(Editor’s note: Looking Back is a new weekly column including news items reported 10 years ago in The Current, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.)

Issue of Sept. 20, 2001

At least one of the two terrorists who police say were in the Portland area before flying to Boston and hijacking a plane was in Scarborough before leaving on his deadly mission. Scarborough Police Chief Robert Moulton confirmed, “We had followed a number of leads from different store owners and businesses around the area about the possibility that at least one of the terrorists had done business in Scarborough. A couple of those leads have been confirmed.” Chief Moulton said he was not at liberty to give more details, but did say that reports made to The Current office of the FBI being in Scarborough to investigate the leads last Friday were true. The two men, identified as Mohamed Atta and Abdulatif A. Al-Omari by the Portland Press Herald, stayed at the Comfort Inn in South Portland, Monday, Sept. 10, and then flew the next morning from the Portland Jetport into Boston’s Logan Airport. It is believed they then hijacked one of the planes that were crashed into the World Trade Center. Chief Moulton said he couldn’t talk about what the terrorist purchased in Scarborough or how many stops he made.

Bud Waldron of Scarborough was a flight engineer on a helicopter in Vietnam. He was drafted at the age of 19 and flew in and out of different areas with supplies and troops. He was shot down, but was not injured or captured. And, like so many veterans The Current interviewed for reaction to the terrorist attack of last week, he believes there is a horribly sad inevitability that some form of war is on the way. “I guess I’d really hoped after I’d got out … that I’d never see anything like this in my lifetime. It’s an awful thing to have to put young people through.” Still he thinks that a war is “not only inevitable but also very necessary.” While he believes “it’s going to be a ground war,” he hopes that it is not another Vietnam. “I hope not…I hope there’s enough backing from the government to go in and do it right.” He said his toughest memories of the war came back to him “when my son turned 18 and registered for the draft.” His son, now 25, is on his mind, “not just my son, but anyone’s son … I really hope that (a war today) wouldn’t have to involve young kids.”

In seven hours on Saturday, the town of Cape Elizabeth donated over $25,000 to help firefighters and rescue personnel in New York City. Immediately upon hearing the news of Tuesday’s tragedies, the firefighters and rescue workers in Cape Elizabeth wanted to go to New York to help, said Fire Chief Philip McGouldrick. “The frustration level was high,” he said. “They wanted to do something.” McGouldrick checked with state emergency officials and learned that the rescue efforts had enough people. Cape’s crews are, he said, on a backup list if they need more help down the road. The department explored several options for fundraisers, but none of them seemed right. A bottle drive might have worked, if not for the recent Cape high school field hockey bottle effort. Friday afternoon, McGouldrick said, Deputy Chief Peter Gleeson suggested a boot drive. The department got approval from the town manager to do the drive, and on Saturday morning, firefighters, rescue squad members, the water extrication team and fire police fanned out across town: by the town office building, at Fort Williams and near the town dump.

Scarborough’s new fire chief, Michael Thurlow, took office at 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning, after a party and roast for outgoing chief of 17 years Rob Carson Saturday night. Thurlow takes office with over 25 years experience in the fire department, fighting fires at age 16 as a call firefighter with the Pine Point station where his grandfather, Don Thurlow, was a founding member. He was born and bred in Scarborough, graduating from the high school in 1978. He now lives only a few streets over from where he grew up. He likes to consider himself a Pine Pointer, but knows that officially he is a “hiller.” The train tracks at the bottom of the hill going down into Pine Point separate the two neighborhoods from each other. Thurlow may be best known as Scarborough’s Emergency Management Director of 20 years, although he has served as a deputy chief as well. He also owns and runs Pine Point Seafood, which is a wholesaler of fish and lobster. When asked why he sought the job of chief, Thurlow said that he has a deep commitment to the community of Scarborough and to the fire department. “We have never hired a chief outside the ranks before,” he said, “and I hoped to keep that tradition.”

Mark Coulston of Community Services, and his lobster boat the Jaymie Marie, caused some excitement Saturday when two Scarborough rescue boats were sent to his aid off Bluff Island. Coulston got seaweed wrapped around his prop and jumped out of the boat to keep it from banging into the rocks. Another fisherman, seeing his distress called the fire department. Coulston said that he was half way home under his own power when the rescue boats intercepted him. “I didn’t call for help myself,” Coulston said, “but it’s nice to know that they are there when you need them.”