(KERO) — In the hours following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, 2001, the call went out to response teams nationwide to start mobilizing including nearly a dozen Kern County fire personnel.
Former Kern County Fire Chief Nick Dunn was part of "team three" in California and was on the ground in Washington, D.C., just 24 hours after the dust settled.
Even today those memories remain with him of trying to maintain order in the chaos.
Dunn and his team assembled in Sacramento and flew through the night with a plane full of first responders to Baltimore and arrived on the morning of Sept. 12th.
Dunn learned they would be headed to the pentagon to coordinate with urban search and rescue teams from all over the country.
And due to the sensitive nature of the information in the building everything took time.
It was a long tedious process with several moments of hope sprinkled throughout.
The mission lasted 17 days and when it was over the team packed up quickly.
A year later, Dunn was one of a few people invited back by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
