NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — 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.
"I had no intention. I thought I was going to go into undergrad in business and certainly that much changed my career path. I disenrolled and started taking courses in Arabic," said Paluska.
The new path led him to earn his Green Beret with military deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations across the globe.
He is a Purple Heart recipient and is now retired.
Today, he is the co-founder of a non-profit to help educate younger generations about the significance of 9/11.
"I have more inspiration to teach down to the youth as well, knowing once you hit 22 years; that anniversary was defined as a generation," said Paluska.
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