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A former New York City police officer and volunteer firefighter, Mike Korsch was one of the first responders on 9/11.
He told an Atlanta news reporter he commemorates that day every year so no one will ever forget.
Despite it happening 13 years ago, 9/11 will always feel like yesterday, he said.
He was in the Brooklyn Medical Examiner’s office that morning when he heard a plane crashed into the towers. Fighting the traffic, he arrived at scene an hour later, the World Trade Center already ablaze.
“To my amazement the second tower fell," said Korsch.
An eerie silence followed, he said. The only sound was beeping coming from firefighter distress signals.
The constant chirping meant hundreds of first responders—his friends—were dead.
“I lost a lot of friends that day,” said Korsch. “Unfortunately everybody I knew was never found.”
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That first day, he stayed on the scene. There was no one to save. His job after that day was back at the medical examiner’s office identifying bodies.
“The first body that we received was Father Michael Judge, who was the chaplin for the FDNY,” said Korsch.
For the next eight months, Korsch and his colleagues worked six days a week, 16 hours a day, attempting to identify victims’ remains.
“There’s really no closure for a family who loses a loved one in that manner, but at least we gave them something to at least cherish in the memory of their loved one," he said. "It could have been a watch; it could have been a driver’s license, a wallet,” said Korsch.
But most of the time, not much more.
“Still today there are over 1,700 people missing," said Korsch. "We only identified a little over half," he said.
Months later, like so many others, he developed cancer. Doctors suspect it was caused from the toxic dust.
“I just had another biopsy done a couple of weeks ago. I’m having problems with my jaw now, what they call jaw death. So it’s an ongoing thing for me. It didn’t end on 9/11,” said Korsch.
Thousands of first responders continue to struggle with health problems.
Korsch heads up the Georgia chapter of a national charity. The Terry Farrell Foundation is named for a firefighter who was killed on 9/11. The foundation raises millions for firefighters and their families.
To learn more about the foundation, you can also email mikekorsch@terryfund.org.
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