Former Lehigh County Emergency Management director John Conklin has kept a tub for 25 years. Inside it — reminders of his service with the Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue Task Force at the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks.
“Several days into it, we were just commenting that as we walked around, it was just a bad dream,” Conklin told 69 News in 2001.
Conklin said as part of his EMA position, he would receive regular notifications from federal intelligence, including an email sent a month ahead of 9/11.
“Which talks about al-Qaida and their capabilities and their desire to actually attack the United States,” said Conklin.
Conklin also still has the very helmet and uniform he wore.
“I’m very happy that I was selected to be able to go and participate and put forth my best effort, that I had been trained for by that time almost 35 years as a fireman, as a emergency manager,” said Conklin.
The force Conklin was on was tasked with looking for survivors. He worked as a planning shift manager.
Current PEMA director Randy Padfield was also on the same force.
One of the first images the force encountered in New York was no World Trade Center standing and heavy smoke rising.
“I think everybody realized at that point in time that this was going to be a significant event. It was probably going to change our lives maybe not to the degree we thought at the time,” said Padfield.
Once he got down to Ground Zero, he saw a trail of destruction.
“We were able to see part of the towers that were down, but it almost looked like a little bit like a moonscape. The amount of dust and debris that was around,” said Padfield.
The task force would spend eight days at Ground Zero, working up to 16 hours a day. In the 25 years since the attack, Conklin has talked about his experiences at ceremonies and about how the community can come together.
“That was very therapeutic for me to be able to get all that off my chest in that type of manner, you know basically to the citizens we were responsible for locally,” said Conklin.