For local men away from home, 9/11 experiences made deep friendships

Members of Missouri Task Force One responded to Ground Zero in New York on Sept. 12, 2001, where they performed search and rescue operations for nine days.
Members of Missouri Task Force One responded to Ground Zero in New York on Sept. 12, 2001, where they performed search and rescue operations for nine days.

On Sept. 11, 2011, Matt Schofield was like many people, at home and watching TV when planes flew into the World Trade Center in New York.

By the time that day ended, Schofield would be getting ready to go to Ground Zero.

Schofield, now a captain with the Jefferson City Fire Department, was and still is a member of Missouri Task Force One, the urban search and rescue team based in Boone County.

By early afternoon on the 11th, the task force had orders to deploy and left their base in Columbia to go to Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster.

"We flew out that night on a National Guard transport plane because ....