When Jason Thomas, then a Marine and New York resident, learned a plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, he immediately drove toward the site of the terrorist attack to help.
Thomas is now a 52-year-old resident of Whitehall, but he was born and raised in New York. He helped rescue two police officers who were trapped in the rubble on 9/11.
For years, he told no one, then a movie detailing his experiences thrust him into the spotlight.On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he learned of the attack from while dropping his newborn daughter off at his mother's house. When Thomas saw the footage on TV, he said he knew the crash was no accident.
“Once I saw the 747 plane tilt from right to left, like it was correcting itself intentionally
to strike the north tower, I immediately knew it was a terrorist attack,” Thomas said.
When he speaks about the events of that day now, Thomas describes feeling like he had "a mission." The mission changed throughout the day as the attacks unfolded, but Thomas felt driven that day to help however he could. He considered it his duty as a Marine to help evacuate the tower.
Thomas put on the uniform in his trunk and immediately started driving toward the World Trade Center. He said he got lost along the way, followed a caravan of black vehicles speeding toward Ground Zero, and arrived just as the north tower collapsed into a pile of twisted metal and concrete.
Hot ash rushed over his body and what "sounded like a freight train" filled his ears. He could not breathe for a moment.
"It pissed me off, because I was like, 'I'm going to die sitting here and kneeling right beside my car,' and that was not my mission," Thomas said.
So Thomas got up and ran against a dust-covered crowd fleeing the towers, stopping only to say a quick prayer for a man he found dead in the street. He told those who tried to stop him Marines “don’t go backwards, we go forwards.”
Thomas said he worked to set up a triage center near Ground Zero. He teamed with another uniformed Marine, Staff Sgt. David Karnes, and a group of civilians to create a search and rescue party. But the civilians had no gear and did not want to risk entering the smoking, jagged terrain as the sky darkened.
In the end, Thomas and Karnes set off themselves. They climbed mountains of rubble and shouted into crevices and holes. For hours there was silence.
Finally, deep inside one hole, there was a faint reply. Thomas called it “nothing short of a miracle.”
“All that effort, all that work… It just felt great to know that someone was there," he said.
Two Port Authority police officers were injured inside the hole, pinned down by rubble. The weight of the debris made it impossible to move them, Thomas said, and fire filled the hole with heat and smoke.
Karnes climbed out of the hole to call for help.
Eventually, 50 or 60 people arrived to help dig out the officers. Both survived. A third officer died from falling debris while trying to rescue one of them.
Thomas returned home in Long Island early the next morning. He hosed himself off in the yard, thinking his wife would not like it if he tracked dust through the home, and took a nap.
He said he woke up a few hours later from a nightmare. Glowing figures were reaching out to him, and he was certain more people were trapped in the rubble. He put his uniform back on and returned to Ground Zero to dig for more survivors.
He spent 20 days searching, but never found another survivor.
Like many New Yorkers, Thomas tried to put the events of the day behind him. He said he told his wife bits and pieces, but no one else. Two years after the attacks, he and his wife moved to the Columbus area, where they had attended college.
In 2006, Paramount Pictures released World Trade Center, a movie about the dramatic rescue of two Port Authority officers trapped in the rubble after 9/11.
Thomas said he found out his experience had been dramatized on film when he saw a preview for the movie while watching TV with his kids.
Thomas began getting interview requests soon after. He was hesitant at first, but his wife’s aunt convinced him it was valuable to share his story.
He learned to describe his experiences without becoming overwhelmed with emotion and did interviews with national and international media. Talking became therapeutic. In 2007, Jason and his wife appeared in an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which the show's team helped rebuild the Whitehall house where the couple still lives.
Thomas is now a master sergeant and EMT in the Air Force and a motivational speaker.
"I'll never forget my experience of 9/11," Thomas said. "You try to compartmentalize things so it doesn't overwhelm, however, I'll live with 9/11 all the time, right? It's hard to get away from."
Public safety and breaking news reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Meet the Whitehall Marine who ran toward Ground Zero on 9/11
