By Brother Rodney Miller
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I and two other Agents were conducting a law enforcement operation at the World Trade Center Hotel. While waiting for the undercover meeting to conclude, I felt and heard an explosion overhead and began running for cover as building debris rained down on me and my team. Avoiding the falling debris, I proceeded forthwith to the lobby of the North Tower and immediately established a FBI presence and proceeded to implement the elements of a command post. Being the senior Agent on scene, I secured an open line of communication with the New York Office Operations Center and began updating FBI management on the status of the unfolding events. I also engaged other public safety personnel to include the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the New York City Fire Department (NYFD); who at the time seemed to be overwhelmed with the task at hand and began to organize elements of the coordinated response.
Not realizing the full scope of what we were dealing with and working off the assumption that a bombing had occurred, I proceeded up the stairs of the North Tower with a New York City Police Department (NYPD) bomb technician to assess the damage and to assist with the evacuation of civilians. While on the way to the 86th floor, I received periodic radio transmissions from the Operation Center and was informed that a second plane struck had the South Tower. When I got to the 86th floor and noticed the all the structural damage and in the stairwell that was dark and filled with smoke, I heard a voice speak to me and I turned to it and listened as God spoke clearly to me and told me that I should not go up any further and that I should immediately evacuate and take the others with me. I stared into the darkness for a moment and contemplated what had just happened but the voice was so clear, intelligent and reassuring that I decided to immediately make my way down the stairs. Around the 60th floor I had made contact with senior leadership within the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) as the South Tower collapsed. The North Tower that I was in began to sway back and forth. Based on what I was experiencing and the sequence of events that I was hearing being transmitted through the radio, I strongly encouraged the senior leadership within the FDNY evacuate the building. We immediately began racing down the stairs taking with us any stragglers that were left in the stairwell and we, safely evacuated the North Tower minutes before its collapse.
I would later learn that my mother and church family at Bethlehem COGIC in Jamaica, Queens were together for morning prayer and that my family members in Memphis, Tennessee immediately began to gather together that morning to pray for my safety and well being, without having any knowledge that I was indeed in any of those buildings. It is only but for the grace of God that I am here today which speaks to His unrelenting love and mercy and the power of our prayers.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/fbi-commemorates-100-years-of-fidelity-bravery-and-integrity