This year marks a quarter of a century since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Twenty-five years later a part-time Southwest Florida resident talks about his role in verifying what happened that day. In particular, what happened to a flag that flew just a short time after the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York City.
Not long after terrorists flew planes into the towers and brought them down, three firefighters hoisted a small American flag - an act of pride, defiance, resilience - that became one of the most famous photos of our times.
"It was kind of like the Marines at Iwo Jima, raising the flag in World War II," Nick Petraco, Sr., a forensics expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said. "It was a miracle they could do that in the chaos."
Nick Petraco spoke to us from his home in New York.
He learned forensics at John Jay College in Manhattan, and then worked nearly 40 years as a forensics detective in the NYPD. He's still a John Jay professor.
He says many John Jay graduates responded to the scene on 9/11.
"At least 60 or 70 of our alums died that day," he said. "Firemen, cops, other first responders."
And Petraco added that hundreds of others have died since 2001 because they breathed so much toxic dust.
On 9/11 the firefighters got the flag from a yacht in a nearby marina. After 9/11 the flag was passed among officials, sent around the world, and then: lost.
Fast-forward to 2014, to Everett, Washington, north of Seattle, and nearly 3000 miles from New York City. A man identifying himself only as Brian dropped off a flag at a fire station. He said this is the 9/11 flag. Then he vanished.
A year later Everett police asked Petraco and his John Jay forensics team to run tests and determine: was this the ground zero flag?
"There were basically two kinds of samples of dust— those with human remains and those without," Petraco said. "We ran tests on the flag and looked for the evidence. It was there. So I wrote a report saying: it was the flag."
It went to the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero:
"You know it was a triumph," Petraco said. "We brought the flag back to where it really belonged. I am not an emotional guy, but it was a good feeling."
Moody River Estates in North Fort Myers is a second home for Petraco and his wife. Laurie Dionne Babcock is a neighbor ... and has talked with Petraco about that flag.
"I was gob-smacked," Babcock said. "I mean to know that your neighbor was part of it, a part of history in that way. I definitely have a visceral reaction to it.."
Babcock lived in New York on 9/11 and later worked with the World Trade Center Health Program, tracking the impact of Ground Zero toxins.
"On a day that didn't have a lot of hope, seeing that flag go up, seeing it flying...It was a big deal," she said after choking back tears.
A few years ago, a man calling himself Brian Browne came forward in Washington state, to say he had dropped off the flag. The Everett newspaper quoted Browne as claiming: an older woman who moved west from New York, gave the flag to Browne's neighbor. Then she disappeared. The neighbor gave the flag to Browne, who is a military veteran. There is no confirmed explanation of how the woman came to possess the Ground Zero flag.
Nick Petraco said the key is that the broad stripes and bright stars, that flew on one of the nation's worst days, will forever honor those who died.
"Kind of like — it's in a final resting place...like many of the people who were at the event," Petraco said.
Mike Walcher is a reporter at WGCU News, and also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
