10 Years Later: 9/11 Forced First Responders to take International Terrorism 'Really Seriously'

Ten years ago today a newspaper reporter called Stillwater Police Chief John Gannaway, because as a Marine, he had been deployed to Lebanon in the midst of car bombings.

The reporter asked the police chief to compare what he saw in Lebanon to the terrorist attacks on 9/11—to which Gannaway replied: “There is no comparison.”

Gannaway’s deployment in Beirut saw the beginning of terrorists using car bombs, truck bombs and suicide bombers. At that time, Beirut was like Iraq and Afghanistan are now, he said.

“But the 9/11 attacks were so many levels beyond that,” Gannaway said. “Anyone who is old enough to comprehend what happened on 9/11 remembers how tragic and horrific it was. It was eye opening for the whole country. It was our Pearl Harbor.”

Gannaway remembers being at home when the first plane hit the Twin Towers.

“At first I thought it was odd, but then when the second plane hit there was no question in my mind that it was an intentional act,” Gannaway said.

Gannaway remembers hovering around the television.

“It quickly became obvious that it was a day that would change everyone’s life forever,” he said.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, first responders were gearing their training exercises toward domestic attacks like the Oklahoma City bombing, the “Unabomber” and school shootings like Columbine, Gannaway said. The focus was not on international attacks like the one on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the response was to dump a lot of money into public safety, which resulted in a lot of the equipment that is still used today such as automatic weapons, gas masks for biological threats and terrorism training.

“Before 9/11, the law enforcement train of thought was to secure the area and call SWAT,” Gannaway said. “But that wasn’t good enough. Now officers are trained to deal with it—and that takes a different mind set.”

Since the attacks, emergency preparedness and communication with federal agencies has improved, Gannaway said.

“It forced public safety and emergency management to take this stuff really seriously,” he said. “It became reality. It was the real world—and like it or not we had to adapt to it.”

Since 9/11 every officer is trained to a certain level of the incident command system—and supervisors and management are trained to an even higher level—so law enforcement officers are prepared to respond to a major event, Gannaway said. If something major happens, first responders are better prepared and equipped than they were pre-9/11, he said.

When asked what sticks out about the terrorist attacks that occurred 10 years ago today, Gannaway said it’s that “the attack was geared at anyone.”

“It woke up America. It happened on our soil—and after that you had to recognize the world would never be the same,” the police chief said. “Some people may not want to remember that day, but it’s hard to forget about it. God forbid something major happens again, but now that we saw what happened, we have to be ready to deal with it.”