Call to Service: The Final Rescue of 9/11

my day started on September 11th, actually September 10th, I went to work that night started at 11:30. Eight in the morning arrives at the end of our shift, I leave the building to return home, it was the first day that my two children were going to be in school full time and I could actually get some sleep, so I was on the train home and I was listening to a radio show and they were talking about a plane that had crashed into the Trade Center recently. In our newsroom, a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I'm standing on top of my roof and I'm looking at the World Trade Center and there's a huge hole in it.

You can hear from the fire truck that there is a lot. The fire and police personnel there went home, turned on the TV and then we saw the second plane crash and I knew immediately I had to get back to work. I absolutely knew we were under attack and it was going to be us. Defend the city, you know, we were just doing our job and to this day it still haunts me. I joined the emergency

service

s unit in 1987. The emergency

service

s unit is the unit that does everything the regular police officer can't do, the old saying goes.

It's the people who need help, they

call

the police when the police need help, they

call

the emergency services unit. Most people across the country would know it as SWAT, except it's also a high-risk

rescue

unit. We do everything from removing people who were hit. Subway cars take people off bridges and buildings, we already know, we won't leave until the job is done, no matter where it is, whatever it is on 9/11. I've already been retired for six years and my wife is happy to make me retired she said where are you going I said I'm going to work my people are there she's like you're retired no I'm not my people are there so I left the crying at the door and I ran to my lock, I said I was going to grab my stuff, I was going to jump in the back of the truck, the big esu truck and I took everything from my locker except the pants, so I had a shirt, I had shorts that were jorts, once I heard it was back in fashion.

I told the sergeants I don't have my pants, don't worry, you're not going to need them at that moment, we didn't realize what kind of plane this was until we got there and then things changed, I was the biggest person on the scene for my squad at that time when we arrived and I didn't have pants on so I became the truck driver, we're going to put teams in a team in the north, a team in the city in the south is going to respond. for me I was the mobilization point for esu if I'm wearing my full uniform that day you know, like I should have, I should have had it with me then maybe I'm not the truck driver maybe I'm one of the teams that goes to the south tower.

I think if someone came up to us and said I built this building and it's going to fall and I relayed that to the guys in the building, they would have moved faster, none of those guys would have. something different well, what happened, what happened, the accident, the other trading center is down, it's down, it's down, we arrived at the scene just when the second tower had finished collapsing and the boys and girls who came from the trade center were covered in dust bleeding. It hurts to limp around carrying each other with all that huge debris field there was nothing that was discernible as an office, so I remember thinking that if the hardened furniture didn't have a chance to survive, would a person have a chance?

I get to this guy waving his flashlight and I just walk up to him. I look in this hole that's the size of a sewer and it says there are two police officers in this hallway. I can't hear him but I can't see him, so Paddy McGee comes in behind me. and I remember the fire department said you have to get out of there, you have to get out of there, the other buildings were collapsing, you know it's too dangerous and Scott and I made a conscious decision that yes, it's too dangerous, but We are not. leaving these two cops here is just not happening buddy marie yeah scott strauss emergency service unit the World Trade Center move is probably one of the few times that Hollywood did anything less intense than it was that we were squeezing areas that were so tight, you just had to go around yourself, uh, some of the I-beams were on fire and you had to go through as fast as you could, you had to go around another one and turn up and there was no room for us to turn around .

Even to get out if necessary, we would just crawl and crawl deeper in there and um, I said to myself, uh, I asked my children to behave, I asked them to take care of mom, it makes me proud and I apologize for having gotten me killed. I totally said that as I was crawling towards this hole because I didn't think we were going to get out of there, go down to the bottom at this 20 foot angle and you could see Will and he was in this little one opening up about 20 feet away from us and I I'm just clawing with my bare hands at the debris around Will and um, he's talking to me and he's in bad shape, he keeps talking about his partner, you have to get to my partner.

I have to get to my partner and buildings four and five are starting to collapse on top of them and on top of us and they are shouting at us, let's get out of there, guys, get out, you have to get out, we have to get out of here. The buildings are collapsing, we can't control the fires, so he looks at me and says, "You're not going to leave me, are you?" I said no, we're not leaving. I wanted to leave, but there's no way I could leave them. die, so we stayed, they were the only two people we took out, Scott Strauss, I was awarded the medal of honor from the police department.

Now, personally, I don't think I deserved it. I just did my job, you know, unfortunately, we lost 14 in the emergency services unit and another nine in the police department and the fire department had lost 343. It was a big loss for us and still, for 20 years I have never missed being at the World Trade Center on 9/11. To help my people, the retirees that I know, 99 of them responded to the scene to see if they could help and I think that is a general consensus, although a retiree has no obligation, he has a duty, it is in his soul to help the people when they are all running out.

We're running and if an event like that happens again, we're going to respond the same way, you know, we're going to put our lives on the line to save yours the next day, it was all

rescue

, it was a teamwork effort. they shot at the police department's emergency services unit, you know, not a single person did everything on 9/11. I was a New York Police Department recruit training to become a police officer. We were working long hours, but those guys who were there were working like they were in and out, without breaks. they were, they would go out, have a drink, water, go back there.

I slept on a cot that night on the west side highway. I woke up the next morning and did it for another two days going through the pile. That first week was just a long day, you know, until a week later I heard on the radio that it's been a week since World Trade Center Day, you know, 9/11. I'm like, wow, it's been a week, just one day. It turned into the next there was a time when we were all very tired and we were on the way and I don't know what day it was, we were on the way back to the pile and we were in a police van and um, people applaud us at As we get closer to ground zero, people are full of signs on the streets with thank you signs and you are our heroes and we were like, ah, but he was also, what are we on a fire truck?, ya You know, because everyone loves a firefighter, no one likes a competition, it was like you were almost a movie star, the amount of love we received from the public was incredible in the days and weeks after, no matter where we were, the people He thanked us and it was great.

See the patriotism of everyone in New York. I think September 12 brought us together because we needed mutual help without mutual support. I don't think we would have gotten ahead. We had so many New Yorkers coming. What can we do? That we can? I will never forget this. So many people stepped forward. The whole country really came together. We were a nation. It wasn't just the firefighters, it wasn't just the police officers. There were civilians in that building helping civilians down those stairs. people just did what they had to do doing the right thing no one cared about anything other than helping the guy next to you