Youngest 9/11 Ground Zero volunteer turned Green Beret Commander shares experience

At 18 years old, John Paluska was the youngest rescue and recovery volunteer at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001. He watched the second tower fall from his Fordham University dorm. “We witnessed the second tower collapse downtown from the Bronx into Manhattan. It was about at that point we knew help was needed and jumped on [an] empty subway train and went down to head towards the pile,“ said Paluska. He immediately went to help and started recovering the remains of multiple victims. “I didn’t talk about 9/11 for 17 years and what has happened and the victims, the bodies I bagged when I discovered the fresh pile. It’s been blocked to me and in a sacred place, yet my story is just one of 1,000 stories and these stories are impactful,“ said Paluska. This experience changed the trajectory of his life. It led him to enlist in the military. MORE: