Former Secret Service agent Darin Kinder is sharing his deeply personal account of what he witnessed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 — a day that changed his life forever.
Kinder was a young Secret Service agent assigned to the World Trade Center field office when the attacks began. He remembers the morning as calm and beautiful before everything changed in an instant.
“A bunch of us had just finished working out and putting on some suits for the work day,” Kinder recalled. “Then we were told to evacuate. We didn’t know exactly what was going on, but when we dumped out on the street, we were on the north side of Tower One. And that’s exactly where that first plane had impacted. When we looked, we knew — not in totality — but we knew we were under attack.”
A Mission Changed in Seconds
Kinder said the role he and other agents expected to carry out that day immediately shifted.
“We transitioned from Special Agent to First Responder,” he said. “This was not our mission set. This is not what we were supposed to do. But it was time to answer the call, to answer the bell.”
Kinder and roughly 30 other agents began helping the wounded outside the towers as smoke, debris, and fear consumed the streets of lower Manhattan. Among the scenes he still remembers most vividly was treating a severely burned woman.
“I was rendering first aid to this woman’s arm,” Kinder said. “It was badly burned. I mean, Kelly, it seemed like it was skin dripping from her fingertips. It was raining jet fuel had got her.”
Moments later, the danger intensified as the second plane struck the South Tower.
“That’s when this massive explosion hit right over my head,” he said. “The second plane came in with brutal precision, and the day just got worse.”
Running Toward Danger
As panic spread and the destruction escalated, Kinder says he and two other agents moved toward the danger instead of away from it.
“At that point, myself and two other agents, we just ran into the World Trade Center complex and just started climbing the stairs of Tower One and ended up helping a few people get out of that stairwell,” he said.
Reflecting on the day, Kinder says he saw both unspeakable evil and extraordinary courage.
“I had a front row seat to evil on September 11, 2001,” he said. “But I also saw the best of America.”
That theme of sacrifice and unity has echoed in survivor and first responder accounts over the years. Stories from across the country continue to highlight not only the horror of that day, but the willingness of ordinary Americans and emergency workers to help others at great personal risk.
Faith in the Middle of Chaos
Kinder says his Christian faith sustained him throughout the crisis. “I knew that the Lord was with me,” he said. “I always knew that the Lord was with me.”
Even after the towers fell and ash and debris blanketed Lower Manhattan, Kinder and his fellow agents kept working wherever they could. At one point, he said, he and several others improvised to help fight fires.
“At one point in the day when both Towers had collapsed, me and three other Secret Service agents commandeered a fire truck that wasn’t damaged and we hooked up a hose,” he said. “We became for an hour like this volunteer firefighting team — amateur hour — because all of the other firefighters, Kelly, they were gone.”
Kinder also remembers sharing his faith with others in the midst of devastation. After the first tower collapsed, he described encountering a frightened woman while taking refuge in an alley.
“I had this weird encounter with a woman in a dark room after the first tower had collapsed,” he said. “We kind of took refuge in this alley. And I encouraged her that God is real. I encouraged her to pray for these people as I was sending her away and I was going back to the World Trade Center site.”
Another moment remains especially powerful to him.
“The Lord literally put me on a knee at Church and Vestry Street, fire all around me,” Kinder said.
“And I took a knee at that intersection and it’s as if — I never heard the audible voice of God — but it’s as if I felt a squeeze on my shoulder and a small voice that said, ‘I am with you.'”
A Story Kept Private for Years
For years after 9/11, Kinder kept much of his experience private as he worked through the trauma and healing process. He has now shared his story in a book titled Bury Me in a Dirty Suit, dedicated to first responders who died trying to save others.
“I just wrote in the book that most of us — there was a large group of us there — were in these dirty suits because we had answered the bell and paid the price,” Kinder said. “My shoes were melted. My pants were shorter because they had been catching fire all day. It was crazy.”
He says the events of 9/11 gave him a renewed sense of purpose.
“I made a promise on September 12,” he said. “I was praying with my wife, and I said, ‘Lord, I’m going to spend the rest of the days of my life getting my suit dirty in the name of Jesus. I don’t know why You spared me. I don’t know why I’m still here, but it must be for a reason — for a mission.'”
Returning to Ground Zero
Just two days after the attacks, Kinder returned to Ground Zero in the line of duty. He was assigned to help protect President George W. Bush during the president’s historic visit to the site.
“I was there at Ground Zero with President Bush as he came in, and it was one of the high water marks of my professional career,” Kinder said.
Remembering the Horror — and the Unity
Kinder says Americans should never forget the full scope of 9/11 — from New York City to the Pentagon to Shanksville, Pennsylvania — and should also remember the unity that followed.
“My hope for America is to return to some kind of baseline unity,” he said. “I think, just me being a man of faith, the only possible avenue for that is revival, a renewal of faith, a joint following of Jesus.”
Now a former Secret Service agent, Kinder says his mission did not end at Ground Zero. Today, he continues calling on Americans to live with faith, courage, and a willingness to serve others.
