Vet wounded in Twin Towers on 9/11, then again serving in Iraq

Vet wounded in Twin Towers on 9/11, then again serving in Iraq

JAY CONNER/STAFF
Greg Amira was one of several wounded veterans attending a Memorial Day ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base.

By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 27, 2011


TAMPA --
Greg Amira leaned on his cane, medals dangling off his black suit jacket.

Bronze Star. Purple Heart. Army Commendation of Valor.

Amira was at MacDill Air Force Base on Thursday, one of several wounded veterans attending a Memorial Day ceremony there. He says he was moved by the memory of those who died in combat and felt a connection to the 13-foot-long, 1,400-pound hunk of iron near the base flag pole, a girder from the World Trade Center, brought in especially for this ceremony.


On Sept, 11, 2001, Amira, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army reserves, was in the 73rd floor of the South Tower, where he worked as vice president of investments at Morgan Stanley.


"I stayed up there until the planes hit," said Amira, who scrambled out of the stricken building, only to run back in to the North Tower, which was hit first and where most of the people were.

"Between my military training and the fact that my father, Irv, was a New York City police officer, my instinct was to run inside and help."

Amira said he and a firefighter were running around, pulling people out of rubble, checking to see who was still alive. He was in the lobby when the South Tower fell.

"It knocked me out," said Amira.

Then the North Tower fell. He was buried in rubble for five hours.

"I woke up with tubes in me," he said. "My left elbow came out of the skin. I had head trauma, back trauma and holes all over me."

Amira said he was ruled totally disabled by Social Security and Workman's Compensation. He was in line to receive $1.25 million from the Federal Victim's Compensation Fund.

"They told me I didn't have to work another day in my life," said Amira.

Then four years later, the Army called.

They wanted him to head to Iraq.
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Vet wounded in Twin Towers on 9/11, then again serving in Iraq