After 9/11, Peggy Noonan wrote an article describing this exactly. Its entitled, Welcome Back Duke Its behind the WSJ firewall tho.
Let me tell you when I first realized what I'm saying. On Friday, Sept. 14, I went with friends down to the staging area on the West Side Highway where all the trucks filled with guys coming off a 12-hour shift at ground zero would pass by. They were tough, rough men, the grunts of the city--construction workers and electrical workers and cops and emergency medical worker and firemen. I joined a group that was just standing there as the truck convoys went by. And all we did was cheer...
read Peggy Noonan’s full Wall Street Journal article from October 2001 in the clear here:
https://outline.com/4X7g8yt
Noonans commentary on Real American Men HERE:
http://outline.com/4X7g8y