HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – Thousands across the nation will pause Sunday to remember the lives lost and impacted on the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

And that includes two Horry County firefighters who responded to the ultimate call for service that morning in New York City.

Horry County Fire Rescue Capt. Charlie Nash, who worked with the New York City EMS system at the time, remembered September 11, 2001 as a beautiful morning.

“It was the perfect temperature,” he remembered. “You know, very clear – just a really nice day.”

Then he heard the radio traffic about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.

“Of course, we were all thinking it was a small plane until one of the security guards entered the parking lot at NYU and said ‘Did you see that plane fly by?’ Of course we didn’t see anything, and then seconds later the radio was just  a blur with radio traffic screaming a plane hit the Trade Center,” he said.

Myrtle Beach Fire Department Lt. Richard LaPera says he learned about the attacks through a phone call from his sister. LaPera was working as a sergeant with the New York Police Department homicide squad.

“My sister calls on the phone and says, ‘A plane just flew into the World Trade Center,’ I’m like planes just don’t fly into the World Trade Center and I knew right away there was something wrong,” LaPera said.

“I stepped off on the side walk on 1st Avenue looking south, and I saw nothing but black smoke,” Nash said.

Nash says he didn’t see the towers collapse on that day. He told News13 he was behind buildings when the first tower collapse and in between avenues during the second collapse.

During the second collapse, Nash says he was helping an unconscious man. He says he was stopped by a group of people who were unable to find anyone to help him.

“It was like a human chain across the road and they stopped us. There was a large traffic officer who pointed at me and said ‘You’re going to help this gentleman. No one’s helped him for a while now. You’re going to stop and help him.’ And they wouldn’t let us go any further.

Nash credits the building he was around at the time for saving them from going down.

“It felt like someone dumped a dump truck full of dirt on top of the ambulance and everything went black,” Nash said.

“I got to where I was assigned at the time – across the Brooklyn Bridge – and got to work, corralled the guys. Two of my guys had already gone over the bridge, and you can imagine is mayhem, and we’re just trying to get over the bridge. It’s bottlenecked. We actually wind up getting into a battalion chief’s car for the fire department. He wound up taking us to the other side of the bridge,” LaPera recalled.

From there, LaPera walked to the World Trade Center site just after the second tower fell.

“The two guys who worked for me – we had no idea where they were. So you can imagine what was going through my head right away,” he said.

LaPera says he eventually found the two men hours later and sent them to contact their families.

We asked LaPera what it was like at Ground Zero in the minutes, hours and days after the attacks.

“As you can imagine, this is the biggest event ever, so there’s still just total chaos of who’s going where, what we’re doing, what we’re looking for. It’s the hope we’re going to find people alive. The hope that by digging, we’re going to find some people. [With the fire department], usually you were working 12 hours on the pile, you would go to your station to work for 12 hours. So basically on your off time, most people were at the site. And then after the days passed – I’d say about four or five days passed after that – I’d say that’s when everything started to organize and come together,” LaPera said.

Life in the years after September 11 eventually led both LaPera and Nash to the Grand Strand. Now, they work together among Horry County’s bravest. Every third day, they put on their gear and continue their commitment to serving you.

We asked both men why they continue to serve after being at the center of one of America’s darkest days. Their answers were simple.

“I find it’s beneficial to stay and do it,” Nash said. ” It’s the best job in the world and I couldn’t think of doing anything else.”

“Whether you’re a police officer or a firefighter, this occupation is a calling. It’s not just a job. It’s broken a lot of people, but you also see a lot of good in people. I love it. I still happen to love it, but right now, I’m living life.”

“You never forget. As the days approach, those of us that were survivors that were there, I mean, the days, a little bit of anxiety comes up. You know, those emotions start rolling in, too. So that day and a lot of memories come back. I mean, they never leave you. At some point during every week – I can’t say it’s every day it affects me – but of course it’s changed my life completely.

And LaPera says the work of the hundreds of first responders and the community at Ground Zero is proof of America’s strength.

“Whether you were at the pile or at the landfill, and you were able to give somebody a piece of their family back – whether it’s a small bone or its an artifact – giving something back to them gives them some type of closure,” LaPera said. “I think that’s the only way you can look at it and say, ‘OK, this is where you’re doing God’s work.”