LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — 23 years ago today, Major Asit George of Lexington’s Salvation Army found out exactly what it means when someone says, 'The silence was deafening.'
“For those who use the West Side Highway, or Broadway and knowing how busy those were and, on that evening, even the daytime, the phenomenal silence you could cut through is what touched me, is what I remember,” Major George said. “It was unthinkable. People (law enforcement officers) with machine guns everywhere,” he added.
On Wednesday, America remembered the civilians and first responders we lost in the September 11, 2001, attacks, when terrorists turned planes into missiles, slamming them into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Major George and his team based in suburban New York were asked to assist at Ground Zero.
“The immediacy, the sadness, the shock, is what we were dealing with,” he said. “We were asked to help out with counseling, handing out food, speaking with volunteers and encouraging them,” he explained of the work his team was doing during the week spent there.
“I still remember walking through three inches of ash, and seeing peoples’ sandals were left there, and women’s high-heeled shoes were there. And papers floating from these mega-million-dollar companies,” he said.
Major George said he won’t ever forget what he saw during that week in New York. He’s been back since to visit the 9/11 Memorial. He said it’s a fitting, and beautiful tribute to the people we lost. There are many aspects of that experience that he won’t ever forget, beginning with the bravery demonstrated by the first responders.
“Many of them died going in there, or were physically injured, and it was so hot in there,” he said. “These people went in with very little concern for themselves, just wanting to retrieve people."
Major George was emotional, needing time to gather his thoughts, when talking about the day the rescue part of the operation at Ground Zero was called off, and his team was given clearance to leave the site.
“Felt a sense of doing something that was worthy. I do believe the Salvation Army left feeling,” he said, before taking a long pause, “that we had done our ministry to the country, and to the people,” he said.
He also left with a renewed sense of what it means to be an American.
“We are into volunteering, no matter the cost. We are into helping. That's beautiful. That's what unites us,” George said.
