VIDEO: Fifteen years ago, after a terrorism attack on Sept. 11 struck New York, killing more than three thousand, including more than three hundred New York firefighters, Madison Fire Department's Mike Dibble went to Ground Zero with four other firefighters to help in a life-altering trip. "Doug Freese, myself, Paul Komarck, Johnny Clark and Matt Schwister," Dibble says, listing the crew. "It seems like yesterday." For several days, Dibble and the other men joined other firefighters in search and recovery. "When we found somebody, everybody just stood at attention, as they carried him out." Dibble says the enormity of what had happened to FDNY was impossible to process. "You can't put it in a concept. It's like losing the whole Madison Fire Department and all their knowledge in one day," Dibble says. Dibble says in the years after he and the other firefighters went to New York, they rarely brought up 9/11 to fellow firefighters, choosing instead to allow their work practices to try convey the lessons they had learned. "About honor, about code," Dibble says. Dibble retired as an assistant chief in January. He says he's gratified in the knowledge, if ever terrorism on even a fraction of a scale of 9/11 touched Madison, he's left a fire department that's ready. "Lights out, they are prepared," Dibble says. "Police and Fire."