9/11 survivor: ‘We had no clue’

Sept. 11--Sixteen years ago, as a stunned nation watched the North Tower of the World Trade Center burn, Joe Dittmar just wanted to finish an insurance meeting in the South Tower.

The North Tower had the cell tower that served that part of New York City, so news of what was happening was next door was actually in short supply in the South Tower.

"Everyone in the country knew more about what was going on. We had no clue," Dittmar told Indiana State criminology students on Monday.

Dittmar, who was a fire insurance underwriter, credits split-second decisions that were "tried, tested and galvanized" as he made his way to get out of South Tower.

He has made presentations annually since Sept. 9, 2011, to give voice to the nearly 3,000 people who died at the World Trade Center and to stress "always remember and never forget."

His ordeal started with a flicker of conference room lights at 8:48 a.m. on the 105th floor. That's when American Airlines Flight 11 tore through the North Tower, just 120 feet away, but went unheard in the inner conference room, Dittmar said.

Moments later, Dittmar and 53 other insurance executives were asked to leave. They started a trek down stairwells to the ground floor.

Dittmar was the last to leave the meeting room.

"It was because I am a typical type A business person. I wanted to have the meeting. I had flown all the way from Chicago to New York. I am a Phildelphian by birth," he said.

"It was a fire insurance meeting -- how ironic was that?"

Dittmar would be just one of seven people who'd been in the meeting to survive the day.

The experience has taught him to "be more aware of your surroundings, be more understanding that isn't just you, that the world doesn't revolve just around you," he said. "You have to take a level of precaution.

ISU student was in Long Island

Indiana State University student Shelbi M. Parsons, a 20-year-old junior majoring in criminology, said Dittmar's story brought her to tears.

Parsons said she was a young student when her mother, an emergency medical technician, picked her up at her Long Island school, which was on lock down.

"It was chaos. I was younger and only remember my mom crazily running toward me as our school was on lock down," Parsons said. "It was a long process of even getting out of the school. My mom was in a state of shock."

It was a moment that Parsons said helped her decide to go into criminology.

"My mom was an EMT and my grandpa was a cop, so I want to be that person who is running toward the problem. (The events of 9/11) had a big influence on me," Parsons said.

In South Tower

Dittmar didn't see the North Tower ablaze until reaching the 90th floor. There he saw smoke, gaping black holes, "flames redder than any red I had ever seen," and people falling from the building. "I was so afraid. I just wanted to go home, I didn't want to be there," he said.

At the time, Dittmar was assistant vice president for CNA Insurance and was in the World Trade Center after Mary Lenz Wieman, an insurance marketing executive for Aon Corp., asked him to attend. She did not make it out of the tower, Dittmar said, as she decided to take an elevator from the 78th floor.

Another colleague, Ludwig Piccaro stopped to use the restroom. That decision cost Piccaro his life.

United Airlines Flight 175 went into the South Tower as Dittmar was still headed down the stairs.

"I never felt anything like that in my life and never want to again," he said. "The stairwell started to shake from side to side, hand rails breaking away from the wall. ... We feel this heat wall blowing by and smell the jet fuel," he said.

At the 35th floor, he started passing firemen and paramedics going up.

"Just the looks in their eyes told the story. They knew," Dittmar said. "They knew they were marching into the bowels of hell," he said. "Could you be that brave? Could you be that strong?"

He eventually encountered a friend, David Duffy, and they made it out of the complex.

They were about eight blocks north of the towers when they heard their first broadcast report saying the attack was terrorism. That's when the South Tower collapsed.

Looking back

Dittmar, a graduate of Temple University in communications, now lives in North Carolina. He said he originally had no intention of going into the insurance industry, but that is where his career took him. Today, he is chief underwriting officer for Swyfft insurance company.

Dittmar said the United States "is way more secure than it was in 2001, but we still go to the airport and see people complain about having to take their belt off or their shoes off. You kinda look at them and say, 'Gee, did you forget what happened?'

"I think there is that natural humanistic notion of let's go back to normal, except, being careful is the new normal. That is what we have to be aware of, and we have to practice that new normal," he said.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter@TribStarHoward.

___

(c)2017 The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.)

Visit The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.) at tribstar.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.