小优视频

Most University of Tampa students were not alive when two planes slammed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

What happened on that day 鈥� the images, the smells, the sounds 鈥� is only as real for them as history can be, in the books, videos and recollections of others.

But for those who were there, like 小优视频ampa Campus Safety Officers Sam Ponce, Freddy Cortes and Rick Veaz, Sept. 11 and the days that followed remain fresh 25 years later and hundreds of miles away from ground zero.

On that morning, Ponce, Cortes and Veaz began their shifts with different assignments across the city, but all three ended the day responding to the attack.

After retiring from NYPD, each found their way to Tampa. Some came for the weather; others followed their kids who were students at the University.

Today they鈥檙e a part of 小优视频ampa鈥檚 Campus Safety force, a 40-person team, many of whom are retired law enforcement officers and military personnel who provide round-the-clock security and emergency support to the University.听

Eight campus safety officers are retired NYPD officers. Here, three of them recount in their own words their experiences responding to the 9/11 attacks.听

Rick Veaz
Sniper assigned to firearms and tactical training in the Bronx
NYPD officer from 1986-2006听

I happened to be on vacation that week, so we were just up in the morning having our coffee. Just another day. We got a call from a friend out on Long Island asking if we had the TV on. We said, 鈥淣o, why?鈥�

鈥淏ecause a plane just crashed into the towers. Bad accident.鈥�

We put the TV on, and I鈥檓 watching the news coverage of the incident, and with that, I see the second plane hit live on TV. At that point, I knew it wasn鈥檛 an accident; it was an attack. I said to my wife, 鈥淚 gotta go.鈥� Not even 15 minutes later, they were announcing on all television stations that all fire department and police department personnel were recalled.

I drove in and went to the range where I worked, and my entire squad was already gone 鈥� they were down there already. I spoke to the lieutenant who was covering the evening shift and asked her if somebody could drive me down there, just get me close, and I could walk in. She came back to me about 20 minutes later and asked, 鈥淲eren't you a trained sniper?鈥� I said yes. She said, 鈥淣ow you work for me.鈥� I was on a sniper post for two weeks.

The only thing to compare to this attack was Pearl Harbor. We didn't know if it was going to continue throughout the days or weeks afterward, so the city was making every preparation to cover all bases at once, so there鈥檇 be no more surprises.

Where I worked was a peninsula in the Bronx, and in addition to being a firearms instructor, I worked with special weapons. The bomb squad was there too, and there were a lot of explosives on that peninsula. It was pretty common knowledge that the bomb squad was there along with us, so we didn't know if somebody was going to try to break in and steal explosives. They put us in a position to cover the entire peninsula in all directions in case somebody tried to attack that location.

We did 12- to 13-hour shifts. I was on a rooftop overnight, and from that rooftop I could see the towers burning. Having to look at that and not being able to be there 鈥� that bothered me.

After that, we started getting deployed to Lower Manhattan because all the infrastructure and communications had been destroyed by the attacks on the towers. The city had a temporary headquarters on the Hudson River, on one of the piers, and we were down there protecting that.

There was sadness, extreme anger. Working where I worked, I trained our ESU (Emergency Service Unit) team 鈥� basically the SWAT team 鈥� so I knew 16 people who died in the towers that day. Two of them ESU guys I had been with in sniper school just four days prior.

When I was in Lower Manhattan, you could smell it. Just burning, and it wasn't like wood burning 鈥� it was like everything burning. There was so much in that building, so you鈥檝e got plastic burning, you鈥檝e got other man-made materials burning, flesh, all of that.

If you weren鈥檛 alive to see it, you should study the history, and it should never be forgotten. Close to 3,000 people died in that single attack, and thousands of people have died since. People are still dying to this day, and for many years to come, people are going to keep dying from the effects of that attack.

My brother passed away. He was a police officer in Manhattan, and he suffered from illnesses related to 9/11. He eventually died in 2019.

It's amazing that 25 years have passed this quickly 鈥� it doesn't seem like it at all. Everything is fresh in my mind from that day. I remember going down (toward ground zero) and getting pulled over by a county police sergeant, and when I identified myself, he said, 鈥淏e careful, son,鈥� because he knew where I was going.

Sam Ponce
Assigned to the 52nd Precinct in the Bronx
NYPD officer from 1996-2016

That day, I had come out of work around 4 a.m. I got home really late and woke up to a phone call. My mom called and said, 鈥淎re you watching the news? Turn on the news.鈥� I said, 鈥淥h man, that's a bad accident.鈥� We stayed on the phone. The second plane hit, and I told my mom that I had to go to work, that I love her, I'll see her later. I took my daughter to the babysitter and went straight to work.

At the precinct, the officers working the day shift had already left for ground zero, so we were waiting on assignment to go wherever they needed us. I remember getting my assignment that day, wanting to go down to help out, because the radio was on. We were all listening to it 鈥� 9/11 is a citywide channel, so you can hear officers calling for help.

There was one particular call from a woman asking for help in a building that had already collapsed. She must have been somewhere in the rubble, still able to transmit. You'd hear things like that on the radio and want to go down, but you stood by waiting for assignment, knowing that wherever you were sent, that's where they counted on you.

I got an assignment to cover a checkpoint bridging the Bronx into Manhattan. Manhattan was closed 鈥� you couldn't get in. We were closing it down. The city automatically went into 12-hour shifts: two shifts stayed in the precinct to cover command calls and 911 calls, and one shift went to ground zero. We ran those shifts for months 鈥� you were either working patrol or going down to ground zero, taking turns.

One of the good things that came out of the crisis is that people really came together, and the community really wanted to help police, which is often rare.

Sometimes you were doing search and rescue, sometimes you were just at a security post, not letting anyone in because there was still work going on 鈥� people coming back to Wall Street, or just coming to see their businesses. They wanted to go in, so there were still security checkpoints, and so much support coming in that we had to vet everyone.

There were a lot of emotions. There was anger. There was a sense of What is this, what's the next day going to bring? 鈥� confusion. There was sadness at seeing what looked like the end of the world 鈥� Do we come back from this? But in all of that chaos and despair, there was the most city support I鈥檝e ever seen. Camaraderie was on another level. It was What are we going to do together as a team? How are we going to accomplish this? There was a lot of respect for one another as people.

I think it鈥檚 important to remember 鈥� not because remembering is necessarily sad, but because through remembering, people can come together. Through this, there was resilience, there was hope. We learned a lot from what not to do. Yes, things changed, but I believe they changed for the better.

Imagine if we had forgotten. The pain of remembering is easier to bear than the sadness of forgetting. It鈥檚 more productive to remember. When we remember, it can inspire us to make a difference. I still have ties to the police department 鈥� I鈥檓 a chaplain for the Tampa Police Department. I get to talk to officers who weren鈥檛 alive for it. They ask questions, and I get to offer them spiritual support now.

My daughter chose the University of Tampa and when I came to visit her, I saw the officers in uniform, and I wanted to continue to serve people after retiring in 2016. When they told me it covers tuition I said, 鈥淪ign me up.鈥�

Freddy Cortes
Assigned to the 67th Precinct in Brooklyn
NYPD officer from 1987-2007

I was going to court, walking into the building, and that鈥檚 when the first plane crashed into the towers. As I鈥檓 looking out the window at the plane, the second plane hits. That鈥檚 when I left that building and walked over to the other side, to the World Trade Center.

It鈥檚 definitely important to remember what happened, because a lot of people are still dying from this.

My two cousins just passed away recently. It's hard to talk about. It鈥檚 hard. All my cousins are police officers, New York City police officers. My brother鈥檚 organs are failing also. So, 25 years later, they鈥檙e still passing away from this. Law enforcement, fire department, everybody that was there, civilians 鈥� they鈥檙e all still sick. I鈥檓 sick from it also.

Originally, I wanted to become a police officer here, in Tampa, but my wife begged me not to become a police officer after doing 20 years over there, because I鈥檝e been shot at so many times. She didn鈥檛 want me to become a police officer here, so I joined 鈥� you know 鈥� the University of Tampa. They told me about the University and stuff like that, and also I was thinking about my kids, because all three of my kids 鈥� two of them already graduated from here, and my son is here now as a sophomore.

Read more: 小优视频ampa Community Remembers 9/11, 25 years Later