An American flag at the 9/11 memorial site in New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- CBS military analyst and retired Army Major Mike Lyons was in New York City on September 11, 2001, and spoke to WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker about what has changed since that fateful day.
"I knew that the world had changed instantly, and we were going to be living in a different place," Lyons said.
Since then, security has been beefed up nearly everywhere. Lyons said everything went right for the terrorists that day, and it might have been different had even one part of their plan been disrupted. Now, he says, we're more watchful for those things that just don't seem right.
"We look for those lynchpins to try to pull them out, and I think that's what's done a lot to keep us safe, we're much more vigilant when it comes to these kinds of attacks," Lyons said.
Lyons said we can never get complacent with our security measures. He said we still have to be perfect to prevent something else big from happening--and simply can't let our guard down no matter how safe we feel.
"There is a level of safety, and we do look further out," he said. "The question is, if we drop that level of vigilance because we think that we're safe, then that's likely when another accident like this happens."
He said terror attacks since 2001 show how much vigilance is still needed.
"We've seen other countries attacked as well, Paris, Belgium," he said. "Other countries have had similar types of instances where they had a drop in their security, and they weren't able to prevent a similar attack."
Listen to Lyons and Parker here: