Even after more than two decades since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, America still remembers. Every year, incredible yet untold stories are brought to light about the day that changed the world.
Another one of these incredible stories was brought to the forefront during this year’s remembrance of the attacks. For Dirk Delph, the 50-year-old man behind it, 2024’s 9/11 anniversary was a landmark.
This is because today’s anniversary is the first time Delph returned to Ground Zero on Sept. 11.
The New York Post reports Delph was at work at M.S. Farrell & Co. on Wall Street on the morning of the attacks.
Delph and a co-worker went outside after the two planes rammed into the North and South Towers.
When the South Tower collapsed, the force of it knocked him out despite the distance. According to Delph, “everything went black.”
“When I woke up it was black, everything was so black, you couldn’t see your hands in front of your face,” Delph told the Post. “You couldn’t breathe.
“It was so quiet. Day turned into night. When I woke up I thought it was what death looked like. Everywhere was black. I thought I was dead.”
Delph, covered in the atomized remnants of the planes, the towers and everything that was once inside of them, walked over bodies before crossing the Manhattan Bridge on foot to return home.
Have you ever visited Ground Zero?
People helped him along the way, from someone giving him water to clear the toxic dust from his mouth and throat to being triaged along with countless others by overwhelmed medical professionals.
His brother, thinking the worst after Delph failed to return from his Ground Zero-adjacent workplace, phoned relatives in Guyana. They were told Delph had died while trying to be a “hero” during the attacks.
While Delph left the attacks with his life intact, he was diagnosed with asthma and gastroesophageal reflux disease. These are among the many diseases and complications that are often found plaguing 9/11 survivors.
Psychological damage, however, is something Delph is still reeling from.
Noises, such as subway construction, could set him off and make him believe the city was once again under attack. He says his life and career were both derailed after the attacks.
Delph says this is the first year he has returned to Ground Zero on the anniversary of the attacks. It was a spontaneous decision.
“When I got back home, something told me to come here,” he said. “Something told me to get dressed and get on the train to brave it.”
This story out of New York City is one of millions that shows the small moments and unity that defined America in the hours and days following the collapse of the Towers.
Now, 23 years after the attacks, American unity is at a worrying low.
Violence between citizens is becoming a common occurrence in many areas where it once was not. The border delineating American sovereignty is walked over daily by countless foreigners who see support from the U.S. government, not accountability. Government institutions are losing trust by the day and abuse of power is rampant.
We are no longer the America that stood as one in the days following 9/11. If another unthinkable attack were to happen, would it unite the nation or split it completely?
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