I was twenty seven years old when terrorists attacked our nation on September 11, 2001.
Diesel was less than a dollar a gallon, back then it was cheaper than gas. I brought home a thousand twenty six dollars a month from my job with the US department of agriculture wildlife services. I was what most people call a government trapper.
In 2001 my rent was two hundred eighty dollars a month, the electric and water were less than a hundred each back then. I didn’t have a cell phone, credit card or much of anything really. I had a dodge truck, horse trailer and a few cows on my dad’s land.
My neighbor had just sold his entire calf crop the first week of September to a cattle buyer. The cattle buyer bought them off his farm and he didn’t have to pay a commission. My neighbor’s calves brought $500 a head, every one of them. A couple of weeks after the terrorist attacks I sold my calves at the sale barn and they averaged $352. I’ll never forget how the stock markets and ag futures markets dropped those weeks after the attacks.
One day a couple of weeks after the attacks my boss asked me if I’d be interested in going to help in New York. He told me the birds were beginning to migrate south along the east coast and they were having problems with the birds scavenging on the remains. He said the government trappers in New York were working everyday of the week and were wore out, they needed help. I volunteered on the spot.
I’ll never forget my wife asking why I volunteered for such an awful job. I almost passed out when she broke her nose working cattle because I hate the sight of blood. I wasn’t really trained in search and rescue, and I’d never seen anything remotely as bad as what I’d signed up for. I guess she was worried I might pass out on them up there. I just figured someone HAD to do the job. I also felt strongly that I wasn’t about to let fear of some terrorist keep me from doing what needed to be done.
I was a bit nervous and a bit afraid, but I was also mad. The terrorist didn’t attack a military target, they attacked a bunch of people that simply got up and went to work one morning. The more I thought about it the more I felt the terrorist were pretty sorry for what they did, kind of chicken poopishy, to put it politely.
While planning for the trip I figured out I needed money for the plane ticket and my meals up front. I had to go to the bank and borrow money for the trip, the USDA would reimburse me later. I didn’t have a credit card or enough cash on hand.
I flew into Newark, New Jersey late one evening. The first thing I saw was a lady chewing an airport employee up one side and down the other because her long fur coat was hung in an escalator. A man picked me up at the baggage claim and took me to a cheap motel. My bed had puke stains down one side and on the carpet in the floor. I didn’t say a word to anyone, all the motels were full and there weren’t any beds to be had anyway.
We stayed in Edison, New Jersey, which is only a few miles down the road from Trenton, New Jersey. While all of the World Trade Center recovery effort was going on some idiot in Trenton, New Jersey was mailing anthrax to politicians in Washington DC. There was a lot of bad stuff going on in and around New York during the time I was there.
The next morning we headed to the Fresh Kills landfill before daylight. The debris from ground zero was taken to the landfill so it could be sorted through. They looked for remains of the victims, airplane parts, and any other evidence at the landfill. The job was dirty we were told not to wear our official USDA clothes because it was so dirty. However, before I flew out my boss warned me the real reason they didn’t want us wearing our uniforms was they didn’t know if terrorist would try to kidnap or kill workers helping with the recovery effort.
Needless to say, I kept an eye out for anything suspicious and I had a weapon or two handy all the time. My dad showed me how to make some simple weapons before I left, stuff he’d learned in Vietnam. I wasn’t ever all that scared while I was there.
I worked daylight to dark chasing sea gulls, fish crows and a few other species of birds. We also trapped rats around the landfill because they were just as guilty as the birds. The job was sad, gross and necessary, it had to be done.
A couple of nights after work we went over to Manhattan and walked around the chain link fence that closed off where the world trade centers once stood. Ground zero was much bigger than it looked on TV. It’s hard to guess how many acres, but it took us about three hours to walk around.
After my tour I returned home, back to Oklahoma, my life of trapping coyotes, beavers and such. I’ll never forget those days in New York, the people I met and how tired so many looked. I ended up doing two tours at the Fresh Kills landfill. The work continued for nine months after the attacks.
To this day I don’t understand the level of hatred those terrorists had. I guess that’s what has bothered me most over the years. I can understand attacking a military target, but to attack a bunch of everyday working people, it still doesn’t make sense to me.
I see so many young people today that don’t realize how life in the United States was before the events of September 11, 2001.
There wasn’t much security at airports before 9-11. TSA and Homeland Security didn’t exist before then. Before the attacks no one ever imagined a plane could be used as a missile, today you can’t carry a bottle of cologne on a plane.
America changed dramatically after that day. Our eyes were opened to a new form of warfare. One without a flag, nation or standing army. Terrorism was different than anything our nation had ever faced.
For the most part all of the people that planned and helped with the September 11 attacks are now dead. The war on terror lasted almost twenty years, the longest war in US history. For some, it was only on TV or the internet. For me, it was much more. I was there, and I will never forget.
God Bless the USA and God Bless our troops.
James Lockhart
Team Leader Sea Gull reduction program / World Trade Center Recovery Effort
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