The sight of smoke billowing from the World Trade Center (WTC) has become one of the most recognised images of the 21st century. Twenty-five years after the "war on terror", the Australian War Memorial (AWM) tells the story from Ground Zero to Afghanistan through the eyes of Major David Bergman.
The AWM's Afghanistan Gallery opens with attacks on the Twin Towers by al-Qaeda which became the catalyst for Australia's 20-year involvement in Afghanistan. The display includes two pieces of the Twin Towers, glass and marble, brought home by Australian Army Engineer, David Bergman.
Together with four other Engineer Officers, the then Captain was attached to the New York Police Department in 2001 and volunteered to assist with the recovery effort on 'ground zero'. He was seconded to the Port Authority Police Department where he helped with the search for human remains and objects of value.
"When the buildings collapsed, they compacted, so each floor was six to ten centimetres thick. There was heavy plant machinery that would peel back a layer of the building for us to keep working," Major Bergman said.
"I remember we were working on the 72nd floor, and we were about 80 feet below the surface level.
"It was a patriotic time for America. Everyone had just experienced something traumatic and upsetting but it brought them together," he said. "You could feel it on the street and it flowed through to the people I worked with."
One month after the attacks, the Australian Defence Force would launch Operation Slipper which committed troops to Afghanistan and officially marked the start of Australia's longest war.
Major Bergman would go on to serve two deployments on Operation Slipper in 2008 and 2012 working as an engineer for the Army.
Looking back 25 years after the terrorist attack on the towers, Major Bergman, who is still a reservist in the Army, has a unique insight to the war in Afghanistan.
"For the amount of time, effort, and energy the coalition forces invested with the individuals that they worked with, and what they were trying to achieve, it was exceptionally successful," he said.
"The fact that the political climate changed at the end, and it went the way that it did was no reflection of the individuals and the collective approach that Australia took to address the issues in Afghanistan."
AWM Head of Gallery Development, Bliss Jensen, said it was important for Australians to understand why we were in Afghanistan.
"The Afghanistan Gallery is the first draft of our military history. When we began the development of the gallery in 2019 the conflict was still ongoing, and then two years later with the evacuation of Kabul we collected community stories to conclude the story of Australia's operations. The reality is the war never ended for the people of Afghanistan and their next chapter is yet to be written," she said.
"We always knew where to begin. The attacks on the Twins Towers marked the start of the US war on terror and were the catalyst for Australia's involvement in the war in Afghanistan."
The Department of Veterans' Affairs will be holding a national commemorative service at the Australian War Memorial. on 11 October 2026 (11 October 2001 marked the official start date of Operation Slipper)
The AWM's Through Their Eyes podcast also revisits Afghanistan this week, with the personal stories behind the Afghanistan War, from soldiers on patrol in Uruzgan to a diplomat who witnessed the fall of Kabul and an Afghan-Australian reflecting on what the war left behind.
Handout Images and Oral History (AWM): https://www.playbook.com/s/awmimages/JZDb8fA5RZJ3rLNCLVVMzinp
Handout Images Flikr (AWM): https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD4sGd
