9/11 gave AF nurse urge to join, serve

Published Sept. 1, 2011
By Senior Airman Amber R. Kelly-Herard
332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq -- The day started out like any other day for one woman who had been a nurse six years. She was administering medicine to a patient at a long-term facility in Staten Island, N.Y.

A staff member asked her to come to the window to look at a building about 20 miles away on fire. The nurse saw it and then went back to work.

Minutes later, someone said that something had hit the building. While looking at the building and watching the TV, the nurse and those around her began to realize that the building, the World Trade Center, had been attacked.

That day was Sept. 11, 2001.

"I started shaking as I saw the air filled with smoke," said Maj. Leila Von Kreitor, 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group Intensive Care Unit and Intensive Care Ward officer in charge. "That same smoke would not go away until December."

Feeling the urge to help, Von Kreitor rushed to Ground Zero after her shift, where she volunteered at a public school that had been transformed into a triage center.

"We kept waiting for patients, but there weren't any, except one firefighter who came in with shortness of breath and required oxygen," said Von Kreitor. "He said they couldn't go in the building because of falling rubble. I remember feeling so helpless, I wanted to do something more, but I didn't know what."

From 5:30 p.m. until after midnight, Von Kreitor waited for more patients.

"I didn't want to leave because I felt I had to do something," she said. "I was the last person to leave after the school janitor came in telling me the place was closed. I was sad about what happened, but I was happy that there was no one at the triage, I didn't know the magnitude of what was going on outside."

Von Kreitor took the bus home.

"I was the only one on the bus besides the driver, the city was so dark," said Von Kreitor.

Prior to 9/11, Von Kreitor had been living in New York for 17 years.

"My husband had just taken my mother and me to the WTC in May and we had dinner and took pictures. My mother was so excited. We didn't know that would be our last time," she continued. "After 9/11 when the towers were gone, I felt people took them for granted because they thought the towers would be there forever."

"When I'm driving to New York, it used to feel like going home seeing the two towers there like your two parents were standing there meeting you to say 'Baby, you're home', and I would know I'm home" said Von Kreitor, with tears in her eyes. "Not seeing them, feels like I'm not home."

Less than a month later, Von Kreitor went to a job fair where she saw service members in their service dress uniform.

"I thought, 'I needed to do this', I realized this was the answer to the urge to want to do something," she said.

Despite doing well as a civilian nurse, Von Kreitor, submitted a resume to the Army, Air Force and Navy. Four days later she received a phone call from an Air Force recruiter.

"When I graduated from commissioned officer training in 2002, I still didn't feel a sense of accomplishment," she said.

Her accomplishment came in 2009 when she deployed to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.

"I felt accomplished because my deployment was what I was looking for," she said. "To be there where I could take care of injured service members who were protecting us was rewarding. It helped me feel complete after feeling so helpless that day when there were no patients to care for."

Now, for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Von Kreitor will be serving once again, but this time at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

"The thought of being here on 9/11 while the base is in transition feels really good," said the major who is deployed from Joint Base Andrews, Md. "I feel truly honored to be closing the hospital where so many service members gave their lives."