Brunswick County man works to overcome trauma after 9/11

CALABASH, NC (WWAY) – It’s a day that replays in Brian Bonsignore’s mind, if he lets it.

The former FDNY lieutenant has spent years trying to process the events of September 11, 2001.

“I didn’t talk about it, for almost 19 years,” he said. “Really, I never went there, I never saw it again.”

Bonsignore was part of the GPS unit, the group charged with marking the exact location of victims’ remains.

“It wasn’t a job that too many people volunteered for,” he said.

Bonsignore did the job to bring closure to his close friend’s family in hopes of finding him among the ruins.

“I was looking for a friend who lost his life,” he said. “He was a lieutenant.”

After spending six months on the job, Bonsignore says he had tunnel vision until he’d get home, then the images would flash in his mind.

“So, I took the path of, you know, talking to counseling, going to psychiatrists, and not dwelling on it,” he said.

Bonsignore said he spends lots of time on the coast of North Carolina to be near water, a place of refuge, to help him heal. He is a consultant for the Bagel Dock in Calabash, where he splits his time between Brunswick County and the State of New York.

For the past couple of years, Bonsignore has returned to the 9/11 memorial to pray for his brothers and sisters.

“I didn’t want to see it until they presented me with the American flag, and that is the next time I went down there,” he said.

Bonsignore mustered up the strength to return this year – to acknowledge his fellow firefighters who put their lives on the line.

“When they were told to get out because the building was going to come down,” he said. “They didn’t.”

Bonsignore suffers from asthma due to the time spent at Ground Zero, but he feels grateful to be alive. He’s also working to control his PTSD.

“It didn’t heal overnight, it took me twenty years to heal,” she said.

He hopes his story can help others begin to heal.