William H. Thiesen, Ph.D.

The storm grazed the Florida Keys and slipped into the sheltered waters of the Gulf of Mexico before unleashing devastation in Texas.

The day war was declared on the Empire of Japan, President Franklin Roosevelt referred to Dec. 7, 1941, day of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, as “a date which will live in infamy.” Little did he know the nation would face a similar date nearly 60 years later.

As a member of the Emergency Service Unit, he and his fellow officers were the first to enter the doomed Trade Center. He called home to his wife and told her it was real bad up in the Towers.