25 years after 9/11, lives shaped by loss, duty and unanswered questions

Scott Larsen was 4 years old when his dad, the New York City firefighter he was named after, was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. His father, then 35, had recently been temporarily assigned to Lower Manhattan from his normal firehouse in Woodside, in the borough of Queens, when a pair of jets hijacked by al Qaeda Islamist militants crashed into the Twin Towers. He was one of 343 members of the New York City Fire Department who died in the attack 25 years ago. The two jets as well as a third piloted into the Pentagon and a fourth downed in Pennsylvania killed about 3,000 people in an unprecedented attack that left behind tens of thousands of grieving spouses, parents and children and stunned the world. The events of September 11, early in President George W. Bush’s first term, profoundly reshaped U. S.

national security policy and led to decades-long wars in which more than 900,000 died, primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also changed the course of individual lives, inspiring some children of victims to follow their parents into emergency service, steering others toward military, medical or public-service careers, and leaving survivors, responders and millions of Americans still reckoning with the legacy of that day. These are the stories of three of them. Following his father into the FDNY Larsen followed in his father’s footsteps. He joined the New York City Fire Department, seeking and securing an assignment to the same Woodside firehouse where his dad had served. “It was something in me. I just always wanted to go here,” Larsen, now 29, said during an interview at the firehouse. – 25 years since 9/11: the day the world changed – Asking Cyprus about 9/11 He’s far from alone — 58 children of FDNY firefighters who died on 9/11…