At Jersey Shore VFW Post, 9/11 Is Never Far From Mind

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ – Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, and for millions of people, it’s a day that has left an indelible mark on millions across the country.

For those who remember that day and where they were, the day is something that they will never forget and sticks with them, even today.

For members and workers at the VFW Post 4715 in Point Pleasant Beach, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are something that still lives with them.

According to former Marine and former mayor of Point Pleasant Martin Konkus, there is still a feeling of anger underneath what is still there today as it was 20 years ago.

“For the past 20 years, whenever I thought about it, I lived with a below-the-scene anger,” Konkus said, adding that he was “more livid about 9/11 now than when it happened.”

Even though it has been 20 years since 9/11, its impact is still there, according to Konkus.

“The feeling doesn’t lessen,” Konkus said, “It feels like peeling the scab off of the wound.”

For John Cassidy, a bartender at Post 4715, the wound left upon his memory by 9/11 is with him every day.

Cassidy is a retired New York City police officer who was a part of the Evidence Collection Team that worked at Ground Zero in the months following the attack, gathering evidence. Cassidy was working at Ground Zero from the time of the attack up until his retirement at the end of April 2002.

“It looked like a warzone,” Cassidy said of the area when he arrived there with his team after they completed orders to evacuate the empire state building as well as Penn Station.

“I thought that the buildings would still be there, and I just couldn’t believe it.”

With memories like his, 9/11 is something that Cassidy will always carry with him.

“It doesn’t feel like 20 years; it feels like it was just last year.”