FBI’s on-scene commander recalls 9/11
[image error]Today, Leading with Honor remembers those men and women who experienced this horrific day in 2001 and the many who ultimately paid the highest price in loss of life. One experience during this day was our friend and colleague, Wes Wong, the FBI’s on-scene commander during the event. This Daily News article briefly shares his thoughts and experience –
A firefighter warned him to “watch for the bodies” as people leapt to their deaths that fateful day Sept. 11, 2001, from the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
“I froze on the sidewalk outside the north tower,” said then-FBI Special Agent Wesley Wong, who escaped death a number of times that day while he was on duty. He was the FBI’s on-scene commander that day.
“I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said, describing a vivid image of a man jumping from one of the buildings. “Then I realized he was coming toward me – I needed to move.”
While Wong survived 9/11, he remembers thousands of others, including some colleagues, who did not.
He shared his story with a group of about 175 people Thursday night at Anchored Christian School, describing in detail how that day unfolded and how each turn he made and each step he took could have ended in his death.
“I was able to duck in off the sidewalk right into the lobby,” Wong said, thereby dodging the jumper.
Wong said within moments, the person hit the ground.
“It was the most god-awful sound you can imagine,” he said.
Wong said after coming so close to death and seeing people around him die, he learned to not sweat the small stuff in life and just live.
“After 9/11, a lot of things that got my pulse quickening before – don’t anymore,” he said. “My dad once told me you should only worry about the things that you can control.”
Wong’s 9/11 presentation was a true balance of patriotism and realizing that “terrorism is a real threat in this country,” said Anchored Christian School principal Betty Jo Hicks.
Wong said since the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist-linked attacks that followed, he feared the tightening of national security would somehow infringe on the American people’s rights.
“I was really worried about the freedoms and civil rights in this country,” he said. “I hope that we don’t continue to lose all of our freedoms due to security reasons.”
Wong said those civil rights and freedoms are what makes the United States “the greatest country in the world.”
Source: The Daily News of Bowling Green
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