By Kathy Shwiff
As workers fled the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Dennis Letts watched first-responders run inside to help others.
“In the midst of unimaginable tragedy, I witnessed extraordinary goodness,” he said during Morris County’s 25th Anniversary 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony on Sunday.
That day, Letts, a Parsippany resident, was a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service assigned to the New York field office in the World Trade Center complex.
As he was walking to his office at 8:46 a.m., he heard a massive explosion in the North Tower “directly above me.”
“I felt the heat of the fireball. Within seconds, tons of debris rained down as far as I could see.”
Video by Andrew Dutton for MorristownGreen.com:
He did not see nor hear a plane so he thought a bomb had exploded near the top of the tower. “I knew we were under attack.”
He ran to the center plaza where he found a Port Authority police officer. “Together, we began searching for survivors. But there were none. Only those who already lost their lives.”
As people began to emerge from the building’s stairwells, Letts and the officer started directing them away from the street-level plaza to the lower lobby, which led to the underground concourse.
The people they were directing were frightened and many were injured “yet almost every person was helping someone else — a stranger, a co-worker, someone who couldn’t walk as quickly…,” Letts said. “In the midst of unimaginable chaos, I was witnessing extraordinary humanity.”
‘I SAW COURAGE’
At 9:03 a.m., he heard another explosion in the South Tower.
Then people began falling from the upper floors. “I did not watch them fall but I heard them hit the ground and I saw the aftermath. It was one of the most heart-breaking experiences of my life. Even 25 years later, those memories remain vivid. They always will,” he said.
“Yet even amid that horror, I continued to see something else. I saw courage … people helping strangers, co-workers refusing to leave another co-worker behind…
“Those moments reminded me that even in humanity’s darkest hours, its goodness still shines through.”
Letts joined a group of New York Fire Department paramedics, leading them to 7 World Trade Center, where they planned to set up a triage station.
He and a colleague took an elevator to the 47th floor to get first-aid supplies. “Shortly after the elevator doors opened, I looked out the window and I saw the South Tower collapse.”
They grabbed medical supplies, then went to the stairs. After they reached the ground, they began pulling supplies on gurneys toward the street.
When the North Tower began to collapse, Letts was about 50 yards away. “Everyone began running.”
He ran toward the Hudson River, then dove under a parked car.
“Everything went dark. The noise was deafening. The air disappeared. It felt as though the world itself had ended, and somehow, through the grace of God, I survived.”
He crawled out from under the car, then boarded a New York Waterways ferry on the Hudson River. He and the captain began pulling survivors aboard – many injured, many in shock – then headed for New Jersey.
‘COURAGE WAS EVERYWHERE’
In what became the largest maritime evacuation in history, boats of all sizes carried nearly 500,000 people away from Manhattan, Letts said.
“There were no orders. There were no elaborate plans…. People simply saw a need and they acted.”
When he thinks of Sept. 11, 2001, Letts said he remembers the people: “The firefighters climbing the stairs, the police officers directing people to safety, the paramedics treating the injured while putting themselves in danger.”
“Sept. 11 revealed the very worst of humanity but it also revealed something even greater: The extraordinary capacity of ordinary people to do extraordinary things…
“That day, courage was everywhere. It was not just displayed by our first-responders but by ordinary civilians … people who simply saw another human being in need and stopped to help…
“The spirit of service has always been one of America’s greatest strengths. It existed before Sept. 11. It revealed itself on Sept. 11. And tonight, as I look around and see so many of our first-responders here, I’m reminded that the spirit of service we witnessed on Sept. 11 is still with us today.”
Names of the 64 Morris County residents who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and on the United Airlines flight that crashed in western Pennsylvania were read aloud.
Loretta Viglione of Parsippany read a poem written by her younger son Mark about the events of 9/11. Her brother Tommy Sabella, a New York City firefighter, was killed in the attacks.
Sept. 13, 2026. Photo by Andrew Dutton
Morris County Commissioner Tayfun Selen said a plaque with the poem will be placed at the Morris County 9/11 Memorial, which was created in 2003.
The Morris Choral Society performed several songs, and the Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard fired a 21-gun salute.
Members of local fire departments, law enforcement agencies and emergency medical services paraded to the ceremony at the county 9/11 memorial on West Hanover Avenue in Parsippany.
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