There are countless acts of heroism associated with the terrorist attacks of September 11, and the actions of a Deloitte & Touche accountant, David Karnes, can be added to the list.

Mr. Karnes, who is a U.S. Marines reservist, helped find the last two people to be pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. The two people were police officers who had been trapped under piles of concrete as they had tried to help survivors.

The pair thought they were going to die, but at 8 p.m. on September 11 they heard a voice above them say, "United States Marines - if you hear us, yell or tap." The voice was that of Mr. Karnes.

When Mr. Karnes first arrived at the scene, the search operation was on hold due to the wreckage being unstable. But he found another reservist, and together they began sweeping across the ground.

When he located the officers, Mr. Karnes was unable to contact rescue workers to alert them that two people were alive under the wreckage because telephone links were dead. But, using his initiative, Mr. Karnes telephoned his sister in Pittsburgh, who called her local police station, who contacted New York emergency services. Four rescue workers then worked until dawn to free the two officers.

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America Begins to Heal - news stories, links to charity organizations, and eyewitness accounts of the September 11 terrorist attacks.