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9/11 rescuer speaks to Ransom Everglades students
Then-Secret Service agent Dennis Letts had just exited the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, when debris rained down from a deafening explosion above. Letts told upper school students during an assembly commemorating 9/11 that he did not know an airplane had hit the tower, but he knew the complex was under attack – yet he immediately ran back in the building to help. He first guided the injured down from the north tower, then – after both towers collapsed – commandeered ferries to shuttle evacuees out of Manhattan.
"I thought, 'This is beyond surreal,'" he said. "This is a nightmare that is unfolding in front of me."
Letts, now the Chairman of the Board of Advisors at Kean University's College of Business and Public Management in Union, N.J., shared his story of survival and heroism with upper school students on September 14 and middle school students on September 15. It was his second visit in three years, and continued a relationship with the school that has included meeting with RE students enrolled in Greg Cooper's America in the Post-9/11 World class in New York City.
Letts addressed the student bodies on both campuses, and also during several individual classes. He explained how he helped direct survivors out of the north tower, then went to assist paramedics who had set up a triage zone next to another building in the World Trade Center complex when the towers collapsed. That building caught fire.
"We escaped death several times," he said during the upper school assembly.
Students there gave him a standing ovation when he finished.
Letts made a point of downplaying his own part in the rescue effort, sharing stories of others who died attempting to save lives. He encouraged students to commemorate the day with acts of service.
"I look for opportunities like this to give back in some small way," he said. "Look for those moments to give back and help other people."
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Letts, now the Chairman of the Board of Advisors at Kean University's College of Business and Public Management in Union, N.J., shared his story of survival and heroism with upper school students on September 14 and middle school students on September 15. It was his second visit in three years, and continued a relationship with the school that has included meeting with RE students enrolled in Greg Cooper's America in the Post-9/11 World class in New York City.
Letts addressed the student bodies on both campuses, and also during several individual classes. He explained how he helped direct survivors out of the north tower, then went to assist paramedics who had set up a triage zone next to another building in the World Trade Center complex when the towers collapsed. That building caught fire.
"We escaped death several times," he said during the upper school assembly.
Students there gave him a standing ovation when he finished.
Letts made a point of downplaying his own part in the rescue effort, sharing stories of others who died attempting to save lives. He encouraged students to commemorate the day with acts of service.
"I look for opportunities like this to give back in some small way," he said. "Look for those moments to give back and help other people."
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.