A decade later, memories of 9/11 still vivid for Pasco deputies

Pasco County sheriff's deputies David Leon, Erica Poole and William Vedral didn't know each other on Sept. 11, 2001.

Back then, one of their commonalities was employment with the New York City Police Department. Their current boss, Sheriff Chris Nocco, was an officer with the Fairfax County (Va.) Police Department at the time.

Leon was a 33-year-old husband and father of a young daughter. He was assigned to an auto theft detail in the Bronx. Poole was single and also 33. She was a patrol officer based in Harlem. Vedral was 39 and married with two daughters. He also worked out of a precinct in Harlem.

It can be argued that their lives became permanently linked at 8:46 a.m. that morning when terrorists flew an American Airlines jet into the north tower of the World Trade Center. About 18 minutes later, a second terrorist-guided jet collided with the south tower.

By 10:30, both towers had collapsed, giving rise to a surreal mix of debris, dust and death. Leon and Poole were already at work – Leon at his precinct and Poole on patrol. Vedral was at home on Long Island with his 7-month-old daughter.

Vedral headed to his precinct, while Leon and Poole were called to the towers.

"Just driving southbound on FDR Drive toward the World Trade Center, it was just ominous," Leon recalled today, four days before the 10th anniversary of the attacks. "The only people going south were emergency vehicles and the only people going north were citizens."

Vedral was sent to a hospital to try to control traffic around the facility. Amid the chaos, authorities believed there would be survivors from the towers. But as Vedral and his colleagues worked and the day turned to night, they realized there wouldn't be survivors, he said.

"There was a look of shock on everybody's face that day," he said.

Poole was still en route when the towers collapsed. Over the radio, she heard the desperate calls for help of a female officer who was trapped in one of the towers. An eerie silence followed before a dispatcher came on and asked if anyone was going to help.

"There was no response because nobody could get to her," Poole said.

She and Leon each described a hell-on-earth scene around the towers, one of death, confusion and chaos.

"I remember seeing people jumping out of the buildings and slamming on the ground," Leon said. "The sounds; people screaming."

"For me, it was a life-altering experience," Poole said. "A lot of people say, 'Tomorrow is not guaranteed,' but after experiencing 9/11 I really know what that means."

About 200 miles south, Nocco was witnessing the chaos around Washington as he was dispatched to several spots after terrorists crashed a jet into the Pentagon.

"The saddest part of it all was when you had family members come up to you holding pictures and saying, 'Have you seen this person?'" Nocco said. "Because we had uniforms on, they thought we knew more than they did."

Leon went on to work many hours "on the pile," sifting through the debris to find remains or mementos for family members of victims. He has since been diagnosed with asthma, the result of the work he did in the dust and debris.

His 12-year career with the NYPD ended in January 2004, something he said probably wouldn't have happened had it not been for the attacks. He and his family moved to Pasco and he began working at the sheriff's office in June 2004. He is a patrol sergeant. The attacks left him leery of flying.

Vedral retired from the NYPD after 20 years and moved his family to Pasco. He has worked for the sheriff's office for nearly six years and is a school resource officer at Wiregrass Ranch High School.

"You just didn't feel safe anymore," he said of his decision to leave New York City. "In New York, no matter where you are, even though we had a big police department, we still didn't feel safe."

Poole is a school resource officer at Weightman Middle School.

On the decade anniversary, she, Vedral and Leon ask that Americans simply remember what happened that day.

"I think this is a country and culture where we have a tendency to forget," Vedral said. "Something new comes along and we switch our focus. It is a disappointment and it's wrong to forget because history repeats itself."