John Fuller: 25 years ago, today, terrorists from the Islamic extremist group, Al-Qaeda, hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed them into high value American targets, including the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the Twin Towers located at the World Trade Center in New York City.

As you may remember, one valiant group of passengers on hijacked Flight 93 heard about the other attacks, realized their jet would become a weapon, and fought back, and they stormed the cockpit and their plane crashed in an open field in Western Pennsylvania. All 44 people on board died. Today, we’re going back to New York City to share the story of one man who started running for his life, like any of us would, when the first tower collapsed.

Preview:

Darin Kinder: But the Lord stopped me in my tracks because all I could hear is that blanket of debris suffocated all noise, except for the cries and the screams of people in the darkness. “Help me, I’m hurt. Help me, I can’t see.”

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John: Thanks for joining us for this very special 9/11 edition of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I’m John Fuller.

Jim Daly: John, we certainly have a hero’s tale to share with everyone today. Our guest is Darin Kinder, a former Secret Service agent who served under five US presidents. After 25 years in the Secret Service, Darin stepped away to become an author and speaker, founding an organization called Fierce Faith. Darin and his wife, Heather, live in Dallas and have four sons.

John: Here now is Darin Kinder, speaking at a men’s event at Peace Lutheran Church in Grand Island, Nebraska on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.

Darin: Uh, I was in, um, uh, New York City. I was assigned to New York City in the New York field office. At that time, it was the largest field office in the country. We were in 7 World Trade Center. It’s the third tallest building of the complex. Uh, 7 World Trade Center was about 50 or so, uh, floors. It was directly across the street from Tower 1, that’s the North Tower. Okay? Now, everyone knows Tower 1 and Tower 2, the big ones that dominated the complex and later came down that day. 7 World Trade Center, little known about. Five o’clock or so in the afternoon is the third and last building that collapsed, uh, on that day due to fire. Okay? It cau- caught fire and the firefighters couldn’t get to it. And that was my office building.

So I was in the gym and um, I was just getting dressed. I just finished exercising, whatever. I was putting on a clean suit, okay? Contrary to popular belief, Secret Service agents do not often wear suits. We hate it, in fact. (laughs) Okay? We’re not FBI agents, my goodness.

Audience: (laughs)

Darin: Had to do it, couldn’t stop myself.

Audience: (laughs)

Darin: Uh, but we had a big meeting that day, big planning meeting for this huge event that was coming in a couple weeks to New York City. So we’re all putting on our suits. And at that point, I felt a rumble, felt a little bit of shake, felt the lights flicker a little bit, thought nothing of it, continued to get dressed, and then we’re being told to evacuate. Didn’t know why, so I ran up one flight of stairs to my desk.

Went to my desk, I grabbed every piece of equipment that I would not need that day, and I proceeded to leave every piece of equipment at my desk that I would need that day. But I was a young and dumb agent, okay? I was only about a year and a half on, about 26, 27 years old. Uh, you’re gonna see that theme a lot here today, young and dumb, okay? But we evacuate out and we get to the, um … We’re out on the street and I’m looking, uh, I’m looking here at, at the World Trade Center. I’m looking at it burn.

Just one plane had hit at this point. And I was angry because I knew, I knew that wasn’t an accident. Student of history, I knew 1993, uh, Islamic radical terrorists had already tried to destroy the World Trade Center, and I knew that they promised to try again. Just didn’t think I’d be there.

And so we’re looking at it and, uh, we didn’t know what to do. And so somebody says, “Hey, let’s go grab our first aid trauma kits,” these huge trauma kits that we have for work. “Let’s go grab some of them because all the ambulances are marshaling over there. We’ll just take our stuff over there and we’ll start doing first aid training.” Okay? Simple, right guys? I can do that. I was trained in that. I can do that. Nothing crazy, just standard first aid, first responder training.

That’s … Uh, so I wanna leave you this little nugget right now. And that little nugget would be this. Hey guys, sometimes the answer to the problem is just do the next thing. You hear me? You don’t have to have the big answer. You don’t have to know how it’s all gonna play out. You don’t have to be a genius. Sometimes addressing a problem, addressing pain, addressing suffering is simply doing the simple thing that’s in front of you. And you’re gonna see that throughout my story here, my experience. And what I would love to see is for you to apply that to your daily walk. Do the next thing.

The next thing for the rest is grab some stupid first aid kits and start helping people. That’s what we started doing, right? I’m working on this woman’s arm, was badly burned, just working on her arm, focused, smash. I don’t know what happened, but a massive explosion just erupted ahead of me, above me. What just happened, clearly? The second plane just hit the second tower, and I am, I’m gonna say 70, 80 yards from the base of that tower, maybe a football field. Crazy close.

And if you remember, the second plane came in lower than the first, that’s why the second tower was the first one to collapse that day, right? Remember that? I didn’t see a plane. I didn’t hear a plane because I was just so focused on what I was doing. All I know is now that chunks of metal and rock and steel and jet fuel that’s burning is falling all around us and we just all scatter like ants.

And so I find shelter underneath this little, uh, portico and, uh, I’m with two other agents, John and Tom. And, uh, Tom says, “Hey, we need to go. We should go across into the World Trade Center, into the lobby and help people get out.” “Cool. Check. Let’s do that.” What’s that called? That’s called doing the next thing. That’s all we did. Ran across the street, played Frogger, got across the street, and we get into the lobby. We found a stairwell that was a steady stream of people that were evacuating out. It was an orderly evacuation. We found that. We started going up and they’re coming down. Okay? That’s what we’re doing.

Now, let me be clear. I didn’t have the full picture of what was going on here. Let me be very honest. I did not know that two 737s had just slammed into these buildings. Had I known that I might not have been doing what I did. So we need to understand that and keep that in perspective, okay? We’re going up, they’re coming down. We get about to the 10th floor and there’s a woman in the corner slumped over. She was spent. She was overweight. She was physically … You could tell she could not evacuate herself anymore down the steps. What are we gonna do guys?

Let’s go do the next thing. And there’s a steady stream of people just going by her, not even looking at her. Stop, take a breath, look at the problem in the eye and do something about it. And so I just, I said, “Hey.” I told the two guys I was with, “You guys keep going, find somebody else. I’m gonna grab her, take her down.” That’s what we did. They kept going. I picked her up. We got about two steps. I think about two steps I took her by myself, and I quickly realized this was a two-man job, right?

And I literally grabbed another random dude by the collar and said, “Hey, you’re helping me.” And you know what? He snapped out of it. He’s like, “Oh, oh my gosh, of course I am.” Right? All he needed was one man with a little bit of vision and a little bit of compassion to bring him along.

And so we carried her down the steps. Uh, we handed her off to a team of paramedics that was at the bottom and, uh, and then I decided I needed to go back up. I get up to about the 30th floor and the door was open on this floor, so I said, “Oh, maybe somebody’s in there.” So I pop my head through the door. I look at down the hallway, and I see something, man, I’ll never forget. Gives me goosebumps right now. I see the men, uh, the hallway lined up with New York City firefighters, beaten and bloodied and their face was dark with soot and, and everything like they had been in a fight. These men had answered the bell.

Man, and, and I said to them, (laughs) kind of funny now, I say, “Hey, any, y’all seen two Secret Service agents running around?” And actually they’re like, “Yeah, we did actually.” I was like, “Oh my, are you kidding? Which way did they go?” They said, “I have no idea.” All right, so I had a decision to make, right? Had no way to communicate with them. What am I gonna do? I decided I was going back down, gonna hike the 30th, 30 floors back. The towers, by the way, I think were 110 levels each. I said, “I’m going back down.”

And so as I’m walking through that doorway to go down to the stairwell, I’ll hear words I’ll never forget. I hear their fire commander say this, “Boys, grab your gear. We’re going back up. Grab your gear, we’re going back up.” Ding, time to answer the bell.

Now, here’s what makes those men so special. Here’s what makes them better than me. They knew the situation. I was ignorant of the totality of it. They knew exactly what they were going into and they went up anyway. God bless them. I will forever do everything I can to honor and respect the men and women of the fire department, the first responders and law enforcement that day who died. I have no way of knowing. I can only assume those men are part of the 343 New York City firefighters who died that day. Men who answered the call, who ran to the guns, knowing the circumstances and they answered the bell anyways.

What’s my excuse? What’s your excuse? Right? Powerful men. But I was going back down. I get to the lobby. I said, “Do you know what?” I, I said to myself, I said, “Self, you know what a good idea? A good idea would be to call your wife right now. Why not?” And so I saw a bank of payphones. You guys remember those?

Audience: (laughs)

Darin: Remember those guys? If you’re under the age of 20, Google that.

Audience: (laughs)

Darin: Or ask the … Not right now, it’s rude, but, or ask the man next-

Audience: (laughs)

Darin: Ask the guy with a beard next to you. “What’s a payphone, daddy?” All right, anyway. I had a payphone. I called my wife. I called her collect.

Audience: (laughs)

Darin: Yeah. Yeah, again, Google that.

Audience: (laughs)

Darin: I, I speak to high school kids sometimes and they’re like, “What is he talking about?” I called her collect and I said, “Hey, I’m in the lobby of the World Trade Center. I’m helping people get out. I am okay. I love you.” “I love you too.” “Goodbye.”

Now, she doesn’t know that the second I hung up that phone, I decided to go outside the complex and look for my guys, look for another group of my guys. All she knows is that 13 minutes later, and I know from the phone records, the, the collect call, 13 minutes later she’s watching on live TV the tower collapse. And the last thing I told her was I’m in the lobby of the World Trade Center.

In that 13 minutes she had called my parents and her parents, my brother, and her brother, all of our friends, and they all watched me die on live TV. But I wasn’t in there, was I? I was standing, uh, uh, about mid-block near Church and Vesey Street talking to a police officer and I heard a high pitch metal on metal screeching sound. I said, “What is that?” I turn up and I look, and I look at the top of Tower 2, which I’m about, again, maybe 80 yards to the base of, that’s called danger close, guys. I see the top of Tower 2 buckle and start to collapse. The first thought in my mind was I’m dead. Second thought in my mind, which now, I now attribute to the Holy Spirit was run. I’m a man who listens to the Holy Spirit, and I ran. I ran fast. I used to be fast, uh, but I wasn’t fast enough, right?

And so as I’m running, I hear the, “Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.” Pancaking floors, one on top of each other, each one getting louder, each one getting closer, death literally falling from the sky. Large chunks of debris falling all around me just as that cloud was about to take me. Now, in those seconds, these are all seconds, I see a fire truck that I should slide under. I’m gonna get under for cover. I take a step in that direction, and I kept going straight.

And then as I’m rounding a corner, there’s a coffee cart and a donut cart, this is about 20 feet from the fire truck. I’m like, “I should get under there for cover.” I think about it, and then I keep going. And then moments later as that debris is falling all around me, just day became night, that beautiful clear blue September day became night in my eyes, my nose, everything was filled with coal, pulverized concrete, and dust, and debris. And I’m still running because stuff is still falling. It sounded like cars falling out of the sky, guys. Crazy.

John: We’re listening to Darin Kinder today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly and he’s written a book for men about his experiences. It’s called Bury Me in a Dirty Suit. Get your copy from Focus on the Family when you make a donation of any amount to the ministry. We’re also going to include a free audio download of his entire presentation with extra content.

Now, we’re also making available a free audio collection called Enduring the Challenges of Life with almost five hours of biblical encouragement, including this incredible message from Darin. You’ll find these resources and more at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast or call for details. Our number is 800, the letter A, and the word FAMILY.

Let’s return now to the presentation from Darin Kinder.

Darin: Within a few seconds later, I’m out of the danger zone. There’s nothing following around me, so I start to walk. And I see, praise God, I see the sunlight out of the corner of my left eye. I’m like, “Sweet. I am out of here. I’m gonna go to the light.” And so I walked across the street. I realized I’m looking north up of a very narrow alley, and at the end of that other alley is sunlight. Go, out, right? But the Lord stopped me in my tracks because all I could hear is that blanket of debris suffocated all noise except for the cries and the screams of people in the darkness. “Help me, I’m hurt. Help me, I can’t see.” What are you gonna do? And do the next thing, answer the bell.

And I just sit. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just stood in the, in the mouth of that alley and I yelled at the top of my voice, “Follow the sound of my voice. Follow the sound of my voice. There’s light this way. Come to the light. Come to the light. Follow the light, brothers.” You see where I’m going? I wasn’t thinking it at the time, but do you see this is the beautiful spiritual illustration that this is?

And as they made their way to me, I would shoot them up the alley, “Go to the light, go to the light.” I don’t know, 10, 12, maybe 15 people made their way to me in that time. Eventually, I turn around and I see there’s no more dark, (laughs) there’s no more light. I’m like, “Oh, what am I gonna do now?”

A lot of crazy stuff happens. I’ll skip through some of it. Uh, in between the two collapses of the towers, I, I picked up a woman whose, whose femur was sticking out of her leg. Uh, a man brought a shopping cart to me. We put her in her shopping cart and took her to an ambulance. Just crazy, right? I saw a man stagger across the street and just get creamed by a, by an ambulance that was trying to get to the scene quickly. Just madness.

I don’t know. I don’t remember making the decision. Again, young and dumb, but I’m on the same corner basically of the same intersection where I was before. And I heard a high-pitched metal on metal screeching sound. And said, “No, no, no, no, no. I’ve, I’ve heard that. I don’t need to stop and look.” I’m gone. And just seconds after I started running, I heard it again, pancaking other floors.

Uh, and now, I hear that freight train coming to get me, right? And I take a right and I throw my shoulder into a revolving door. I land on my back. I’m in the middle of a bank apparently, right as that cloud goes by. I’m breathing heavy. I’m looking up at the, up at the ceiling of this bank and I hear someone say my last name. “Kinder? What are you doing here?” My guys, right? Can you imagine the, the relief? I rolled over, I looked and saw two dudes that I work with, two colleagues of mine, two different guys.

Wind in my sails, guys. Wind in my sails. Got up, dusted myself off. We came up with a plan. We waited 10 minutes for that cloud to dissipate and then we created a search party, and we went out back into that intersection. My whole experience happens in this one intersection of Church and Vesey Street, and we started looking for people to help. Unfortunately, all we found were bodies. That’s just the truth.

The Lord put me on this, on my knees in that intersection. I looked across the intersection at that fire truck. Remember that firetruck I was gonna get under? Boom, the completely obliterated, flat on the ground. The wheels were bent out. Then I turned the corner, I looked for that little f- uh, coffee cart I was gonna try to get under. Couldn’t find it. There was so much destruction.

In that intersection, um, was one fire truck. And this is the … If it wasn’t such an awful circumstance, it could be kind of funny, the image, just think about it. There’s one firetruck in the intersection that’s not damaged. I have no idea how. And one of the knuckleheads I was with said, “Hey, we would do pretty good here if we could get the water coming out of that hose and start putting out all these fires around us.” Because everything was on fire, guys. Gas tanks are popping off, police cars burning up. There’s office paper everywhere. It’s all on fire. We don’t know anything about fire hoses and fire trucks. Force multiplier, right?

The other guy, the third guy says, “Well, I was a volunteer firefighter in high school. I bet I could remember.” I said, “Okay, you get … I’ll hold this. You guys, yeah.” Next thing … I mean, I’m, I’m serious. Within a minute, water’s coming out of this hose. And they come join me. It’s not as easy as it looks if there’s any firefighters (laughs) in here. They come join me and for the next … It felt like an hour. I bet it was 20, 25 minutes. I don’t know. We just dominated that intersection, putting out car fires. That’s all we did. What’s that called?

Just doing the next thing. We weren’t solving the world’s problems, but we were bringing a little relief to that little sphere of our life together with brothers. That’s what we need to do.

Now, people say, “Man, weren’t you afraid? Weren’t you terrified?” Of course I was. Of course I wa- … “Uh, how’d you do this? You’re so brave and everything.” Well, number one, did I mention young and dumb? And number two, you know what? I have found, and the Lord really revealed it to me that day, I have found the secret to fear. Love is greater than fear, period. Jesus is where fear goes to die. Amen.

All the other … We’re sitting there fighting fires. And then I looked around and there were like professional firefighters everywhere now. Like they had finally made their way to the scene, uh, from all over the city. The ones that were there initially were gone, right? And I’m like, “Ooh guys, I think we’re in the way.” So we kind of shrunk back and we did some other things, but at the end of the day, we found out all of our office had relocated. They had been moved three times because all of our relocation points kept getting destroyed.

So we fou- … About 30 blocks north, we heard, “Okay, let’s … Uh, right on the, uh, Hudson River.” And so we got in one guy’s car. We had picked up another agent at this point, so there’s four of us. Uh, we get there, uh, walk in, get some basic medical attention, right? Uh, oxygen, they’re flushing everything out and everything and cuts and bruises, whatever.

Fast-forward through a few things, uh, quick little debrief, and then, uh, I end up getting on a police boat and riding a police boat back to Hoboken, New Jersey, right across the river. You walked out of my apartment and walked two blocks to the river, you can see the World Trade Center, that’s where I lived. I ride a police boat across the great exodus from Manhattan Island that day. Most of it was done by boat. And I get across and I, I lost my keys at some point. And so I walk through town a little bit and people are looking at me like a zombie, and I walk up the flights of steps. I knock on the door, my wife opens the door. You talk about an embrace.

Let me go back in the story that I skipped on purpose. When we got up to the rendezvous point, we go in there and I go in there and we looked … I mean, we look awful. We look destroyed, right? And on one side, there’s guys like me that look like me. They’re, they look all torn up and beat up and we’re giving each other a nod, thumbs up, “Hey, brother,” all this kind of stuff, right? And then I looked, and I’ll never forget it. I looked on the other side of the room, and I saw another group of coworkers, people that I served with, people that I’ve worked with in clean suits, shiny shoes, perfect hair.

And they’re looking across at this group, and I can tell they’re looking at us going, “Where have you been?” Right? And we’re looking across at that group, and what are we thinking? Same question, “Where have you been?” You can answer the bell, or you cannot answer the bell. But I decided that night, I decided that night, men, that I was not gonna die in a clean suit. I decided that night when my days are done and my numbers punched, boom, and we don’t know when that’s coming, by the way, again, on the house, free tip.

I decided I wasn’t punching out of this world in a clean suit. So there’s my third challenge for you guys if it’s not up there already. Get your suit dirty. Find the valiant purpose that you were made for. Find the problem that you were made and created to address, because trust me, you were.

Getting your suit dirty is walking in the good works that God has placed before you beforehand. Each one of you are designed with unique skills, abilities, and talents to address a problem in this world. I want you to get your suit dirty doing it. You ain’t here by accident. You are born, men, in this room. You are born for this time, for this place, for action right now, because He has a purpose for you and there’s no safer place to be. God’s will is your purpose. I just want you to get your suit dirty doing it. It starts by being the man, standing in the alley, pointing people to Jesus. We do it by being driven not by, by fear, but by love, and we spend the rest of our days getting our suit dirty.

John: And with those words of wisdom, we’ve come to the end of this dynamic presentation from former Secret Service agent Darin Kinder on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.

Jim: Wow. I mean, what an awesome illustration of how men of God should behave in a crisis by getting their suits dirty, as Darin said, and women too. I know there are capable women in Secret Service as well. We all can be God’s hands and feet in our troubled world today, and boy, does the world need us. And I hope Darin’s message has inspired you to look for opportunities to be that kind of help.

I should note that Darin earned the Secret Service Medal of Valor for his actions on 9/11, a day when nearly 3,000 people died, including over 400 first responders, 350 of which were New York City firefighters. God bless them and their families. I can’t imagine the tremendous vacuum those deaths left in that community. And in the 25 years since 9/11, more than 4,000 people have died from cancer and respiratory issues due to toxic exposure that occurred after the event, mostly at ground zero.

And of course, the events of 9/11 led directly to the Global War on Terror and the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. So we also wanna thank all of our military families for their service, sometimes making that ultimate sacrifice in the brutal years that followed.

And if you need to talk to someone about this topic, maybe you’ve lost a loved one, please give us a call. We have a great team of caring Christian counselors who would be honored to call you back and, um, listen to your story and provide help.

I’d also recommend that you get a copy of Darin Kinder’s book, it’s called Bury Me in a Dirty Suit: Discovering Man’s Valiant Purpose in the Aftermath Of 9/11. And through his own story and biblical insight, Darin challenges men to live boldly and answer God’s call on their lives. Get your copy from us here at Focus on the Family for a donation of any amount, and we’ll also include a free audio download of Darin’s message with quite a bit of extra content.

We’d also like to encourage you with a free audio collection called Enduring the Challenges of Life. You’ll hear how to navigate dark times from Dr. Tim Keller, Dr. Larry Crabb, Joni Eareckson-Tada, and more. The collection includes today’s presentation from Darin. Just visit our website to get access.

John: Yeah, you’ll find that collection and, uh, you can request your copy of Bury Me in a Dirty Suit when you visit focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. Or give us a call to speak with one of our counselors. Uh, that number is 800, the letter A, and the word FAMILY.

Well, join us again on Monday when one wife shares some very practical advice to improve your marriage.
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Michelle Lentz: And learning how to communicate to that to your husband because there were things that weren’t getting done.

Jim: (laughs)

Michelle: I mean, nagging, we come by nagging, honestly, because it’s not happening-

Jim: Right.

Michelle: … and we’re frustrated.

Jim: Right. Right.

Michelle: So sitting down and saying, “How can we deal with this?”

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John: Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I’m John Fuller, inviting you back as we once more help you and your family thrive in Christ.