Jason Thomas

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Jason Thomas standing at the site of the ruined September 11, 2001 attacks, several days after - from official Jason Thomas web site

Jason Thomas (born ca. 1974) is a U.S. Marine (not on active duty) who helped rescue people after the September 11, 2001 attacks. He helped find a pair of Port Authority Police officers buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Thomas, who now lives in Columbus, Ohio, ^[1] was dropping his daughter off at his mother's Long Island home when she told him planes had struck the towers. Having left active duty a year earlier, he quickly put on his Marine uniform, sped to Manhattan and had just parked his car when one of the towers collapsed. Thomas ran toward the center of the ash cloud.^[2]

Thomas told the Associated Press: "Someone needed help. It didn't matter who," he said. "I didn't even have a plan. But I have all this training as a Marine, and all I could think was, 'My city is in need.'" ^[3]

After hours of firefighting, assisting survivors and in some cases, praying over the dead, Thomas ran into another former marine, Staff Sgt. Dave Karnes. Thomas presented a plan for a search and rescue mission of the area and he and Karnes tried to enlist other soldiers on site to help. When they were told the mission was too dangerous, they decided to go by themselves.

“I found a couple guys, but it wasn’t enough, to them, to start a search and rescue,” he said. “I remember myself and Karnes saying, ‘We’re going to start the search and rescue with or without you, because someone needs us.’”

Jason Thomas of the United States Marines.

Carrying little more than flashlights and an infantryman's shovel, they climbed the mountain of debris, skirting dangerous crevasses and shards of red-hot metal, calling out "Is anyone down there? United States Marines!"

It was dark before they heard a response. The two crawled into a deep pit to find two men, injured but alive.

The two men found Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, a pair of police officers buried in the rubble. The 2006 Oliver Stone movie, World Trade Center, tells that story.

Thomas said he returned to Ground Zero every day for another 2½ weeks to pitch in, then walked away and tried to forget. He did not even tell his 5 children about his heroic rescues. He had identified himself to Karnes and others only as "Sergeant Thomas." The producers of the World Trade Center movie tried unsuccessfully to locate Thomas. Not knowing that Thomas is black, they cast white actor William Mapother (cousin of movie star Tom Cruise) to play his role. Thomas didn't know that the movie was about his and Dave Karnes's story until he saw a TV commercial for the movie showing two Marines with flashlights, hunting for survivors atop the smoldering ruins at Ground Zero.

On February 11, 2007, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition aired a special 2-hour airing of their show about Jason Thomas and his family. From TV Guide: "The team rebuilds the home of Jason Thomas, who saved two police officers' lives during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York, then Ty travels to Ground Zero to meet the two officers." ^[4]

More on Jason Thomas's story and current events are available at his website. ^[5]