The Broken Chair

Thomas, 32, reemerged last week to recount the role he played in the rescue of Port Authority police officers Will Jimeno and Sergeant John McLoughlin, who were entombed beneath 20 feet of debris when the twin towers collapsed.

Now a father of five, Thomas had been out of the Marine Corps for about a year when the terrorists struck. He was dropping a daughter off at his mother's Long Island home when she delivered the news.

``My mother insisted it must be an accident," he said. Thomas believed differently.

Rushing to his car, he dug in his trunk, retrieved his Marine uniform and put it on.

Minutes later, he was speeding toward Manhattan, eventually finding himself on the West Side Highway following a convoy of police cars. He had just parked when one of the towers collapsed.

``All I saw was ash. Ash coming in my direction," Thomas said.

As it billowed around him, he knelt by the side of his car and pulled his shirt up over his mouth. Then, he got up and ran at the center of the cloud.

``Someone needed help. It didn't matter who," he said. ``I didn't even have a plan. But I have all this training as a Marine, and all I could think was, `My city is in need."'