Retired Mass. firefighter recalls mission at Ground Zero after 9/11 attacks: "Everything was the same color"

It's been 25 years since the events of 9/11 shocked the country and left first responders with everlasting nightmares. Massachusetts Task Force 1 (MA-TF1) was one of the first units sent in to assist given their proximity to New York. Their members can recall the moments like it was yesterday.

"I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be, because it brings back memories," said Miles Schlichte, a retired Gloucester firefighter and MA-TF1 member who was at Ground Zero.

After they arrived in New York, they began searching the rubble and came across a book. The title foreshadowed the coming days.

"The title of the book was worst case scenario and what to do," said Schlichte. "I think it was on the roof of one of the surrounding buildings."

As they searched, occasionally they would find holes they would mark for teams to investigate, but his team never found any survivors. They did find bodies that were covered in soot and dust. They were almost unrecognizable.

"It would have been a lot worse if dressed like you and I in a blue shirt, tan pants, or a pink dress," said Schlichte talking about the emotional toll of what he saw. "Everything down there was covered in what was known as '9/11 dust.' Everything was the same color."

The dust created an ever-present darkness. Schlichte said it didn't clear until rain came days later.

"The whole area was just covered with this end of the world I will call it, black, heavy smoke," said Schlichte. "The fires were burning so hot beneath the rubble pile that the metal was so hot that our boot soles would melt if we stood on the steel I beams."

Of the 80 people on his team, he says 12 have since died, adding that several deaths were related to their work at Ground Zero.

"Knock on wood, I have not been diagnosed with anything," said Schlichte.

Instead, he is left with scars and mementos. As he was leaving Ground Zero to head home, a New York firefighter gave him a hat. He's kept it alongside other 9/11 relics he took with him. He never got the man's name or number.  A quarter century later, the hat still is covered in the 9/11 dust.

"I remember feeling after 9/11, like oh my God, they figured out who to get us without an army," said Schlichte. "I always thought well when is the next one going to come."

Each year those thoughts lingered like the dust, but another attack never came to fruition.

"Finally came to the conclusion that they must have been doing a really great job after 9/11 for us not to have another 9/11," said Schlichte.

The peace now allows him to better tell his story.