25 Years After 9/11, Secret Service Survivor Says Americans Showed ‘Citizenship at Its Best’

Darin Kinder, who survived three near-death experiences, remembers ordinary Americans who ran toward danger to help strangers

Twenty-five years after terrorists turned four commercial airliners into weapons and killed nearly 3,000 people, former U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Darin Kinder remembers something else about Sept. 11, 2001: Ordinary Americans refused to stand by and watch others suffer.

Kinder had a front-row seat to the attacks. He was inside the World Trade Center preparing for a meeting when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower.

“The world began falling around me as debris from the plane, chunks of the building and burning jet fuel rained down,” Kinder recalls. “I knew almost instantly this wasn't an accident. It was terrorism.”

That day, Kinder narrowly escaped death three separate times before emerging from Ground Zero bruised, bloodied and covered in soot—his business suit shredded and his shoes in tatters.

That haunting image became the inspiration for his memoir, Bury Me in a Dirty Suit: Discovering Man’s Valiant Purpose in the Aftermath of 9/11.

But some of Kinder’s most enduring memories are not of the destruction. They are of ordinary Americans who refused to stand by while others suffered.

As smoke filled the buildings and panic spread, Kinder and other agents helped evacuate survivors. Inside World Trade Center 7, Kinder encountered a woman collapsed in a stairwell who could no longer make her way out.

“I told two of our agents, ‘I’m gonna’ carry her down.’”

When Kinder realized he couldn’t carry her alone, a stranger helped.

For Kinder, that moment represented something much larger than one rescue.

“That was the best of America,” he says. “Citizens stepped forward when they could have walked away.”

‘Citizenship Is a Choice’

Kinder remembers seeing New Yorkers emerge from bodegas, pharmacies and convenience stores carrying food, water and medical supplies—not as hoarders – but to give it away to people in need.

“It was a thing of beauty—citizens responding in all that madness.”

After the towers collapsed, Kinder and fellow Secret Service agents formed search efforts and encountered scenes of massive devastation and loss. With firefighters and other first responders among those lost, agents even commandeered an undamaged fire truck to help fight fires.

And everywhere they turned, ordinary people were asking how they could help.

“There’s a difference between being a civilian and being a citizen,” Kinder says. “Citizens have the will to work, serve and fight the righteous fight. Citizenship is a choice. Courage is a choice.”

Kinder saw another extraordinary example of that choice when he escaped Manhattan by boat. He became part of the 9/11 Boat Lift, in which as many as 500,000 people were evacuated from Manhattan by a fleet of civilian vessels.

“How is that possible?” Kinder asks. “Citizens heard the call and answered the bell.”

More than 150 vessels and hundreds of nearby mariners responded to the Coast Guard's urgent request for boats to help evacuate lower Manhattan.

Remembering Those Who Ran Toward the Danger

Kinder also remembers the firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel and other first responders who ran toward the danger while others were trying to escape.

He dedicates his book, Bury Me in a Dirty Suit, to those who gave their lives that day.

“They were the best of the best,” Kinder says. “They responded to the danger. They ran toward the guns. They were valiant to their very last breath.”

Kinder's own actions on 9/11 later earned him the U.S. Secret Service Medal of Valor, recognizing his bravery during the attack.

After 25 years as a Secret Service special agent, during which he protected five U.S. presidents and traveled to more than 40 countries, Kinder says the lessons of Sept. 11 remain relevant.

He is particularly grateful for the men and women who subsequently served overseas to confront America's enemies.

“I'm forever indebted to those who responded by going down range to fight so the enemy couldn't bring the fight back to U.S. soil.”

Twenty-five years later, Kinder believes Americans should remember not only how nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11, but also how millions responded—with courage, sacrifice, compassion and a willingness to serve strangers.

“That was citizenship at its best,” Kinder says. “Citizens heard the call and answered the bell.”

About Darin Kinder

Darin Kinder is a former U.S. Secret Service Special Agent, Medal of Valor recipient, author and founder of Fierce Faith, a ministry challenging men to live with courage, conviction and purpose.

His memoir, Bury Me in a Dirty Suit: Discovering Man’s Valiant Purpose in the Aftermath of 9/11, recounts his experiences surviving the Sept. 11 attacks and the lessons he believes God taught him through them.

Kinder lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with his wife and their four sons.