'I don’t want people to ever forget': First responder who survived tower collapse recalls the day

‘I don’t want people to ever forget’: First responder who survived tower collapse recalls the day Sept. 11, 2001 25th anniversary: Friday, Sept. 11, 2026 | 2 a.m. Terrance “Terry” Revella recalls the temperature that Tuesday morning, the two doughnuts from Dunkin’ his partner gave him before work, the sight of people jumping from the burning World Trade Center towers, and the words of his fellow officer Jeff Cox after the two were caught in a collapsing tower. “Goodbye, captain.” Cox had been on the job only six months. Today marks 25 years since the deadliest violent attack on U.S. soil, when 19 terrorists linked to the Islamic extremist group al‑Qaida hijacked four commercial jets, crashing them into the Pentagon and the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. A fourth plane went down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers. Revella, a retired sergeant with the New York State Environmental Conservation Police who now lives in Las Vegas, was among the first responders at the scene and survived the collapse of both towers. He has since spoken publicly about his experiences at Ground Zero and released a book shortly before the anniversary to ensure that no one forgets what happened that day. “I don’t want people to ever forget,” Revella, 73, said. “It’s important to remember the 3,000 people who died that day and the 9,000 who have died since then. It’s important that their legacy should never be forgotten. Like we remember Pearl Harbor, which will never happen again — and that’s 80 years ago compared to 9/11, which is 25 years ago, (but), to me, it feels like yesterday — it happened, and we should never forget.” The attacks killed approximately 3,000 people and prompted President George W. Bush to declare a “war on terror,” leading to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. That campaign resulted in an estimated death toll exceeding 940,000 people between 2001 and 2023 in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan, according to the Costs of War project at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Communities across the nation will gather to honor those affected by the attacks on the anniversary, but for Revella the memories feel as fresh as yesterday. When Revella received the 9 a.m. call that a plane had struck the north tower, he rushed to the site with several fellow officers, including Cox, who also survived. He arrived just after the second plane hit the World Trade Center. One of Revella’s most vivid memories is from the plaza beneath the towers before they began to fall, where he helped firefighters deploy hoses. He still recalls seeing Social Security numbers written in chalk on each firefighter’s gear — faces he never saw again. Both towers collapsed within