American Heroes of 9/11: Jason Thomas and David Karnes, USMC
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
Two Marines who hadn't worn the uniform in years put it back on, drove toward a smoking pile of rubble everyone else was being told to evacuate, and started digging through concrete and steel with their bare hands because they figured someone might still be alive under there. Jason Thomas heard about the attack, dug his old uniform out of the closet, and just went. David Karnes did the same, told his wife he'd call when he found the guys in charge, and then spent hours crawling through debris that engineers were warning could collapse further at any moment.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
As we approach the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, Townhall plans to honor the lives lost and the lives forever changed with our "Heroes of 9/11" series.
Every day from now until September 11, we will highlight an American hero. This year, most especially, we wish not simply to commemorate an event, but the character of exceptional men and women who demonstrated the best of humanity in one of its darkest moments.
More than that, we want to educate younger generations for whom September 11 is little more than a historical episode so that we embody what it means to "Never Forget."
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Two Marines who hadn't worn the uniform in years put it back on, drove toward a smoking pile of rubble everyone else was being told to evacuate, and started digging through concrete and steel with their bare hands because they figured someone might still be alive under there. Jason Thomas heard about the attack, dug his old uniform out of the closet, and just went. David Karnes did the same, told his wife he'd call when he found the guys in charge, and then spent hours crawling through debris that engineers were warning could collapse further at any moment. Two survivors, Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, are alive today because of it. That's the whole story, and it's the kind of story America used to tell itself constantly.
It says something that Townhall has to run a series reminding people this happened. Twenty-five years is long enough for an event to calcify into a paragraph in a textbook, a somber ceremony, a hashtag. Thomas and Karnes didn't wait for orders, didn't wait for a chain of command to reconstitute itself, didn't ask whether it was their job anymore. They saw a burning building full of trapped Americans and decided that was enough justification to risk their lives. No committee approved that. No press release announced it. It's about as unglamorous and un-bureaucratic a version of heroism as exists, which is probably why it still resonates.
We'd rather kids learn this story than another lecture on institutions and process. Institutions didn't pull those two men out of the rubble. Two guys who still thought of themselves as Marines, uniform or not, did. That instinct, showing up when nobody's asking you to, is worth more remembering than most of what gets taught about that day.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.