One man who will never forget Sept. 11, 2001, is a North Carolina contractor whose company ended up being hired to clean up the World Trade Center site in New York City.
For David Griffin Jr., looking back at photos of the rubble left behind when the towers fell on 9/11 is humbling.
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Pictures really just don’t do it justice. Griffin drove to New York two days after the terrorist attack to see if he could help
The next thing he knew, his Greensboro-based company, DH Griffin, was contracted to clean up the site – all 17,000,000 square feet.
"The site was so big, but it was also so challenging, so dangerous," Griffin said. "It was an honor to be there, but it was the largest demolition project that’s ever been done in America."
The hardest part was finding bodies in the debris, which happened several times a day.
"It was kind of an emotional roller coaster physically, mentally, spiritually," Griffin said. "It was heart-wrenching a lot of days, especially when you would see the pictures on the walls – "Find my daddy." "Find my mom." – It would tear at your heart."
That day will always be a part of Griffin. He knows it changed his life and America.
Now, he wants to make sure no one else forgets either.
"We should never forget that a lot of people paid the ultimate sacrifice, doing no different than we’re doing today – just their jobs," Griffin said.