There in the swirl of chaos and dust in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center, Bradley Saunders’ life was utterly and irrevocably changed. Not broken, but fundamentally shifted.
He calls it the start of his second life.
A successful executive at Morgan Stanley at the time, Saunders was at the base of the World Trade Center after an early morning meeting. He witnessed American Airlines Flight 11 hurtling into the North Tower of the complex, followed 17 minutes later by United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the South Tower.
“I remember standing at the base of the rubble and saying ‘I will never be on the other side of the tape again,’” said the once and future police officer. “I had already decided my life would go in a different direction. I just made a decision that I am going to go back and fight whatever this (evil) is and make sure it never happens again.”