BALTIMORE — Midshipmen along with their families kneel to place a flag in the ground. Each one represents a person lost on 9/11. It's a tradition the Midshipman Action Group does every year at the U.S. Naval Academy.
These are the next generation of service members for the Navy and they’re honoring the 2,977 lives that were lost on that tragic day. What they may not know is a person passing by them was there and is still dealing with the effects.
"I was a NYPD detective and basically everybody was all hands on deck, so everybody was down at ground zero at some capacity or another,” Vincenzo Romano, a former NYPD detective.
Romano has two daughters at the U.S. Naval Academy. While he and his wife were visiting the display, memories of the 9/11 attacks came flooding back.
Romano recalls, "We were sifting through remains that were in the mini-morgue that came out of a bucket, we were looking through fabric to see if they were policemen or firemen. That's how we would try to identify who they were.”
Although he lost many close to him on that day, the loss from the after-effects is even greater.
"I lost civilian friends when it happened, coworkers when it happened, but losing more now,” said Romano.
Romano was diagnosed with 9/11 cancer in 2012.
He told WMAR-2 News this was a survivable cancer, and that others were not so lucky. It's one of the many traumas he's had to work through.
"It's harder for the survivors than it is for the people that are gone,” Romano continued, “For years and years I thought I was throwing every memory over my shoulder and it was going away, but I was filling whatever pool, whatever box and at some point it overflows.”
Tears that come easily today, took years of therapy to be able to express. He says the stigma of mental illness is a big barrier.
"I’m not the only one that goes through this, I know many many guys who just kind of hide out and haven't spoken to anybody about it because you're supposed to be big tough men and women in law enforcement, you're not supposed to talk to anybody about what you're feelings are," said Romano.
Romano feels it's important to keep talking about the raw feelings that still come up to this day. A trauma he hopes his daughters never have to endure.
The CDC provides a World Trade Center health program that provides treatment to those directly affected by the September 11 attacks.
For more information, click here.
