National Geographic Magazine

Al Qaeda founder Dependent on Aid $26.2 war cost, 2019
Osama bin Laden is billion
killed in Abbottabad, Afghanistan relies on international $35 billion
Pakistan, in May 2011. funding for three-quarters of its total $4.4
public expenditures—costs that are billion Operation and maintenance
101 $102 billion largely driven by security spending. Personnel, training, transporta-
86 89 $4.0 tion, and electronic equipment
TOTAL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE billion
Procurement
Revenue sources Domestic revenues $330 Major equipment such as aircraft,
Foreign grants million ships, and armored vehicles

$8.6 billion $2.3 billion $160.4 Military personnel
million Salaries and compensation for
62 Spending Civilian active and retired military
Security $5.8 billion $24.3
56 $5.6 billion million Research and development
51 Testing of equipment and sup-
43 40 $41 billion plies, such as computer software
War spending increases by 37 35 39
41 $45 billion from 2009 to 2011 as Revolving funds
Miscellaneous goods
the U.S. military presence surges and services
from 66,000 to 110,000 troops.
Military construction
Large projects such as bases,
schools, and medical clinics

15 6 52
13

0

6

arack Obama Donald Trump reconstruction
cost, 2019
2010 2020 $3.6
billion $5 billion
,167 2,983 4,400
$977 Security
5,267 5,232 4,700 7,000- 7,000- million Support for Afghan National Secu-
9,000 9,000 10,900 10,900 rity Forces and counter-narcotics
,557 3,400 $540
million Agency operations
1,500 2,000 Diplomacy and development
$239 programs
,412 6,834 million
4,821 5,669 Governance and development
4,362 Economy, education, counter-
,550 4,709 terrorism, and narcotics control

2,794 3,133 2,769 2,969 3,701 7,019 7,191 6,992 5,785 Humanitarian
14,632 15,633 14,379 14,873 15,467 Disaster assistance for the inter-
3,442 3,803 3,409 3,035 nally displaced and for refugees
18,589 19,133 21,521 19,746

SSIFIED
NERAL FOR
NAMA

rall SECONDARY EDUCATION FOOD INSECURITY CAUSE OF DEATH POVERTY
tion. Only a small portion of Afghans 25 and A large percentage of Afghans live
older have attended secondary school. Nearly three-quarters of the popula- Violent conflict dramatically rises as a below the poverty line.
tion lacks access to enough food. leading cause of death.
36.9% 59%
3.2 million Emergency ’09 ’19 (% Change)
7.8 million 10%
Male 1 Heart disease (+17%) 42%
Female 11.8 million Crisis 2 Conflict/terrorism (+219%)
25% 3 Neonatal disorders (0%) Rural 36% 42%
4 Respiratory ailments (-23%)
1 13.2% Stressed 5 Birth defects (-5%) Urban 26% 25%
13.6% 38% 6 Stroke (+11%)

2.3%

8.7 million Secure
28%
9 1990 ’00 ’10 2019 2007-’08 ’11-’12 ’16-2017

SOURCES: UNESCO; BARRO AND LEE SOURCE: INTEGRATED FOOD SECURITY PHASE SOURCE: INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND SOURCE: ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN
CLASSIFICATION EVALUATION CENTRAL STATISTICS ORGANIZATION

Ethnic minority
Uzbek girls emerge
from Marshal Dostum
High School in the
northwestern city of
Shibirghan, Jowzjan
Province. The families
of more than two dozen
students relocated to
the provincial capital
after the Taliban seized
the province’s southern
districts and banned
girls’ education again
in 2018.

BELOW

Member of Parliament
Raihana Azad rides
through the streets
of Kabul in a bullet-
proof SUV en route to
a legislative session on
International Women’s
Day. The outspoken
38-year-old survived
an assassination
attempt and a suicide
bombing. She moved
her children overseas
and fears she may have
to follow if the Taliban
return to power.

114 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

“we have had at least a dozen cycles of rural elites communists, sparking a decade-long guerrilla
who came and captured power in Kabul, became war. The U.S. funneled billions of dollars via
rulers, and then eventually became almost alien Pakistan to anti-Soviet mujahideen fighters from
to their former bases,” says Tamim Asey, a for- across the Islamic world—including the Saudi
mer deputy minister of defense and founder of jihadist Osama bin Laden—and they eventually
the Institute of War and Peace Studies, a Kabul- forced the Soviets to withdraw. A power-sharing
based think tank. It’s a “war of two worldviews deal failed, and the militants fractured into war-
and systems of values. On one side are people in ring factions. The Taliban emerged in the chaos
major cities who are more liberal, moderate, and and seized power in 1996.
educated but have grown out of touch with the
rural population. On the other are conservative, The Taliban soon grabbed headlines for
rural Afghans who feel neglected by a centralized ruthlessly enforcing an eye-for-an-eye brand
state run by elites.” of sharia law, brutally oppressing women and
minorities, destroying cultural treasures, and
For 50 years, Afghanistan has swung from sheltering al Qaeda. After 9/11, the U.S. invaded
coups to conflicts. In 1973 an Afghan general to root out those behind the attacks, but another,
ousted the king and declared himself president. less clearly defined mission took shape. U.S. and
Five years later, Afghan communists assassi- NATO leaders hoped economic opportunity and
nated him and seized power. The Soviet Union democracy would inoculate the country against
invaded the next year to prop up the unpopular becoming a terrorist haven again.

Education, political participation, and the sta-
tus of women improved, but a deluge of foreign
money exacerbated urban-rural fault lines. Aid
and military contracts stoked a bubble economy
in cities. But most Afghans still scrape by on sub-
sistence agriculture, despite the $144 billion-plus
that the U.S. has invested in reconstruction since
2001—far more, even in inflation-adjusted dollars,
than it contributed to rebuilding Western Europe
after World War II.

Keenly aware of the disparities, Afghanistan’s
first elected president, Hamid Karzai, launched
ambitious rural development programs. Led by
then finance minister Ashraf Ghani, a former
World Bank official who is now the country’s
president, the central government directed
almost three billion dollars from international
donors to self-governed community coun-
cils to fund local priorities and loans. Donors
spent billions on road construction to connect
villages to markets. The oft-repeated mantra
justified the investment: Where the road ends,
the Taliban begin. (Ironically, better roads have
helped militants and opium traders extend
their reach too.)

“Access to roads, modern education, health
care, electricity—all of that was going to help
stabilize the country,” says Richard Boucher,
the top U.S. diplomat for South and Central Asia
from 2006 to 2009. The theory was good, but the
implementation, he says, was flawed. “We should
have put more effort into training the class of
Afghan technocrats, the people who admin-
ister programs, who could account for money

A F G H A N I S TA N ’ S D A N G E R O U S D I V I D E 115

Thousands of Hazara,
minority Shiite Muslims,
gather in Daykundi
Province to mark Nowruz,
the first day of spring.
Nowruz is celebrated
in Afghanistan, Iran,
and Central Asia, but
Sunni extremists deem
the ancient Persian
holiday un-Islamic. The
Taliban regime banned
it, and terrorists have
bombed celebrations.



and could carry out government policies … We in the U.S. and returned home to stake his

were spending a lot of money on ourselves claim to the post-2001 construction boom.

and our contractors, and not so much on the An older brother of then President Hamid Kar-

people of Afghanistan.” zai, he became the driving force behind Ayno

Reconstruction and security contracts were Maina, one of Afghanistan’s most successful

controlled by warlords and elites who fed patron- private developments.

age networks along ethnic, tribal, and family “I always took the risk. If I had a million, I’d

lines. According to Integrity Watch Afghanistan, gamble it in Las Vegas,” says Mahmood, holding

an anti-corruption nonprofit, nearly all major court beneath a crystal chandelier in his Itali-

anate headquarters in the heart of the

‘On one side are people complex. An oil portrait of another
Karzai brother, Ahmed Wali, hangs

in major cities who are more by the door. Until his 2011 assassina-
liberal, moderate, and educated tion, Ahmed Wali was head of Kan-
dahar’s provincial council, the most
but have grown out of touch powerful man in southern Afghanistan
with the rural population.’ and a symbol of a flawed U.S. mission.

He was a businessman and political

enforcer, allegedly on the CIA’s pay-

contracts still go to people with close ties to roll, believed to have used his position and ties

officials. “By now we should have institutions,” to cover drug trafficking and money laundering

says Rahmatullah Amiri, a security analyst from on a grand scale.

Kandahar. “Instead we have individuals.” Mahmood’s rise likewise was shadowed by

An October 2020 report by the U.S. inspec- allegations of foul play, notably a 2010 scandal

tor general for reconstruction in Afghanistan at Kabul Bank, then the country’s largest private

found that of $63 billion in reconstruction bank, in which he was the third largest share-

funds reviewed, nearly a third, roughly $19 holder. Rumors the bank was failing sparked a

billion, was “lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.” run that nearly caused its collapse. An indepen-

Some of that money is flaunted in the capital, dent investigation found about $900 million had

Kabul, where so-called overnight millionaires been stolen from the bank, 8 percent of the coun-

shuttle between high-rise towers and fortress try’s $12 billion GDP at the time. A U.S. grand

compounds in armored Lexus SUVs, trailed by jury investigated Mahmood over allegations of

convoys of gunmen. Some made fortunes in new racketeering and tax evasion on a property sale

industries after 2001, but untold millions in cash in Dubai but never charged him.

have been whisked away to Dubai by officials Mahmood dismisses the allegations as smears

and cronies, stashed in bank accounts and lux- by Karzai family enemies, but he acknowledges

ury condominiums. his proximity to power helped him. When his

A top-down culture of corruption fueled by brother was president, the governor of Kan-

foreign money has had an exceptionally dam- dahar deeded him the land for Ayno Maina.

aging effect on police. “If a police station needs Mahmood says he started with $50,000 of his

15 officers, there are only three; the rest of the own savings and secured a three-million-dollar

money is stolen,” says Ahmadi, the former dis- loan from a U.S. government agency. “Wealth

trict governor in Kandahar Province. came and was consumed by a few, and I’m one

Poorly equipped, police are also widely loathed of them,” he says unapologetically. “Unfortu-

for shaking people down to make up for unpaid nately, most Afghans did not get their proper

salaries and scarce supplies. “The Taliban don’t share. We paid too much attention to urban

provide any services, and they don’t build houses development and forgot rural areas. And rural

or clinics, but they do not steal,” asserts Abdullah areas, they have the guns.”

Jan, an unemployed farmer who fled Arghandab, Last year President Ghani named Mahmood

echoing a common refrain among rural Afghans. minister of urban and rural development. He

has vowed to make homeownership more acces-

A R M E D W I T H the right connections, Mahmood sible to an urban population growing rapidly

Karzai left behind a string of Afghan restaurants because of a high birth rate and grim economic

118 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

prospects and insecurity in rural areas. Mah- constituents in Daykundi, most of whom are

mood is expanding affordable housing at Ayno minority ethnic Hazara in an isolated region

Maina and breaking ground on a bigger project that lacks infrastructure. The government and

in Kabul: a 12,500-acre, government-funded foreign donors “only focus on insecure areas,”

development featuring U.S.-style residential she says. “We are an exemplary province, and

communities. “The demand is unbelievable,” he we have been forgotten.”

says, with the zeal of a salesman. “If I sell every- About 250 miles west of Kabul, Daykundi

thing, I will be so rich.” Even so, he admits, “I’m is cut off from trade and travel three months

not sure about the future of the country.” When a year because roads become impassable in

the U.S. leaves, he expects the Taliban “will take winter. When weather is good, it still takes two

the country by force.” If civil war breaks out, he days or more to reach the capital by car, on an

says, he will leave. “I don’t want to be killed.” abominable dirt road prowled by bandits and

Taliban. There’s a small airport used mainly by

S E AT E D I N T H E LO U N G E of the five-star Serena the military; the only alternative, for the well-

Hotel in Kabul, Raihana Azad, 38, exudes the connected, is UN aid helicopters that climb past

swagger of the capital’s moneyed elite. A mem- snowcapped peaks and settlements that look as

ber of parliament since 2010, she wears a svelte if they’ve been carved from rock.

black business suit without a headscarf, and Daykundi is one of the most peaceful,

speaks in a rapid-fire patter that fills the room. education-minded parts of Afghanistan, largely

An ethnic Hazara born in a hardscrabble populated by Hazara, Shiite Muslims who were

pocket of Daykundi Province, she bore two chil- persecuted as heretics by the Taliban. Hazara

dren after an arranged marriage at 13. The story culture tends to be more progressive; boys and

could have ended there, as it has for countless girls typically study together, English is widely

Afghan women, but Azad stayed in school, got spoken, and women are involved in agriculture,

a job with the UN promoting girls’ education, run businesses, and drive. Hazara students

and made it to Kabul, where she earned a law often perform at the top of the national univer-

degree. She used her education to break taboos, sity entrance exam, even when some must take

suing for a divorce that made her an outcast in tests outside, squatting in the snow. “Education

her own family. She ran for parliament and was is everything here,” says Rahmatullah Sultani,

elected to back-to-back terms, despite making a former shepherd who attended a university

no secret of her atheism or divorce. “People do and teaches English at a U.S.-funded learning

not care about my personal life because I work center in Nili, the provincial capital. “It means

for them and always tell them the truth,” she freedom,” he adds, “the ability to think for your-

says with a shrug. self and choose your own path.”

Azad’s brazen style has made her enemies. Every morning, Nazanin Mohammadi, a

She survived a suicide bombing and an

assassination attempt on a post-cam-

paign trip to the countryside. Death ‘On the other are conservative

threats forced her to move her children rural Afghans who feel
abroad, change locations frequently, neglected by a centralized
and travel in a bulletproof vehicle. “I’m state run by elites.’
not afraid anymore,” she says. “I fight

on so that our next generations are not TA M I M A S E Y, former deputy minister of defense

as miserable as we were.”

Her driver navigates a maze of con-

crete blast walls and checkpoints en route to fresh-faced 22-year-old, walks four miles from

parliament, where Azad has come for a floor her shared apartment to the university campus.

vote to support a female colleague. Women Her home village, 10 hours away by car, has no

now make up 27 percent of the body, a share electricity or running water. Nearly all of her

similar to that in the U.S., thanks in part to quo- friends married as teenagers, but Mohammadi

tas built into the post-Taliban constitution. An stuck with school, inspired by her hero in par-

independent who refuses to ally with strong- liament, Azad. Her goal is to earn a master’s in

men, Azad struggles to channel resources to her rural development and a job with the Ministry

A F G H A N I S TA N ’ S D A N G E R O U S D I V I D E 119

Families grieve some of
the estimated 90 vic-
tims, mostly teenage
girls, killed in a bomb-
ing near a Kabul school
on May 8. The Hazara
neighborhood Dasht-e
Barchi was once a
relative haven for the
ethnic minority group,
but in recent years
Islamic State terrorists
and the Taliban have
killed hundreds of
Hazara at mosques,
weddings, schools, and
a maternity hospital.

A F G H A N I S TA N ’ S D A N G E R O U S D I V I D E 121

of Agriculture in Kabul, before coming back to
help modernize farming techniques.

RU G G E D, R E M OT E G E O G RA P H Y I S PA RT LY Qari Mehrabuddin, a
pro-government militia
to blame for underdevelopment in the high- commander, sits with
lands, but it hasn’t insulated the Hazara from two of his five children
attacks on religious and ethnic minorities by in his home on the out-
the Taliban and ISIS, another group of Sunni skirts of Faizabad. He
extremists. With peace talks between the developed extremist
Afghan government and the Taliban stalled, views at a religious
ethnic militias—including Hazara fighters— school, or madrassa, in
have begun reassembling ahead of what many neighboring Pakistan,
see coming: a return to civil war. and returned home to
join the Taliban. After
Since the U.S. confirmed its troop with- a dispute with Taliban
drawal, the Taliban have advanced within leaders, he allied with
striking distance of major cities. But Boucher, government forces
the former U.S. diplomat, is among many in and, along with his
Washington who believed it was time to end a bodyguard—another
directionless war that cost two trillion dollars former Taliban fighter,
in U.S. taxpayer money—as well as the lives of Abdul Qias (right)—he
more than 170,000 Afghan civilians, soldiers, now recruits militants
police, and opposition fighters; American and to switch sides.
NATO troops and contractors; and journalists
and aid workers, according to the Costs of War delay the wedding because he hasn’t been
Project at Brown University. “We’ve been there paid in six months. “Our salaries disappear in
for two decades, and we don’t have an Afghan the system,” he says, sighing. “But it’s getting
government that can protect itself and provide worse here, and we have to defend the nation,”
security,” Boucher laments. as long as “we are alive and blood runs through
our body.”
“The world lost a great chance over the last
20 years and won’t be able to fix it in another Three hundred miles away, on a backstreet of
40,” says Amiri, the analyst. “The Taliban are one of Kabul’s fancier neighborhoods, Nilofar
coming, whether we like it or not.” Afghan Army Ayoubi celebrates the opening of her wom-
forces are struggling to slow Taliban advances en’s boutique with balloons and TV cameras:
with less U.S. air support, and fatigue and deser- a bold move considering militants and crimi-
tions are depleting the ranks. nals are targeting prominent women. Ayoubi
has received death threats and was carjacked
At a lone police outpost in Panjwai dis- in broad daylight but refuses to abandon the
trict, a half hour’s drive west of Kandahar, the relative freedom she’s found in Kabul. “I really
Taliban’s white flags are visible in the near
distance. Unkempt and groggy from little
sleep, police officer Abdul Ghafoor says enemy
snipers armed with U.S. weapons and night
vision binoculars, likely confiscated from
Afghan troops, are staging attacks after dark
and seeding roads with bombs. The ground at
his feet is strewn with bullet casings, expired
U.S. body armor, and IV bags discarded after
a recent attack that critically injured three of
his comrades.

Ghafoor, 22, wanted to study medicine. But
slim prospects in his home province of Kapisa
and a patriotic streak compelled him to enlist
for a paltry monthly salary of 13,000 afghanis,
or $165. Engaged to be married, he had to

122 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

don’t see myself anywhere else,” she says. post-U.S. withdrawal, and they will not tolerate
A Pashtun from the northern city of Kunduz, their mothers and sisters being flogged in front
of them, or people hanging in the streets.”
Ayoubi, 26, recalls her mother being beaten
under the Taliban for shopping without a male Raihana Azad is less sure. She’s deeply disap-
relative. Now she owns a boutique for modern pointed Washington cut a deal with the Taliban
women who shop unaccompanied. “You have without protections for women and minorities.
to keep going,” she says. When we first met, she told me Afghans would
stand up to the Taliban. She has grown cynical
W H E T H E R T H E TA L I B A N try to forge a power- since the U.S. announced a full withdrawal. With
sharing deal with the Afghan government or two years left in her term, she too is thinking of
take the country by force, they “cannot rule this leaving Afghanistan. j
new Afghanistan through the barrel of a gun,”
asserts Asey, the former defense official. “This Jason Motlagh is a writer and filmmaker who
freedom-seeking, liberal, and tolerant genera- has covered the war in Afghanistan since 2006.
tion will be the torchbearer of a new Afghanistan Kiana Hayeri, an Iranian-Canadian photographer,
has worked in Afghanistan since 2013.

A F G H A N I S TA N ’ S D A N G E R O U S D I V I D E 123



20 YEARS AFTER 9/11

ECHOES
OF LOSS
BY PATRICIA EDMONDS PHOTOGRAPHS BY HENRY LEUTWYLER
A RT I FAC T S F RO M T H E 9/ 1 1 M E M O R I A L & M U S E U M

Long Island resident members, sober-faced
Joe Hunter earned a and laden with gear,
business degree from heading to the World
Hofstra University, Trade Center’s south
but he’d known since tower to join the evac-
childhood that fire- uation effort. When
fighting was what he the tower collapsed,
really wanted to do. Hunter and his squad
A television news video mates perished.
from the morning of Hunter’s helmet was
9/11 shows Hunter and found in the wreckage
other FDNY Squad 288 several months later.

COURTESY BRIDGET HUNTER AND FAMILY 125



What forces can sanctify an object, giving it meaning
beyond itself? Selflessness. Courage.
Endurance in the face of the unspeakable.
The forces that Joe Hunter and hundreds of other
people summoned on September 11, 2001.

J oe Hunter’s dreams rode on fire engines. At age four, he’d pedal The six-part miniseries
his Big Wheel to the corner as the red trucks passed. At 11, he’d 9/11: One Day in
run fire rescue drills with a ladder and a garden hose, and if his America premieres on
pals didn’t take it seriously, he sent them home: “OK, you—out!” National Geographic
August 29 at 9/8c.
He started as a volunteer fireman, graduated from the New York
City Fire Department academy, took rescue training for terrorist Dispatched to the twin
towers after the first
attacks and building collapses. When his mother, Bridget, worried, attack, EMT Benjamin
Badillo stayed with
he’d tell her, “If anything ever happens, just know I loved the job.” his ambulance as his
partner, EMT Edward
Eighteen days shy of his 32nd birthday, Firefighter Joseph Gerard Hunter Martinez, looked for
survivors. Hearing an
of FDNY Squad 288 died helping evacuate the World Trade Center’s south awful roar, Badillo saw
“the top of the build-
tower. He was one of 2,977 people killed on 9/11 when al Qaeda hijackers used ing coming down.”
Martinez was struck
passenger jets as weapons in the deadliest terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil. by debris. Both men
sought cover as the
In February 2002, searchers at ground zero recovered a Squad 288 helmet south tower disinte-
grated. Martinez was
bearing Hunter’s badge number. “Of course, it’s mangled,” says Hunter’s taken to a hospital
and survived thanks
sister, Teresa Hunter Labo. But the family is grateful it was found because to emergency surgery.
Badillo recalls searching
“it’s the only thing we have of him that was down there, that was with him.” the area, “screaming
for my partner.”
In the two decades since 9/11, memorials have been built at the crash Their ambulance was
destroyed, but part of
sites in New York City, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and in a its map book survived.

field in Pennsylvania. Artifacts in each place reflect the particulars of each

tragedy: When United Flight 93 crew and passengers tried to retake the

plane, hijackers flew it into the ground near Shanksville, Pennsylvania,

at more than 560 miles an hour. Other than one section of fuselage and

two crumpled engine parts, most of what remained was in small pieces.

At the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York, more than 70,000 objects

help tell the stories of victims, responders, and survivors. Artifacts are as

small as a sapphire-and-diamond ring and as massive as a half-crushed

fire engine. Many are utterly common: a food container lid, perhaps from

a lunch packed on what started like any other Tuesday. But some common

items’ poignance is in the details: The unfinished knitting, still on the

needles, was the hobby of an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald—a company

that lost 658 employees in the north tower.

In Joe Hunter’s memory, his family has donated his helmet to the

museum: “It belongs there,” his sister says. It’s preserved with the other

artifacts, common but uncommon, in silent witness to history. j

Patricia Edmonds, senior director for short-form content, oversees the mag-
azine’s EXPLORE section. Henry Leutwyler is a Swiss photographer based in
New York City; he was there on 9/11. Hicks Wogan contributed to this report.

COURTESY THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY E C H O E S O F L O S S 127

SACRED DUST

When he learned of the terrorist attacks
on the World Trade Center, New Jersey
volunteer EMT Greg Gully grabbed
some supplies and made his way to the
twin towers. He handed out dust
masks to evacuees, provided medical
assistance, and for the next four days
helped search through the rubble. After
Gully finally returned home, he put his
pants on a hanger with the dust still cling-
ing to them, and he attached a handwritten
note: “Pants worn on 9-11-01 at the WTC.
Please DO NOT WASH. The ash is the

remains of those that died.

God Bless Them!”

Witnessing the shipping invoice that
destruction inspired he’d snatched out of
Gully and others to the blizzard of paper
make their own “indi- in the air and tucked in
vidual memorials,” his pocket. It came from
says Chief Curator Jan Marsh & McLennan, an
Seidler Ramirez of insurance company that
the 9/11 Memorial & took a direct hit from
Museum. When Gully the plane that slammed
donated his pants to into the north tower.
the museum in 2012, The firm lost more than
he attached a singed 350 people.

128 GIFT OF GREG GULLY, EMT



Recovery workers Examiner launched that canvass: a broken,
spent nine months another search for dirt-encrusted key-
excavating debris remains in the area board (above) from
from ground zero and where the World Trade investment holding
searching for remains Center buildings had company Garban
of victims. In 2006, stood. Among the Intercapital and a plas-
New York City’s Office many everyday items tic lid (right) from a
of the Chief Medical discovered during food container.

COURTESY THE PORT AUTHORITY (BOTH)

E C H O E S O F L O S S 131

BURIED ALIVE

Port Authority Police Sgt. John McLoughlin
and four officers were taking rescue gear
to the twin towers when the south one
collapsed, burying them. A half hour later,
the north tower fell. Under 30 feet of rubble,
two of them survived: 21-year
veteran McLoughlin and rookie William
Jimeno. Before then, neither knew the
other’s first name. Pinned some 15 feet
apart, they shared family stories and urged
each other to hold on. As night fell, they
heard voices and shouted until rescuers
found them. Jimeno was trapped for
13 hours; McLoughlin, buried deeper, for
22 hours. Only one other person was found
alive in the wreckage after
them. McLoughlin came out of the ordeal
still wearing his sergeant’s shield—a prized
possession, now framed—and these boots.

J.J. McLoughlin says in a medically induced
his father almost coma for six weeks,
tossed out the boots, had more than 30 oper-
whose soles had ations, spent months
dry-rotted years ago. hospitalized, and still
Instead, the family has health issues. Now
gave them to the 9/11 68 and retired since
Memorial & Museum. 2004, he volunteers
John McLoughlin was with the Boy Scouts.

132 GIFT OF JOHN MCLOUGHLIN



12

34

The collapse of the upper floors dropped wiring (1), glass fused Found objects speak equ
twin towers generated onto lower ones. by heat (2), concrete to the heartbreaking safe
tremendous force: Hardier materials later (3), carpet (4), steel circumstances of the ings
Many objects inside recovered from the and other metals events at the twin crus
the 110-story buildings ground zero debris (7, 10, 11), and towers. Among head
were pulverized as field include copper random debris (12). them: remnants of grou

COURTESY THE PORT AUTHORITY (1, 4, 9, 11, 12); FROM THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY POLICE DEPARTMENT 9-11 TRAVELING MEMORIAL
(2, 6, 8); ANONYMOUS GIFT (3, 7); GIFT OF CAPT. BRENDA BERKMAN, FDNY (5); COURTESY THE NEW YORK CITY FIRE MUSEUM (10)

5 6 9 10

7 8 11 12

ipment meant to impacts disabled A corner of an Otis buildings. Other around the twin
eguard the build- the towers’ sprinkler Elevators sign (8) was artifacts were strik- towers may have
s’ occupants. This systems. A panel from recovered; most of the ingly out of place encountered plane
shed sprinkler an emergency phone 198 elevators stopped in the cityscape of parts like this one (9)
d (5) was found at box (6) kept its color working when the lower Manhattan. in the chaos of the
und zero; the plane but not its shape. planes pierced the People on streets terrorist attacks.

FORGED IN THE TWIN TOWERS ATTACKS The pilot of American had died less than a brought co
Flight 77, Charles F. year before. Recovery “My family
Many of the recovered 767 aircraft wing-flap between two buildings Burlingame III, carried workers found the card, that was m
objects were distorted support, most likely several blocks north a precious talisman: a largely intact, at the saying, ‘Do
by force and fire. Inves- from the jet that hit of ground zero and laminated prayer card Pentagon crash site. I’ve got hi
tigators identified this the south tower. It was wasn’t found until 12 from the funeral of his Burlingame’s brother And that w
fragment as a Boeing wedged in a crevice years after the attacks. mother, Patricia, who said its discovery little sign t

WITH PERMISSION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK AND THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. GIFT OF THE FAMILY OF CAPT. CHARLES F. BURLINGAME III

omfort: When passengers 757’s engines (above)
y believed tried to retake Flight was found lodged in
my mother 93, hijackers aiming a field; another fell
on’t worry. for Washington, D.C., into a pond. On the
m now.’ crashed the jet in rural four hijacked flights,
was her Pennsylvania. One 33 crew members and
to us.” piece of the Boeing 213 passengers died.

COURTESY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL E C H O E S O F L O S S 139

DEVOTION TO DUTY

Rosemary Smith walked down 57 floors
in a dark, smoke-filled stairwell to escape
the north tower—in 1993, after terrorists
set off a bomb at the World Trade Center.
Though she had fears about
working in the building after that attack,
Smith loved being a phone operator at law
firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, so she
went back to work at the same offices.
On 9/11, as her co-workers began evac-
uating, Smith stayed to forward
calls to the answering machine—and
didn’t make it out in time. She was the
only employee of the firm to die in the
attacks. Smith’s watch was found with her
remains, on Christmas Eve, 2001.

On February 26, 1993, as she returned to work
Smith was among tens in the north tower,
of thousands of evacu- Smith bought herself
ees from World Trade a present: a gold ring
Center buildings after set with sapphires
a bomb in an under- and diamonds. It also
ground parking garage was found in the 9/11
blasted a hole 130 feet wreckage. Her watch,
by 150 feet and several encrusted with dust
stories deep. To cele- and missing its crys-
brate her survival and tal, stopped seconds
boost her courage before one o’clock.

140 COURTESY ROSEMARY KEMPTON



Some once common after the initial recovery a rotating file for cards
objects that endured operation. On 9/11, with contact informa-
the destruction seem almost every floor of tion—as indispensable
poignantly anachronistic the twin towers had in the late 20th century
today. A crumpled roll offices. Equipment as databases are today.
of plastic film (above) found after the attacks Some of the cards are
was discovered in includes the remains charred, some warped,
lower Manhattan years of a Rolodex (right), others still legible.

COURTESY THE PORT AUTHORITY (BOTH)

E C H O E S O F L O S S 143

VOW TO LIVE

Joanne Capestro can’t forget what
she saw after the plane hit the north
tower above her 87th-floor office: People
with no escape route, jumping to their
death. Grim-faced firefighters climbing up
as evacuees poured down the stairs. Her
friend, Harry Ramos, delaying his own
escape to help a sick man. Ramos didn’t
get out; Capestro did, just as the south
tower was collapsing. Once the dust settled,
photographer Phil Penman took what
became an iconic 9/11 picture: Capestro
and a co-worker huddled close, dust caked
and dazed. For months, PTSD paralyzed
Capestro. Then, with small steps, she began
to reclaim her life. When a bag
from her office was found at ground zero,
the items returned to Capestro included a
damaged photo of her nephews.

For Capestro—JOJO ridden that she was
to friends—seizing her alive while many par-
“second chance in life” ents had died, she’s
is a work in progress. embraced the kids and
Once afraid to return grandkids of the man
to an office, she’s now she married in 2018.
an executive assistant Penman took the pho-
to a CEO. Once guilt tos at their wedding.

144 GIFT OF JOANNE “JOJO” CAPESTRO IN MEMORY OF HARRY RAMOS



INSTAGRAM LYNSEY ADDARIO

FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS

WHO Addario has spent her career capturing scenes of
conflict, but it’s rare for her to see women on the front
Winner of a Pulitzer Prize, lines. So when she met senior U.S. Army pilot Jesse
Addario covers war and Russell while embedded at Afghanistan’s Kandahar
human rights, often with Airfield in 2007, the two hit it off. They reunited in
a spotlight on women. late 2009 at Camp Leatherneck, where Russell was
flying a Black Hawk helicopter into combat areas to
WHERE evacuate the wounded. Watching Russell in action
never got old, says Addario. “I am always proud and a
Helmand Province, little bit excited to see women breaking stereotypes.”
Afghanistan

W H AT

A Nikon D3 camera with
a 17-35mm lens

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