His name was Riley. Riley was sent alone to the North Tower for search and rescue on Sept 11, 2001. No one was found alive.
The stress on the rescue dogs was so high due to the low amount of live rescues, the emergency workers would hide in the rubble to keep the dogs spirits up.
May we #neverforget all who lost their lives and all the rescuers who gave so much.
They didn't know what a terrorist attack was. They just knew people needed finding, so they went in.
Nearly 300 search and rescue dogs worked Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Shanksville in the days after September 11. Labradors, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, dogs with names like Bretagne, Riley, and Trakr, climbing over unstable rubble that was still hot underneath, breathing in the same toxic dust that would go on to kill firefighters years later. Handlers said the dogs got depressed when days went by without finding anyone alive, so rescuers started hiding in the rubble themselves just so the dogs could have a save and keep their spirits up to keep working.
Bretagne was the last known 9/11 search dog. She worked sixteen years after the towers fell before she passed in 2016, and a line of firefighters stood and saluted her on her way into the vet's office for the final time.
These dogs didn't get asked to go. They just went, because that's what they were built to do, and they gave everything they had looking for people who were already gone.
Twenty five years on, they deserve to be remembered by name same as anybody else who ran toward it that day.
Today, we remember not only the lives lost and the heroes who ran toward danger, but also the working dogs of 9/11.
They searched through devastation, helped locate survivors and the fallen, and brought comfort in the darkest of moments.
They served beside us. They carried the weight with us. And they, too, are part of the legacy we must never forget.
Never forget. September 11, 2001.
Only thing I'll mention about 9/11 today since I don't see it mentioned as much:
The search dogs got visibly stressed and actually lost morale from finding so many deceased people that workers would have to stage "successful rescues" (live people) for them.
Man, my heart..
On 9/11, guide dog Roselle led her blind owner down 78 floors of the World Trade Center to safety.
She guided Michael Hingson through smoke, debris and chaos before leading him to the Fulton Street subway station, where they took shelter from the destruction above.
The Dog Who Wouldn't Stop Searching
On September 11, 2001, Apollo disappeared into a hole in the rubble at Ground Zero.
Then a fireball erupted.
Seconds later, the German Shepherd came running back toward his handler, NYPD Officer Peter Davis.
Apollo was on fire.
Davis brushed the burning embers from his thick coat.
And Apollo went right back to searching.
Apollo was nine years old—an age when many police dogs had already retired. But that morning, he and Davis became the first canine search-and-rescue team to arrive at Ground Zero.
The conditions were brutal.
To reach the rubble, Davis later recalled wading through water that came nearly to his waist. Apollo searched across jagged concrete and dangerously hot debris. His coat was singed. His paws became cracked and bruised.
Still, he searched.
Apollo had been trained to find the living. But as the hours passed, the terrible reality of the site became clearer. Eventually, Davis had to physically pull Apollo away from the debris when the dog refused to stop looking.
And Apollo wasn't alone.
Search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers worked through wreckage, dust and toxic fumes in the aftermath of the attacks. Apollo became a symbol of all of them.
On March 5, 2002, he was awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal for courage and devotion to duty. Apollo had been selected by ballot to receive the honor on behalf of every search-and-rescue dog that had worked at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Apollo lived to be 14.
Twenty-five years later, we remember the people who ran toward danger that morning.
Apollo reminds us that not all of them ran on two legs.
❤️🐾
Every year on Sept. 11, sunlight passes through the skylight at the Oculus to form two parallel columns of light representing the Twin Towers. This tribute became known as "Wedge of Light."
Nashville International Airport to be renamed to ‘Dolly Parton International Airport’
The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority unanimously voted (6-0) to rename the airport