created among Americans.
“As terrible as 9/11 was, it actually brought this country closer together.” Marco said. “Anytime I see the 180s we took today and how much division there is in our country, you don’t want something like that to happen again, but it’s sad it took an attack. on our soil to come together, to make us realize that we’re all Americans and we’re all in the same boat Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people have forgotten what happened.
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