Re: 9/11 10th Anniversary Topic

I was in the process of having my home's ceilings re-done and everything was moved and under plastic tarps with only a small portable TV for me to watch the news. When I heard the reports and news reports coming in regarding the tragedy, I had the same reaction as many others. I felt as if this could not really be happening as it had never happened to this extent in America before. I know that those early moments watching were defining moments in my life as to this day, when I watch TV from this small TV (I keep it in my kitchen to watch the news while having breakfast, etc.), I remember those morning hours on 9/11/01. Subsequently, I volunteered my services in the World Trade Center Joint Task Force, was cleared for Federal clearance by the FBI, and did most of my recovery work at the Fresh Kills site on Staten Island, mainly standing at a conveyor and sorting through items from the dump trucks which had recieved debris in bulk from the WTC loaded onto barges. We sorted body parts, clothing, jewelry, personal effects, identification cards, everything that you could imagine. We worked in twelve-hour shifts, either 5AM-5PM or 5PM-5AM. My room and board was taken care of by the United States Navy where I had my own cabin on the USNS Denebola. In spite of wearing a full haz-mat suit and respirator with face mask, we would return every night to the ship, taking the hottest, most thorough shower that I have ever taken in my life. Never have I gotten so covered with dirt and grime. We would then grab some grub on board, chat briefly, and then hit the hay as we were totally and thoroughly exhausted. The Ground Zero site was absolutely eerie. It gave everyone a creepy feeling like you were in one of those Armegeddon movies when only one or a few humans are left on a derelict planet. The sights, smells, and sounds there, I shall never forget. I did have occasion to be inspired occasionally, and one of my biggest inspirations was the work of the clergy at Saint Paul's Chapel (no relation). Outside, the chapel was a place where people from all over the world left condolences and thank yous to the deceased as well as the rescue/recovery workers. Inside, was truly the home of God, as they had set up as many cots as they could possibly fit, allowing exhausted workers to take a much-needed brief nap, covered in grime. Each cot had a teddy bear on it's clean surface, inviting any worker to rest. They also dispersed much needed provisions to guys, who in many cases remained there for weeks and weeks without seeing their homes. I returned there a year later, thanking them for what they did and leaving a donation.

Here's a shot at Ground Zero above the IRT's 1-9 Cortlandt Street Station, which was devastated by the WTC collapse. This was the access location for recovery personnel to enter what was a highly unstable area. I believe that this station is still not opened as a result of it's damage.

3rdrail,

I just want to express my gratitude for you and others like you for stepping up to the plate in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. I was working in Mississippi that day, and, after the initial rush of desire to "do something about this", decided I could contribute best by continuing to do what I was doing, running trains in Mississippi and Tennessee.

In 2005, after a transfer to another railroad by employer owned in Nebraska, I decided to go on the road as a contract engineer. I had just returned home after being gone half a year on assignments in South Carolina and Connecticut. On the night I got home, after a two-day trip on the Lakeshore Limited and California Zephyr, I saw in the local paper where a local couple wanted to organize a unit of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Coast Guard had been transferred to the DHS from the DOT when the DHS was started. It was my way of "giving back".

Now I am retired from railroading. I am no longer a "Desertdweller", although I literally was when I joined this forum last January. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is my "retirement career". Currently, I am Commander of Flotilla 11 of Division 1, which includes Colorado, Wyoming, and Western Nebraska. Anyone wishing to join should get in touch with me.

Today is really a day for reflection. I hold special regard for those on Flight 93, who by their rapid cognizance of the situation and determination to act struck the first blow back at the terrorists. Who knows how many lives they saved that morning?

Les

Thanks, DD. There were so many acts of incredible heroism during this ordeal, that it's hard to put a finger on any one group. I too have always been impressed by the passengers on 93 who must have over-ridden all instinctual fear in a rolling, tumbling airliner to just want to kick the ass of these cowards to deny them another successful strike. That's courage ! It seems that the most vivid displays of heroism were certainly made during the first day or so, either as the attack unfolded or when the Ground Zero site was considered still a "rescue" operation and not a "recovery operation". I was not involved on site during this time. Heroes like Captain Kathy Mazza, PANYNJPD, was actively in the process of facilitating the emergency evacuation of persons in Tower 1, carrying injured persons and even shooting out thick glass partitions which were causing blockage of escape as she did so. Tower 1 collapsed onto her, eventually killing her. We will never know how many were saved that day by Captain Mazza. Other incredible acts abounded. It takes a special nerve to peer into a twelve inch opening at what might be a body down many feet below in shifting and hot poker temperatures of millions of pounds of steel and then try to cram your body into that crevice and climb down to examine and recover it, her, or him. And certainly not to dismiss the long, long hours of digging, watching, raking that went on for many months afterwards, to the point of exhaustion, usually for the sole purpose of giving a decedant's family something to bury as their loved one. In spite of the controversey that surrounded Fresh Kills, that with it formerly being a dump and all, there was some fine work done there. I'll tell you a story to give you an example. (Moderators-Feel free to condense or even zap if I've gone on too long.) Many, many families were traumatized by having loved ones just "disappear" off the face of the earth - literally. There was a wife of a gentleman who feared the worst, knowing that her husband most likely had been killed, but compounding her angst at his death was the fact that nothing remained so as to finalize in her mind (I refuse to use the word "closure"- I hate it.) that he was gone. Her and everyone else knew he had been killed at the WTC, but I'm sure that all you married folk can appreciate that wanting of that one little thing to proclaim "left without choice". This woman left photos of her husband and did everything that she could to find out his disposition. Subsequently, half of a hand turned up on the conveyor. On one of the fingers still attached, it wore a wedding band. The hand was DNA'd and it was the hand and wedding ring of her husband. The wedding band was returned to this woman. A Long Island resident, I believe, she then spent days walking along the beaches of Long Island, collecting stones of different colors, making up a beautifully arranged box of small stones which she presented to the recovery workers at Fresh Kills. Inside, she wrote a thank you note to all, requesting each worker to select the rock of his/her choice to remember her husband by. It put in perspective why were doing what we were doing, and made us all work just a little bit harder.

Paul-Two very interesting reads. Thank you for your dedication and devotion to duty.

Like millions of others, I was at work that day when a former coworker announced that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. The large screen monitor in the operations area had been switched over to a local television station (WJLA, Channel 7, Washington, DC) and I was watching the smoke billow out of the first tower when we saw the second plane hit. Not too long after that the local news people broke in to announce that the Pentagon had also been the target of a plane. Needless to say, there was very little accomplished in the way of work that day as we watched the news coverage.

Being an amateur radio operator, I responded to a request to have a radio presence at the local Emergency Operations Center. (I'm located approximately 35 miles southeast of Washington.) I was there until around 11PM that evening but there really was no need for us so we were sent home. Approximately 12 people from this county lost their lives at the Pentagon that day.

I still have a copy of the September 12, 2001 issue of the Washington Times in the magazine rack in the living room with the dark bold headline screaming INFAMY!

Les-Thanks to you as well for your service in the CG Auxilary. As a former active duty and active reserve Coast Guardsman I also appreciate your efforts. The CG Auxilary staffs a radio watch at a lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay not too far from me that I monitor on my scanner (When I'm not listening to trains). The Bay is a busy place during boating season and these folks provide some valuable assistance to the active duty radio watchstanders based in Baltimore.

No more dedication than you showed in protecting America's coastline, buddy.

Art,

Thanks to you,too, Art.

The US Coast Guard, as you know as well as anybody, is a sort of a"red-haired stepchild". It has been under the direction of three different Federal Departments during my lifetime, and reverts to the Navy in time of declared war. We have shipmates under arms in harm's way, yet we get little recognition from the media. We are military and non-military at the same time. People have expressed disbelief to me that a Coast Guard Auxiliary unit can actually exist in far western Nebraska.

Thanks for recognizing we exist and perform useful service. We are unpaid volunteers. Most of our out-of-pocket expenses are not even reimbursable, although they are tax-deductible. You have to really want to do this stuff to do it. This is all the more reason for me to be proud of my people.

Thanks for your service.

Les

Desertdweller wrote:Art,

Thanks to you,too, Art.

The US Coast Guard, as you know as well as anybody, is a sort of a"red-haired stepchild". It has been under the direction of three different Federal Departments during my lifetime,

For those reading who may be unfamiliar with the history of the Coast Guard, it has roots going back to 1790 when it was formed as the "Revenue Cutter Service" under the Department of the Treasury. Sometime in the 1960's, then President Lyndon Baines Johnson moved it to the Department of Transportation. After the 9/11 attacks, the Coast Guard was moved again, this time under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Department of Homeland Security.

Desertdweller wrote:...and reverts to the Navy in time of declared war.

That's the "urban legend" most would have you believe. We were taught in basic training the the Coast Guard is the hard-core nucleus of sailors that the Navy forms itself around in time of war.