Calexico Port of Entry Officer Shares Firsthand Memories of 9/11 Response

Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Daniel Chin, a retired New York City Police Department detective and current K-9 enforcement officer at the Calexico Port of Entry, is reflecting on the experience that changed his life forever.

Chin said he had been off duty at home that morning when he received a phone call around 9 a.m. instructing him to report to his office after a plane had struck the World Trade Center.

His initial thought, he said, was that a small private aircraft had accidentally hit one of the buildings.

After arriving at the crime scene office, Chin said officers were informed of what had happened and were instructed to suit up before reporting to Ground Zero. “It was a surreal scene,” Chin recalled. Chin said smoke filled the area as he and other responders put on hazardous-material suits and began working at Ground Zero.

At first, the operation was focused on rescue.

“We’re looking for victims, survivors,” Chin said.

He described working alongside other officers and search dogs as crews dug through the massive piles of debris. Workers formed lines and passed five-gallon buckets of rubble down the line as they searched for victims.

Chin said responders worked extremely long hours during the initial days, going home only to change their clothes before returning to the site.

As the operation continued, Chin said officers were eventually assigned to one of three locations: Ground Zero, a morgue where human remains were brought in for identification efforts, or the Staten Island landfill, where debris from the World Trade Center was transported.

At the Staten Island landfill, Chin said large conveyor belts moved debris through the site while police officers and detectives stood along the sides searching for human remains and evidence.

At Ground Zero, Chin said the destruction was difficult to comprehend. The two World Trade Center towers had collapsed, leaving massive piles of rubble and smoldering fires underneath.

Smoke rises from the rubble of the World Trade Center following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

He said firefighters continuously poured water onto the fires as responders continued searching the debris.

After approximately a week or two, Chin said the mission shifted from rescue to recovery.

“We just look for human remains,” he said.

Chin recalled one of the most difficult sights he encountered while working at the morgue: firefighters being brought in wearing their full uniforms after being killed in the attacks.

He said those memories remain with him more than two decades later.

“I knew it’s going to change forever. Things are going to change,” Chin said. “Everything did change.”

Chin also recalled seeing acts of support during the aftermath. Among the photographs he discussed were two young women visiting from Spain who volunteered to provide water and snacks to first responders.

He also spoke about individuals involved in preserving the history of the attacks and remembered an acquaintance from the NYPD’s 13th Precinct who was killed that day.

The effects of Sept. 11, Chin said, have continued long after the attacks themselves. He noted that some first responders and others who were exposed to conditions at Ground Zero have since died from cancer.

“I have friends that are passing away and they’re still passing away,” he said.

Now, as a retired NYPD detective and a K-9 enforcement officer working at the Calexico Port of Entry, Chin said he hopes younger officers understand that the possibility of a terrorist threat remains and that they should remain alert to potential threats.

Above all, Chin said he hopes people continue to remember what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I just hope people don’t forget,” Chin said. “I just hope people remember.”