9/11 survivor recounts experiences

DeKALB – Vietnam veteran Chuck Carroll vividly remembers the moment American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, while he was working in the South Tower.

“The building shook so hard, it nearly knocked me off my feet,” he said.

Carroll, a Genoa-Kingston native now living in Dixon, detailed his experiences after getting out of the building during a special presentation Monday at O’Leary’s Ale House in downtown DeKalb.

Aon Services, an insurance brokerage firm Carroll was employed with at the time, had sent him to New York for training purposes.

Moments after fleeing the South Tower, Carroll said he heard someone scream that another plane was coming and, because the plane had turned so sharply to strike the second tower, he said he could see the faces of people in the plane’s windows.

Large pieces of debris, including luggage, file cabinets and desks, then rained down on Carroll, cracking his hip and tearing a ligament in his arm. He said he witnessed 21 people jump from the buildings.

When the South Tower fell, the force of the dust coming out of the wreckage knocked him over and required him to break the window of a building to get something to cover his face so he could breathe.

Carroll calculated that he walked about 26 miles across the city, covered in dust, looking for hotels and other resources in the aftermath.

The following day, he said, he was guided to a small Irish pub to get something to eat. His waitress had given him the wrong order, which Carroll had already been eating, and she apologized.

Carroll simply pulled out his World Trade Center identification and said, “If that’s the worst thing to happen to me today, I won’t mind.”

After the rest of the pub found out what had happened to him, he said his table was covered with drinks.

Although he escaped with his life, the experience led to a number of medical conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, a stress-induced heart attack and asbestos in his lungs. Doctors also have said the ordeal might be linked to him being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Carroll said he is ineligible for aid from the 911 Victims Compensation Fund, but still is working to qualify.

In spite of all of this, Carroll still receives calls from people asking him to tell them his story, which he continues to do. He has given similar talks at Northern Illinois University, the DeKalb Kiwanis Club and at the Rotary Club in Dixon.

“I don’t want people to forget,” Carroll said.