A look back: 'It hit me like a hammer'

Robert Vigil lets out a chuckle as he looks through mementos of the time he spent at the World Trade Center site following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Vigil, who spent a total of 14 weeks assisting the New York City medical examiner, remembers one care package he received from a young girl. The box contained candy, various toiletry products, eye drops and a card.

The card is what Vigil selects when asked what he remembers the most.

“It said, ‘Dear Rescue Worker, thank you for helping in Tuesday's tragedy, but good work. You are very brave. I hope you know that you play a very important role in this. So keep up the good work.' Then it says, ‘P.S. Have a snack or soda on me' and there's 50 cents taped into the inside of the envelope — a quarter, a nickel and two dimes.”

Vigil never took that money out of the envelope.

“Here is a little girl who sent me 50 cents for a soda. It's the cutest note,” he said. “We got other care packages; it was just incredible what some of them wrote. It made you feel proud you were there helping out.”

Vigil, manager of Johnson and Kammann mortuaries in Yuma, was deputy commander of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Region 9 Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team. He worked at the World Trade Center site, at the Staten Island landfill where debris was trucked to be sorted, and at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, helping to identify bodies found in the wreckage.

Another Yuman who was at ground zero in the aftermath of the attacks was Mike Simpson, business manager for The Salvation Army. He spent several weeks helping feed the construction workers, firefighters and volunteer workers.

Simpson said two things stand out from the time he spent at ground zero.

“The first night I was there, seeing the rubble was amazing,” he said. “I remember coming around a corner and seeing the ruins of one of the buildings leaning over onto the other. It hit me like a hammer over the head. It made me think of the fall of the Roman Empire and I was thinking, ‘Could this be the fall of another civilization?'”

Simpson said the whole experience was an eerie one.

“We had to wear hard hats and masks. In the midst of that, we were walking around in smoke and dust,” he said. “It was just incredible to think that so many lives were lost here at once.”

Though the circumstances were grim, Vigil said he developed friendships that are still going strong despite the thousands of miles of distance in between.

“You worked side by side with these people, away from family, and they became yours,” he said.

Vigil said it's hard to believe that a year has passed since the attacks. In fact, he is still in disbelief that it actually happened.

“I can't believe it's been a year. Just like everyone else, I watched it on the news that morning,” he said. “I was put on alert later that morning and left a few days later.”

He continued, “At the site, you just stand there and look up at other buildings and can't imagine a plane going into them. You just can't believe it.”

Vigil said cleaning up the World Trade Center site also seemed to be an impossible task.

“Seeing the enormous wreckage was incredible. What you saw on television was not close to what it looked like when you were there,” he said. “Everything in the surrounding area was covered with dust, paper and wreckage from the buildings.

“It's hard to believe they were able to clean that area up,” Vigil said. “Being there and seeing what it was, and how it is now, it's amazing.”

Vigil said he plans to revisit New York City and the World Trade Center site in the future. He wants to see what they have done with the area and would also like to visit with his friends.

On the anniversary, Vigil said he will go through his daily routine as usual.

“I will go to work and spend time with my family,” he said.

On the anniversary, Simpson said he plans to attend various ceremonies throughout the Yuma area to honor those who lost their lives.

“It's very sad for our country,” he said. “It has heightened our awareness and, at the same time, as individuals, it has made us more accountable to ourselves and our families, which is good.”