On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was sitting in my office reading reports from the previous night’s activity. At the time, I was a narcotics task force commander. I remember taking a phone call (don’t remember from who) and while on that call, I received several call-waiting beeps. I finished my call and then checked my voicemail. The message on the machine said, “Go find a TV! New York City is on fire!”
I immediately got up and walked through the detective bull pen toward the conference room where the TV was located. As I passed through, I told the assembled investigators what the message had said and they all followed me into the room. Just as I turned on the TV, the second plane hit. One of my lead investigators, a former marine, said, “This is an attack! Our country is being attacked!” Everything that was being worked on suddenly came to a halt as we watched the scene on TV. When the Twin Towers fell, the feeling I had in my stomach was a mix of pure rage and understanding that I was powerless to do anything. I looked at the others and they all were aghast. The one comment that offered some degree of solace was from the marine, who said with complete determination, “Don’t worry, somewhere right now is a battalion of marines who are gearing up for payback.” We all nodded our heads in agreement. Click here to read Dave Spaulding's August Firearms column, Top Tips from Experts.