Local first responders recall 9/11 effects

On September 11, 2001, America changed forever. Airplanes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Though far removed from Ground Zero, the effects of 9/11 were immediately felt in Sanders County..

Asleep after working night shift the night before, Chris Nichols awoke to his girlfriend telling him that the nation was under attack. They turned on the news to watch as the towers billowed with smoke thousands of miles away. Nichols, now the Chief of Police in Thompson Falls, worked security for the National Guard. He immediately called in and was advised that he would soon be called back to the base in Great Falls. He was one of the first to be deployed only weeks after the attack. He then served in several countries, many in the middle east.

Nichols spoke of some of the changes he saw after the events of 9/11. The biggest of these changes was in the way that training was handled, as well as security. He went through several training courses designed to understand terrorism and the extremist mentality the country now found itself facing. As Nichols said, there were more training courses that were "terrorist centric" and infrastructure protection related. One such class Nichols took was "Extreme Islamic Fundamentalism and Terrorism," where he learned about the unique ideology that led to the attacks. Of all the things that changed, Nichols believes that one of the biggest is the feeling many people have that tells them "this could never happen to me." According to Nichols, "All the things that you don't believe are ever going to happen to you, people now realized that it can. People I deal with all the time always say I never thought it would happen to me." Nichols continued, referring to COVID-19, "How many people ever thought they would ever see a worldwide pandemic?" Nichols described how that was the same feeling after 9/11, nationwide.

In 2001, Neil Harnett and Kevin Whittenburg were both serving as volunteer firefighters in Thompson Falls. Whittenburg was at a cemetery digging a grave and heard about the events over the radio in the pickup truck. Harnett, who was working for the city at the time, also heard the news come over the radio to announce that the country had just seen the biggest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

"At first it was hard to believe that that had happened," said Harnett. "I first thought it was an accident, not any kind of attack," said Whittenburg. "America never thought it could happen to them." They recalled the tightening of security around the nation, including the vastly increased security in airports.

They also referred to more training in dealing with security in bigger fire departments. "Before you would just run in and fight. Now you assess first," said Harnett, referring to how firefighters now approach emergencies. Before the events of Sept. 11, firefighters would rush into a building to do what they could. After so many first responders, primarily firemen, died responding to the events of 9/11, firefighters are now taught to weigh and approach the situations they face differently.

Not long after Sept. 11, Thompson Falls held a big parade at the first home football game, which featured many of the first responders. That was 19 years ago. Now, as Harnett and Whittenburg describe, "volunteerism" is down. According to Harnett and Whittenburg, the youth of today care less about community and more about themselves. Both say that back when they started with the fire department, there was a waiting list to get in. Back when 9/11 happened there were nearly 30 people volunteering, however, now there are only eight. "Today is more about tech and less about comradery," said Whittenburg. When talking about emergency situations, according to Harnett, "Everybody needs to be a first responder, in a sense. Everybody needs to be prepared."

Since 11, 2001, America has changed the way it looks at security, and organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) were created in attempts to protect the nation. During that time, and long after there was a renewed sense of patriotism in the nation. These feelings have, according to many first responders and military personnel, faded over the years. According to emergency personnel like Nichols, Harnett and Whittenburg, these were the feelings that got America through the difficult times and are far lacking today during another crisis facing the country. According to them, patriotism is not about politics, but about unity and love for a country that values freedom of religion, press, life and opinion above all else.