By Debbie Carson, Online Editor
VERO BEACH — Vero Beach resident Glen Van Hest took the podium between the 20-piece United States Navy Band Southeast and wreaths of flowers at Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary Friday morning to share his experiences of being in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.A crowd of about 70 gathered to hear him, another survivor, and remember the victims, survivors and heroes at Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary. With many in attendance wiping tears from their eyes, the audience listened as Hest and retired first responder Phil Issacson speak of the harrowing events.Hest was working in the South Tower of the World Trade Center at the time United Airlines Flight #175 crashed into the building.
He told the audience of what he was thinking at the time of the attack: “There’s a high probability I might die today. I was very, very fortunate.”
Through a series of opportune choices, Hest was able to escape the tower and the surrounding carnage to get back to his hotel to call his wife.
Hest had been taking a class on the 61st floor when it took a 20 minute break at about 8:40 a.m. Hest took the elevator down to the 43rd floor, to the cafeteria. He was in the elevator when the first plane struck the North Tower — he had no idea what had occurred.
Security rushed into the cafeteria, telling everyone that a small, private plane had struck the neighboring tower, that they were in no danger but that they would be evacuated.
“And down we started going,” Hest told the crowd.
In the stairwell heading down to the ground floor the building shook and they heard a boom. The tower started to rock back and forth. He thought it was a bomb and thought of Osama Bin Laden immediately.
They were on the 15th or 16th floor.
“I’m looking for the optimism,” Hest said, noting that in Vero Beach 15 or 16 stories up is a long way. In New York, they were close to the ground.
Hest made it out of the building and put as much distance between himself and the towers as possible. He thought that perhaps World War III had begun.
New York native Phil Issacson, a since-retired member of the New York Police Department, was one of the first responders to the World Trade Center after the North Tower was struck.
“It was a beautiful day,” recalled Issacson, adding that he and his first responder partner had just commented on the clear blue skies when the call came in for assistance.
“We’re headed to Manhattan,” Issacson responded.
When the second plane hit the other tower, “We knew — this was a terrorist attack.”
For hours, Issacson and others like him struggled to rescue the trapped among the debris. At one point he recalled looking down at his feet.
“Hey, I’m alive,” he said to himself.
By early the next morning, temporary morgues were set up and doctors and nurses stood by waiting for the wounded.
“The rescue is now a recovery,” Isaacson remembered.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when 19 Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial planes and crashed two into the World Trade Center’s twin towers and another into the Pentagon.
Officials believe the fourth plane was supposed to crash into either the Capitol Building or the White House. However, passengers on the plane fought back and crashed the plane into a field in Pennsylvania.Representatives from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, Indian River County Fire Rescue, Indian River Shores Public Safety, the Vero Beach Police Department, Sebastian Police Department and the Fellsmere Police Department also took part in the remembrance ceremony.
Another remembrance ceremony will be held Friday evening at 7 p.m. at Riverside Theater in Vero Beach. The United States Navy Band Southeast will perform, as it did at the morning ceremony. The Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary remembrance ceremony was organized by the Vero Beach Firefighters Association.