On Sept. 11, 2001, Ralph Vitiello rushed to ground zero to help find his fellow firefighters in the rubble of the Twin Towers.
He had been working a rotation at Engine 226 in downtown Brooklyn, just across the East River where massive plumes of smoke had enveloped lower Manhattan. “The guys working that day all got killed,” he said.
Ten years later, he is still trying to make sense of it all.
“Trying to describe that day is hard,” he said. “Everything was white. Dust was everywhere. I just remember sitting down and seeing all the buildings burning around me and saying I’m going to war.”
He did.
Vitiello immediately traded his FDNY uniform for his Marine Corps Reserve uniform.