Lloyd Moskowitz, a former FDNY chief dispatcher, said this Sept. 11 more than the any other reminds him of 2001.

“9/11 was on a Tuesday,” he said.  “This a beautiful day. It was a spectacular day in New York City on 9/11.”

He is now the director of Gaston County 911 services. He was chief dispatcher for the New York City Fire Department when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Dispatchers thought it was an accident.

“When the second plane hit, it just basically turned everybody's reality upside down,” Moskowitz said.

He dispatched firefighters for what many believed would be a rescue mission.

“We couldn't keep firefighters out of that building.  Every firefighter in the city wanted to go there,” he said.

He said no one believed the towers could fall until dispatchers saw it happening on TV.

“There was no time to warn anybody,” Moskowitz said. “And it was just a terrible feeling because you know what's happening.  You see what's happening, and it’s beyond your ability to change the outcome in any way.”

Every year on this day, he said he watches a video about the World Trade Center.

He’s glad to hear that funding for the new Freedom Tower will continue.

“The city has had a hole in it every day since that day,” Moskowitz said. “It needs to be filled by a building."

In the past, Moskowitz has attended 9/11 services or commemorations.  He didn't do that Tuesday because he said he wants to spend this 9/11 privately remembering those who lost their lives.