9/11 survivor, museum volunteer reflects on return to World Trade Center

NEWSNATION

• Gregory Carafello escaped the World Trade Center before second plane struck
• He was the first tenant to return when One World Trade Center was built
• Carafello finds catharsis in volunteering at the memorial museum

Katie Smith

Updated: SEP 11, 2023 / 04:46 AM CDT

(NewsNation) — Twenty-two years after surviving the World Trade Center terrorist attacks in 2001, Greg Carafello sits 85 floors above Lower Manhattan.

On the day of the attacks, Carafello was meeting with colleagues at his printing company in the South Tower when the first plane hit the North Tower. He was able to escape before the second plane struck.

Hours passed before the magnitude of the attack settled in. It would take years before he was comfortable going back to the site.

But eventually, he decided to return with a different business venture.

In 2015, Carafello became the first original World Trade Center tenant to take up office space in One World Trade Center, where he operates his company Cartridge World America.

“Once I saw One World Trade Center being built, I wanted to be part of it again,” Carafello said. “It started to have the reverse effect…I wanted to have my business in there again. My job wasn’t done yet. I want to end on my terms, not somebody else’s terms.”

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Monday marks 22 years since the 9/11 attacks and the loss of 2,977 lives in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.



Carafello’s best friend, James Martello, worked in the North Tower and was among those killed in the New York City attack. 

“We had grown up together since we were 6 years old,” Carafello said. “We played football together. He was co-captain of the football team, the best man at my wedding. A great guy — exceptional guy.”

James “Jimmy” Martello (left) and Greg Carafello (right) (Photos provided by Greg Carafello)

More than 20 years later, Carafello remembers every minute of that morning and the taste of dust that lingered in the air weeks later.

At 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Carafello, 41 at the time, was going over client accounts when he heard a buzzing sound he could only compare to low-flying fighter jets.

A “sonic boom” from the first plane’s impact with the North Tower came next. Then, the windows of the 18th floor in the South Tower began to rattle.

Debris fell and smoke clouds formed outside. Carafello and his colleagues didn’t know what was happening but they knew to leave.

He thought he’d be back in the office within the hour but as he made arrangements outside the building, the second plane struck.

“It was a changed environment within a split second – ‘This is not an accident,’” he remembered thinking at the time.

For Carafello, surviving forever changed his perspective. The experience “softened” him, he said, and served as a reminder that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

Now, Carafello values his time. He takes off work for his birthday and volunteers at the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

The narrow staircase he descended to escape the building moments before disaster struck is now his favorite artifact to show visitors. His time at the museum as a docent since 2012 has been a cathartic way to grieve his community’s loss and celebrate its resiliency.

“I started to feel better about it,” he said. “I started to see the excitement coming on down here and in the World Trade Center area.”

He’s also found a new community among a group of six or seven fellow volunteers whom he spends most Fridays with.

“Some are survivors from the fire department, some lost people, some just wanted to be part of it,” Carafello said. “…We’re self-proclaimed as Friday’s Finest.”

And after years of avoiding high-rises, Carafello now looks with pride out his 85th-story window at his bird’s-eye perspective.

“I actually love it,” he said. “I’m right next to the windows. I’m looking at Three World Trade…I’m looking at Brooklyn. I’m looking at the Statue of Liberty. It’s right over there. You see everything.”

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