September 11, 2002

From ground zero to the Pentagon to Shanksville, Pa. From Wabash, Ind., to Dearborn, Mich., to Ghazni, Afghanistan. A Nation Challenged, a two-part special section, looks at the new age of terror one year later: the human toll -- the faces and names of most of the 3,025 victims -- and the effort to learn to live with death as a constant companion. The indelible day and its aftermath are captured in the words and haunted dreams of an 8-year-old in Omaha, in the memory of a rookie firefighter whose first day was Sept. 11, in the evident scars of an Arab-American community.

New York City Fire Department struggles to regroup operationally and emotionally after devastating losses last Sept 11; 343 firefighters died in attack on World Trade Center, 91 vehicles were destroyed, 213 senior commanders are retiring and as many as 500 firefighters may leave because of lung damage suffered at ground zero; 4,971 have applied to join force, fraction of 25,000 who usually apply each year; most affecting is emotional devastation; photos, including one of funeral just now held for Firefighter Peter Bielfeld; both frontline firefighters and senior officers are retiring in record numbers, some because of exhaustion and many because their pensions are based on last year of work, when they earned huge amounts of overtime; result is force filled with new recruits who have to be trained all at once (L)

Matthew Purdy describes mood in Summit, NJ, year after Sept 11 terrorist attacks; Summit lost eight people in attacks (M)

No Assessment of Iraq Although the administration is urging action against Iraq, intelligence officials acknowledge they do not have a comprehensive assessment of its arms capacities. PAGE A23 Little Choice on Alert New intelligence reports and political considerations left the White House with little choice but to heighten an alert about possible terrorism. NEWS ANALYSIS, PAGE A13

Jon F Snyder, 38, opens Il Laboratorio del Gelato on Lower East Side, returing to his roots in ice cream; worked at his family-owned Carvel franchise while growing up in Westchester County and founded gelato company called Ciao Bella when he was 19, selling it at 25; photos (M)