More than seven years have passed since the U.S. experienced the worst terrorist attack in its history, but to this day survivors of the tragedy are still adapting to life after Sept. 11. Three survivors of the World Trade Center attacks came to share their first-hand accounts with the Loyola community Thursday.
Lee Ielpi, Rose Ellen Dowdell and David Barrette recounted their experiences of Sept. 11 and explained how their lives have changed since then.
"I wish we never met," Ielpi said lightheartedly while telling his story.
A former New York City firefighter, Ielpi volunteered at Ground Zero during the recovery process. Three months after 9/11, Ielpi discovered his missing son, Jonathan, also a New York City firefighter, in the rubble. "I wanted to be there when my son was going to be found, but I didn't want to be there," Ielpi said.
Ielpi is grateful that his son's body was found intact. Out of more than 2,700 people killed at the site, only 174 bodies were found whole. The rest of the bodies were identified in fragments.
However, there are still 1,125 missing people from 9/11. Dowdell's husband, Kevin, is one of these. A New York City firefighter, Kevin worked on the morning of Sept. 11 helping people to safely escape the towers.
Dowdell and her husband were married for 21 years and were looking forward to spending the rest of their lives together.
"To this day I miss him," Dowdell said. "That's something the terrorists took from me that will affect the rest of my life."
Throughout their hardships, Ielpi and Dowdell continue to keep a positive attitude.
"When this type of thing happens, it's easy to wallow in your sorrow … be angry, hate," Ielpi said. "But what is that going to accomplish? It's not going to accomplish too much."
Ielpi and Dowdell currently volunteer at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center in New York City located in the area where the towers once stood. Barrette is the program manager at the Tribute Center and works with Ielpi and Dowdell to teach others about the events of 9/11.
In order to increase education and awareness of 9/11, Ielpi is working with education departments in New York to mandate the teaching of 9/11 to students in public schools. So far, New Jersey and Connecticut have expressed interest in adopting the curriculum as well.
"If we're not enlightening, how are we going to stop hatred?" Ielpi asked.
Loyola professor Chris Helt, whose Sociology of Terrorism class sponsored the event, agrees with Ielpi about the importance of educating people about 9/11.
"Seven years from now … we're going to see our next student body at Loyola who was never born when 9/11 happened," Helt said. "We need to educate future generations about this issue and do what we can do so it doesn't happen again."
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