NORFOLK, Va. — Hundreds of first responders, including two from Virginia, played an important role on the day of and months following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
One state police officer helped recover people from inside the Pentagon. And in weeks following the collapse of the World Trade Center, a Chesapeake police officer answered a call for help from the New York Police Department.
On the morning of Sept. 11, four planes were hijacked. Two of the planes destroyed the World Trade Center in New York, one crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa., and a fourth flew into the Pentagon. Sgt. Michael Middleton of Virginia State Police says he was there that morning.
"I remember having full adrenaline and seeing lights and sirens as I drove as quickly as I could to the impact zone," said Middleton. "It was absolute pure hell. All I could smell was that burning jet fuel."
Middleton says he and a team of first responders searched through the smoke for survivors. After directing a handful of individuals to safety through the fire, rubble, and debris, he was instructed to leave himself by firefighters.
"I was feeling intense heat and I was also freezing cold at the same time," Middleton said. "I collapsed on the side of the Pentagon. The next time I woke up, it was days later in Alexandria Hospital."
Middleton developed first and second-degree thermal burns in the back of his throat, sepsis, and pneumonia. Doctors said he had experienced organ failure as well.
At the time of 9/11, Faith Gollob-Gayheart was a detective for the Chesapeake Police Department. After watching the disaster unfold in her hometown of New York, she decided to take a trip home to help out.
After arriving in New York, Gayheart says she and other Virginia officers were tasked with managing one of the NYPD precincts while other officers dug through the rubble.
Gayheart says her hometown was unrecognizable.
"I'll never forget the smell of death and destruction, but the most disturbing part for me was how quiet it was," said Gayheart. "It was almost like a deafening kind of silence."
Going to Ground Zero was incredibly sobering, she added.
"The police officer who took us down there that day looked at all of us and said, 'Look down at your boots,'" and when we did, the DNA from almost 3,000 people was on our boots.
After returning to Virginia, Gayheart says she switched careers, becoming a Chesapeake firefighter.
Instead of burying the memories of the historic and horrific event, Gayheart says she owes it to the men and women who lost their lives on 9/11 and speaks publicly at events, including on the anniversary.
Years following 9/11, Gayhart and Middleton agree that some tragic moments are worth remembering.
"You don't want to see another event like that happen ever again," said Gayheart. "But as hard as it was to go through, I think the beautiful moment was seeing everybody pull together."
