Frank Fraone still has a lingering cough 20 years after working to recover the bodies of victims killed during the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center.

Over the years it’s gotten worse for the now-retired Menlo Park firefighter, with frequent months-long bouts of coughing, shortness of breath and the overwhelming feeling that the damage to his lungs from a few days at Ground Zero was much more harmful than he initially thought.

Though he was honored to be able to recover the remains of victims and give closure to families torn up by the sudden and unimaginable attacks that rocked the United States and launched a two-decade-long military campaign in the Middle East, the Redwood City resident said he didn’t expect to return with wounds and scars of his own.

“I coughed for almost a year straight,” Fraone said. “It started when I got home. I went through months and months of coughing bouts and had all kinds of testing, but by then the damage was done and it was too late. The lungs were already scarred up.”

The result is a morbid one for Fraone, who retired in 2015: His kids likely won’t have a father for as long as they thought. But when asked if he’d return again to the pile of twisted metal, toxic dust and haunting images, he said “I would do the exact same thing.”

Frank Fraone of Menlo Park Fire Department is photographed in front of the Pile at Ground Zero days after the 9/11 attacks. (Photo courtesy of California Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3) 

Fraone went to Ground Zero with his boss, then-Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schappelhouman, and 16 fellow firefighters from the department. They and 50 other firefighters from throughout the Peninsula who also went were members of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 3, based in Menlo Park.

In separate interviews, Fraone and Schappelhouman both said they would risk their lives again in search of victims. Theirs are examples of the selfless acts that hundreds of first responders made after the horrific deaths of thousands of civilians at the hands of Islamic extremists.

On that fateful morning of Sept. 11, Fraone was decked out in firefighting gear up in the Sierra Nevada, minutes from heading into the wilderness to continue battling the devastating Darby Fire that began to rage through the area less than a week before.

Sitting in the day room at the fire station in Arnold, Fraone watched in horror as the TV showed live images of plumes of smoke billowing out of the north tower of the World Trade Center before a second plane hit the south tower, exploding in a massive fireball, an image that has been seared into his memory ever since.

“It was a somber moment,” Fraone said. “I knew my buddies I worked with on the New York Fire Department as part of the federal search and rescue teams were in there. I immediately started dialing numbers.”

It turned out some of the firefighters he’d trained with had died attempting to respond to the unprecedented attack on U.S. soil. Fraone was ready to head into the middle of it all.

Fraone and Schappelhouman both described the anxiety they felt on a military plane headed to New York, not knowing what was in store.

“Think about the mindset,” said Schappelhouman, who retired earlier this year. “We’re not sure if we are coming back, and we’re not sure if we’re going to get caught in a secondary attack or a collapse or something.”

Ben Marra (left), Frank Fraone (center) and Harold Schappelhouman of Menlo Park Fire Department are photographed in front of Ground Zero days after the 9/11 attacks as part of the California Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3 operations. (Photo courtesy of California Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3) 

It was about 2 a.m. four days after the attacks when Schappelhouman stepped off the plane. On one of the bridges heading into Manhattan, Schappelhouman recalled, he saw the massive hole where the two towers once stood in the distance, still smoking.

“It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” Schappelhouman said. “We all gave DNA so that if we were lost we could be found. There were piles on fire, and firefighters know what burning flesh smells like. That kind of sensory-driven memory sticks with you. Then we were told, ‘We’ve lost uniforms, police cars and we hear this terrorist group likes to use vehicle bombs and likes to use suicide bombers.’ I was like ‘holy cow, we’re in it now.’ ”

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Sept. 9: Twenty years after responding to the 9/11 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in New York City, retired Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schappelhouman, recalls from his home San Jose, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, the five weeks he spent working rescue and recovery efforts. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) 

Fraone said his team was hopeful of finding people alive in the rubble, but after bringing out body parts and locating the body of one of the New York Port Authority officers who went missing days before, they knew it was going to be largely a recovery mission. But it wasn’t all bleak.

The brighter moments included being able to bring someone back to their loved ones, Fraone said.

Still, knowing that 363 firefighters who went to work that day didn’t come home remains a sobering thought for Fraone and Schappelhouman. But that’s why they and others risked their lives — so the deaths weren’t in vain.

“I would do the exact same thing again, knowing what happened physically and everything, I’d still go out,” Fraone said. “I feel lucky I got to go home, but it changed my life. I don’t think anyone who went there wasn’t changed.”

Twenty years later, Schappelhouman said he’s proud of the team that went to the World Trade Center. He remembers about 70% of the Menlo Park firefighters who went either became sick while there or after they came back to the Bay Area. Nose bleeds, skin sores, coughs, sinus infections and pneumonia were common.

Still, no regrets.

“Am I proud? Yes,” Schappelhouman said. “Would I go again? Yes. Do we wish we’d had better respirators? Sure. Was there a risk? Yes. But I went there to do a job. We knew we may not come back. We knew we could be injured. There’s always risk in our job.

As hard as it was, we were going there to pick up all the pieces and try to rebuild. People in positions of power may have forgotten, but we will never forget.”