Thursday, October 1, 2026
Long Island residents continue to remember the nearly 3,000 people who died and the profound changes 25 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For many, the day remains defined by memories of fear, uncertainty and loss — but also by the courage of first responders and the unity that followed.
“We should never forget; that’s the major thing,” said Theodore “Ted” Corn, a captain with the Deer Park Fire Department’s Fire Police. “My son Jason is a survivor of 9/11. He was a lawyer working in the towers. He was in the North Tower. It took almost eight hours before we knew he made it out.”
Corn also lost several friends from his fire department.
Joe Pinto, now the Town of Oyster Bay’s parks commissioner, was working at LiRo Engineering and Construction Managers in Syosset when the attacks occurred.
“Like most people, I remember exactly where I was that morning,” Pinto said.
As news came of the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, he said, the sense of uncertainty grew.
“Hearing about the Pentagon and the Pittsburgh fight increased the uncomfortable feeling that no one anywhere was safe.”
Pinto began volunteering at Ground Zero on Sept. 15, working as many as 15 hours a day through June 2002. He continued returning periodically for three years.
For Ken Haskell of Seaford, the attacks brought devastating personal loss.
Haskell, then a New York City firefighter and former NYPD officer, was off duty when the first plane struck. Having responded to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he feared the towers could be targeted again.
“I knew we were being attacked,” Haskell said. “I went right to my firehouse.”
He and other off-duty firefighters commandeered a bus and headed to Manhattan, where his brothers, Tommy and Timmy, were already responding. Both were killed.
Haskell later learned that Timmy had gone back up the North Tower to help a fallen firefighter. Tommy died in the South Tower. He was a captain with Ladder 132.
“I was proud of my brother, not surprised at the choice he made,” Haskell said of Timmy.
Haskell now helps lead Seaford’s 9/11 Memorial Committee, which funds museum trips and scholarships honoring the five Seaford alumni killed in the attacks.
“You never forget what happened,” he said. “You have a greater appreciation for life in many ways.”
The attacks also transformed Americans’ sense of security, leading to tighter airport security and changes at major public events.
“I welcomed the increase in security because I felt it was a small price to pay to increase the safety of those who traveled by planes and to those who went to major events,” Pinto said.
Babylon Town Supervisor Richard Schaffer said the impact was particularly personal on Long Island.
“September 11th changed America, but it changed Long Island in a very personal way,” Schaffer said. “We lost 48 of our neighbors in Babylon Town that day, and the impact of that loss is still felt by their families and throughout our community.”
Curtis Edwards, a North Babylon High School guidance counselor at the time, said the attacks changed Americans’ understanding of their vulnerability.
“I believe the events of 9/11 changed everyday life in America and we became aware of what could happen, and what was possible, from a national security and safety perspective,” Edwards said.
Jeffrey Myers, a retired North Babylon teacher and current Board of Education member, said preserving those lessons becomes increasingly important as a generation with no firsthand memory of Sept. 11 grows up.
“They should learn about the courage and selflessness displayed by our first responders and by ordinary citizens who helped one other,” Myers said. “As an educator, I think it is important that Sept. 11 does not simply become another date in a history book.”
Corn said the unity that followed the attacks should not be forgotten.
“People came together after it happened,” he said. “Now it’s starting to fade away again.”
To read more from the Herald's Remembering 9/11, 25th anniversary special section, click here.
