Jason Thomas

Jason Thomas (born ca. 1974) is a former U.S. Marine who located and rescued people after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City. With David W. Karnes, he helped find a pair of Port Authority Police officers buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

September 11, 2001 World Trade Center rescue
On September 11, 2001, Thomas was dropping his daughter off at the home of his mother on Long Island when she told him planes had struck the towers. The 27-year-old Thomas, having left active duty a year earlier, quickly put on his Marine uniform, sped to Manhattan and had just parked his car when one of the towers collapsed. Thomas ran toward the center of the ash cloud.

Thomas told the Associated Press: "Someone needed help. It didn't matter who," he said. "I didn't even have a plan. But I have all this training as a Marine, and all I could think was, 'My city is in need.'"

After hours of firefighting, assisting survivors and in some cases, praying over the dead, Thomas ran into another former Marine, Staff Sgt. Dave Karnes. Thomas presented a plan for a search-and-rescue mission of the area, and he and Karnes tried to enlist other soldiers on site to help. When they were told the mission was too dangerous, they decided to go by themselves. “I found a couple guys, but it wasn’t enough, to them, to start a search and rescue,” he said. “I remember myself and Karnes saying, ‘We’re going to start the search and rescue with or without you, because someone needs us.’”

Carrying little more than flashlights and an infantryman's shovel, they climbed the mountain of debris, skirting dangerous crevasses and shards of red-hot metal, calling out, "Is anyone down there? United States Marines!" It was dark before they heard a response. The two crawled into a deep pit to find two men, injured but alive. Thomas and Karnes found Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, a pair of police officers buried in the rubble.

Thomas said he returned to Ground Zero every day to pitch in, before attempting to put the events behind him. He did not even tell his five children about his rescues. He had identified himself to Karnes and others only as "Sergeant Thomas."

Personal
Thomas now lives in Whitehall, Ohio, a Columbus suburb with his wife and five children. He works as an officer in Ohio's Supreme Court.

In film and TV
Thomas, an African American, was portrayed in Oliver Stone's feature film, World Trade Center, by white actor William Mapother. Stone has said he was not aware that Thomas was black until filming was already underway. On February 11, 2007, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition aired a special two-hour episode about Thomas and his family. Following the attacks, Thomas and his wife had moved their four children from New York to Whitehall, Ohio. The house they bought began to deteriorate and the show intervened to help them.

On September 2, 2013 Channel 4 broadcast The Lost Hero of 9/11  which detailed Thomas involvement in the rescue operation following the collapse of both towers.