KILLEEN, Texas — To mark the 23rd anniversary since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States of America, many flags across the country can be seen flying at half staff. It's a day when many take the time to reflect on the lives lost, the impact of the tragedy and the lessons learned.
Many people remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on 9/11, and that includes Killeen Fire Chief James Kubinski.
"I was a rookie firefighter and I was on my way home," Kubinski said. "I was working at one of the busiest stations with Naperville, Illinois and had worked an overnight shift, that was unusually busy."
On his drive home to his family, Kubinski vividly recalled hearing that a plane hit the World Trade Center on the radio, Eric and Kathy in the Morning on 101.9. When he got home, he turned on the television and that's when he learned the gravity of the situation.
"My first thought was firefighters are going to die that day," Kubinski said. "I got really emotional because that's just something you never want to think about. We know it's a risk, but looking at that tower and looking at that plane and how high they had to climb... there's no doubt in my mind that whoever was assigned that day to that job, there were firefighters who knew that they weren't going home to their family, like I had just gotten home to my family."
Kubinski, now in year thirty in the fire service, was just getting started in his career. Being that he was in his rookie year, Kubinski said his fire department didn't send him to New York City, however, other members of the department did get called to respond.
"You have to remember that while we're sending a task force from the central Illinois area out to New York, we still had to protect our city as well," Kubinski explained. "Friends of mine were selected and they spent two weeks out there and then followed by another task force that was sent and they spent two weeks in ground zero.
The fire chief said some of his friends were in charge of identifying remains of those who didn't survive or were part of search and rescue teams. He also said one of them suffered some effects of cancer.
"With very little doubt that that cancer is a result of the exposure that they had from the chemicals on ground zero," Kubinski said.
Hundreds and thousands of firefighters and paramedics were deployed to New York City, or volunteered to go. Kubinski believes they all would do it again, just like the 343 firefighters that lost their lives during 9/11. He said the selfless nature of a firefighter was codified in history on Sept. 11, 2001.
"The most profound thing that was learned is the selflessness of firefighters," Kubinski said. "Everybody knew that firefighters were brave and they run into danger when everybody else is running away. You would hear of those occasional incidents where a firefighter died in the line of duty fighting a fire, but never to this magnitude. Never to the magnitude of 343 firefighters who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the same day, at the same incident. That has never, never been heard of and never since, thank the Lord."
Selflessness is a characteristic that Kubinski said is instilled in him and what he ensures the entire Killeen Fire Department embodies.
"Make sure that we truly embody what 'never forget' really means," Kubinski said. "For those newer generation members, so that they do understand that this isn't just a job and this isn't just going on a call, or cool to put out fires. That this truly can be the day where you would be called upon where we risk a life to save a life. That that's truly what this job is. 99.9 percent of the time, we may never have to do that, but that 1/10 of a percent you may be called upon to lay your life on the line for somebody else."
Kubinski said shortly after 9/11 there was a burst in interest for people to join the fire service where hundreds of applications would come in. That isn't the case anymore. He said it's become increasingly harder nationwide to get strong applications that make it through the fire academy. He hopes that changes.
Kubinski believes it's important for us to treat every 9/11 anniversary as vigorously as we did the very first one. He plans to visit the 9/11 memorial and museum for the first time later this year with his wife.