Rescue & Recovery

IN NEW YORK CITY, at the Pentagon and in Somerset, Pennsylvania, an unprecedented rescue and recovery effort began as soon as the afternoon of September 11, 2001 and continued for nine grueling months. First responders and volunteers rushing to the site were faced with a pile of debris rising seven stories. Lower Manhattan residents and businesses were displaced as the area south of 14th street became a frozen zone blocked off and patrolled by the National Guard.

Meanwhile, posters appealing for information about missing people were everywhere, along with spontaneously mounted shrines and flags. There was widespread confusion, a common feeling of unbearable grief, and an emerging sense of unity. People from all walks of life gathered to help, mourn, talk, and simply be together.

While tons of steel and debris were being cleared from Ground Zero, plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center site were set in motion. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) was created to plan and coordinate the rebuilding and revitalization of Lower Manhattan, defined as everything south of Houston Street. The LMDC began a process of public hearings and design competitions to develop a master site plan for the World Trade Center as well as to select a design for a memorial.

Stories from the Recovery

Unlikely Relics; Identification Badges from the World Trade Center

After the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993 which resulted in six casualties, over a thousand injuries, and the decimation of the complex’s subterranean parking garage, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey implemented security measures that set a new standard for hi-rise building safety. One of those improvements mandated use of a WTC-issued photo ID card to all building employees, tenants and visitors. Entry past the downstairs security desks to the elevators required presentation of these badges, issued to those who worked at the Trade Center and as day-passes to guests and vendors conducting business with tenants. Although these measures tightened day-to-day security within the Towers, they were not a deterrent to the hijackers on 9/11, who had no intention of accessing the buildings on foot. Numbered among those killed that day was Douglas Karpiloff, the former Security and Life Safety Director at the WTC who had helped introduce the photo ID card system in 1993. Read more >>

David Brink
An officer with the NYPD Emergency Service Unit Squad 3, located in the Bronx, David Brink arrived at the escalating crisis at the World Trade Center shortly before the hijacked Flight 175 barreled into the South Tower. After they had suited up and equipped themselves with the gear that they anticipated needing (all of which weighed in at close to 70 pounds), Brink and his partner Mike Garcia, a newcomer to the squad, were dispatched to the North Tower command station. On their way to the command post, the two men were caught in the South Tower collapse. As soon as they could see in the smoke and dust-choked air, they made their way to the North Tower and began assisting civilians emerging onto the Vesey Street stairs, guiding them in their final descent to the sidewalk. After the North Tower fell, Brink remained on site, assigned to various temporary command posts. By late afternoon, severe eye irritation forced him to seek medical attention at Downtown Hospital; injuries to his cornea placed him out of commission for a week. He returned to ground zero as soon as he was able.

Brink spent the next nine months working the day shift at the World Trade Center recovery site. In the beginning, he aided the bucket brigade, often on his hands and knees, digging through massive heaps of rubble with small gardening tools. When recording his oral history at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, he vividly recalled the support and appreciation he felt upon encountering volunteers offering encouragement and gratitude to workers entering and leaving the site.

Brink recently donated mementos of this experience to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Among the objects he donated are the helmet and gear he carried that day, gloves and tools he used at the site over the next nine months, a symbolic representation of the Twin Towers that he welded from scraps of World Trade Center steel, and an American flag bandana that became part of his uniform. Together, this remarkable collection of artifacts illustrates the arc of his experience at the World Trade Center site.

Chief Robert Gray, Arlington Fire Department
An expert in rescuing survivors in collapsed buildings and other high risk situations, Chief Robert Gray of the Arlington, Virginia Fire Department led his department’s Technical Rescue Team in its search for survivors of the attack on the Pentagon.  Over the course of the next few weeks, those skills were re-purposed toward shoring up damaged sections of the building to facilitate the recovery of the victims.   Listen to Chief Gray describe working on the 12-hour night shift and his experiences at the Pentagon in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Listen >>

National Guardsmen Donates Uniform to the Museum

Within twelve hours of the September 11 attacks, over 8,000 National Guard soldiers and reservists converged on the World Trade Center and Pentagon sites. The severity of the day’s events necessitated their service at an unprecedented level and the scope of their duties was broad. A Vietnam War veteran, Kevin Mroczkowski (b. 1950) was one of many New York State National Guardsmen called to into active service that day.

Mroczkowski, who was living in upstate New York at the time, reported to Stewart Air Force base as part of D Company’s 1st Battalion 101 CAV Tank Unit (This unit of the Guard is the only tank battalion headquartered in New York.). By late afternoon, he had been deployed to the Guard’s armory on Staten Island. From there, the soldiers were ferried to Battery Park at the tip of lower Manhattan, where a temporary command station for the NY National Guard had been established.

Mroczkowski was initially assigned to prevent the public from entering the so-called “Frozen Zone,” filled with numerous damaged buildings that appeared to be in danger of imminent collapse. Thereafter, he joined troop details sent to safeguard New York City’s many bridges (his assignment was the Williamsburg Bridge) and tunnels. Later, he would return to Manhattan for guard duty at Penn Station in Madison Square Garden, forming some lasting friendships with Amtrak police officers.

Mroczkowski donated the New York National Guard uniform he wore while providing protection around Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, and in the immediate aftermath. Despite the debris and ash through which he waded, Mroczkowki devoted time each evening to keeping his ample-size black leather boots spit-polish clean, a ritual of military decorum that distracted the guard members from dwelling on the horrific scenes they had encountered during tours around Ground Zero. In addition to the uniform components, he also presented NS11MM with an American flag, folded and framed, and a “Defense of Liberty” medal awarded to him by the State of New York on September 8, 2002.

Three World Trade Center Flashlights

“I couldn’t see.  It was the darkest that you could ever imagine.  If you put a blindfold on and closed your eyes at the same time, it was about that dark. . . . I had a little flashlight, the kind you carry on a key ring.  I could hardly even see the light-- the dust was that thick.” Port Authority Chief Operating Officer Ernesto Butcher soon saw the more powerful reassuring beam of a firefighter’s flashlight in the dust and debris-filled lobby of the Marriott Hotel (3 World Trade Center) moments after the South Tower fell.

As electrical power wavered and failed in the World Trade Center complex and in surrounding buildings, flashlights played a crucial role.  Remembering darkened corridors and stairwells when the World Trade Center had been bombed on February 26, 1993, Dianne DeFontes always carried a flashlight and fresh batteries in her purse.  On September 11th, it provided helpful illumination as she and other occupants of the 89th floor of the North Tower began their arduous descent to safety.  Bright red or yellow flashlights were wielded by volunteer Fire Safety Wardens such as George Mironis, who became involved in fire safety initiatives adopted at the WTC after 1993.  Mironis emerged safely on Vesey Street after a harrowing descent from the 48th floor of the North Tower. Both DeFontes and Mironis donated their flashlights to the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

Flashlights were also a powerful tool in the hands of professional first responders.   James Lynch, a 22-year veteran of the Port Authority Police Department, raced to the World Trade Center site from his home in Woodbridge, NJ despite the fact that he was out on medical leave, recovering from shoulder surgery.  Officer Lynch went into action before he could even don his bunker gear or retrieve his First Aid Kit.  Nonetheless, when he was found in the remains of the South Tower on December 7, 2001, he was still carrying his flashlight, with his badge number, 775, still clearly etched on its barrel.   Officer Lynch’s family donated the bunker jacket, first aid kit, and flashlight to the Museum to honor his extraordinary service. 

Francine Kelly

On September 11, 2001, Francine Kelly was Nurse Manager at St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center, located less than two miles north from the World Trade Center.  Upon learning that a plane had crashed into the North Tower, hospital staff prepared to treat massive casualties.  As the morning’s horrifying events progressed, hundreds of wounded individuals began to arrive on foot and by ambulance, receiving emergency treatment for burns, respiratory problems, eye trauma, shock, and other injuries.  Listen to Nurse Kelly speak about her role that day and the significance of the attack to the hospital community as well as St. Vincent’s transformation into an improvised family assistance center.  Listen >>

Recovered Item Returned to Aviation Director with Thoughtful Note

William (Bill) DeCota was appointed Aviation Director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey in 1999, managing the agency’s diverse portfolio of airports and reliever airports.  His office was located on the 65th floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center.  On the fateful morning of September 11, 2001, DeCota happened to be attending a professional conference for airlines industry executives and airport service operators in Montreal, Canada which planned to address air corridor congestion in the northeast.  While sitting in a hotel room preparing his remarks, DeCota noticed the shocking, live images of the burning Twin Towers beginning to dominate his television screen.  Sidelined by circumstances beyond his control from participating in the shutting of New York and U.S. airspace and the lock-down of operations at PANYNJ’s airports, he went in search of a rental car so that he could drive back to New York to lend his expertise and leadership to the staggering crisis his agency was confronting. 

Almost simultaneously, a stranger was studying DeCota’s portrait image; a human reminder of the thousands whose workday lives had been anchored in the World Trade Center only two days earlier. George Fear, a volunteer rescue and recovery worker who had come to Ground Zero to help search for survivors, spotted this damaged but still legible contact sheet traceable to the Port Authority’s Aviation Department near the ruins that had been the Towers.  He salvaged the contact sheet, and after researching DeCota’s status and address, eventually mailed it back to him with an attached note in which he reflected: “I have glanced at this periodically, and it has given rise to many different thoughts, ranging from the finality and futility of man’s aggressive actions to their fellow man, to the endurance and our dedication to progress and the maintenance of our way of life.”   DeCota opened the note with the attached pictures on September 10, 2009.  Tragically, this surprising relic of the 9/11 tragedy survived but Bill DeCota himself died unexpectedly the next day, on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Gift in Memory of William DeCota by his colleagues in the Aviation Department of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

Rosemarie O’Keefe, Former Commissioner of the NYC Community Assistance Unit
As the Commissioner of Community Assistance under New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Rosemarie O’Keefe created the 9/11 Family Assistance Center, a place where victims’ family members could find information and support. O’Keefe describes the genesis of the Family Center and the spirit of compassion, respect, and warmth that prevailed there. Listen >>
After a long battle with cancer, Rosemarie died on July 17, 2009.  Her tireless efforts and lasting support for the greater New York City community after 9/11 will always be remembered.

Mobile Light “Ruby 7” Used in Recovery Effort at World Trade Center Site

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Charles Libin was getting a haircut in a neighborhood barbershop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, when news of the attack at the World Trade Center broke through the “oldies” station on the radio. At home later that morning, riveted to television news coverage of the unfolding disaster, Libin wondered whether he knew anyone inside the Towers while growing increasingly concerned about the firefighters at nearby Squad 1. He recalled his own familiarity with the B-Level basements and elevators at the World Trade Center, acquired while working on television and film shoots there. Click here to read more and for images >>>

Deputy Chief Stephen Holl

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Arlington County, VA, Deputy Police Chief Stephen Holl was attending a conference out of the state when he learned that the Pentagon had been attacked.  Aware that he had a vital role to play in the county’s disaster preparedness plans, Holl immediately drove back to Virginia and responded to the unfolding disaster site.  By early afternoon, he was directing the work of the police officers who had been dispatched there as first responders earlier in the day.  Holl and his team served at the Pentagon for the next few weeks, aiding in the rescue and recovery effort.  Listen>>

Hazem & Liz Gamal
Hazem Gamal worked in the South Tower of the World Trade Center and walked through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel covered in dust and debris after witnessing the collapse of his office building; Liz recounts hours of worry as she waited to receive word that he had made it to safety.

Listen >> Liz's Story
Listen >> Hazem's Story
Listen >> Recovered Letters

The Gamals recall their experiences and describe receiving a package of correspondence that somehow survived the devastation and was returned to them by a concerned construction worker who preserved the papers not knowing whether their owner had perished in the attack.

Letters Packet of Letters recovered from Ground Zero Note to Hazem Gamal from the construction worker who recovered the letters

Jack Trabitz, NYC Deputy Police Chief
Since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, approximately 27,000 pieces of personal property have been recovered from Ground Zero and the Staten Island evidence recovery site. New York City Deputy Police Chief Trabitz discusses the monumental forensic undertaking of the World Trade Center Property Operation, which is charged with safeguarding, identifying, decontaminating, cataloguing and returning objects to their rightful owners and to relatives of those who perished, regardless of the object’s value or condition. Listen >>

Dr. Arthur Gudeon
Dr. Arthur Gudeon, a podiatrist and native of New York City, volunteered his medical services to help first responders working in the rescue and recovery effort at ground zero.  After initiating an email campaign, he was able to gather podiatrists around the world to provide around the clock care at St. Paul’s Chapel.  In this podcast, he speaks of his experience as a volunteer treating the injuries of recovery workers, and developing close relationships with the community of volunteers at the site. Listen >>

Kerri Courtney

A newcomer to Battery Park City, Kerri Courtney was at home in her 34th floor apartment a few blocks away from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Urged to evacuate by a friend in the neighborhood, Courtney left home with little more than her keys, her camera and her little dog. A freelance photographer, Courtney documented the many ways in which the neighborhood closest to ground zero was affected in the months that followed. Look at some of the photographs she donated to the museum and listen to her describe what it was like to return home for the first time after the attack and why she chose to remain in the neighborhood. Listen >>

Stories from the Rebuilding

John C. Whitehead, former Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Chairman and 9/11 Memorial Founding Chairman, and Joseph C. Daniels, 9/11 Memorial President & CEO

John Whitehead
A veteran Wall Street executive, John Whitehead was appointed to chair the newly established Lower Manhattan Development Corporation after September 11, 2001, where he oversaw preliminary planning for the Memorial & Museum. Listen >>

Ken Feinberg
Attorney Kenneth R. Feinberg served as Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which was created by Congress to provide economic relief to the families of those killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, as well as to those who were physically injured that day.  Over the course of nearly three years, the fund awarded approximately $7 billion dollars to those who chose to participate.  In this podcast, excerpted from a longer interview, Feinberg describes the significance of this unique endeavor and discusses the many personal meetings and formal hearings he and his staff conducted with survivors and family members in order to learn about the lives of those impacted. Listen >>