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After Sandy hit, my wife and I saw pictures of the devastation following the hurricane in the news. We immediately wanted to find a way to assist those in need.

Just take yourself back to September 2001. As that month went on, and as that autumn unrolled, everybody wanted to do something. How can I help? Do you want my blood? Do you want money for the victims? I was a captain in the Marine Corps. I knew what I could do. I was right there. I was ready. I saw it. I moved the rubble with my own hands.

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'

God bless and help all the victims and patriots of 9/11, from the families of Flight 93 passengers to those who were in the Pentagon and Twin Towers as well as others who have fought and presently fight the war on terror.

September 11 was horrific, but I've been through enough crises before that I had my own pattern as to how to collect facts, what a leader should do, how to communicate with people, how to set up operating mechanisms to work our way through it.

Initially, the horrific images of September 11th triggered an enormous wave of solidarity.

What I learned from 9/11 that is really important, first and foremost, you have to motivate all the workers and understand that they've left their families to help clean up a pretty awful situation. Every time you have an emergency management situation, it's all about teamwork.

When you have an emergency, there is the urge to do whatever it takes to see people get assistance.

It's especially important since September 11 for people to be trained for the unexpected. We want to try to make sure people are safe.

In the weeks after 9/11, out of the pain and the fear there arose also grace and gratitude, eruptions of intense kindness that occurred everywhere, a sharp resolve to just be better, bigger, to shed the nonsense, rise to the occasion.