So where were you - When you heard about wtc bombings?

[Is Don on the phone?]

I had stopped into my office on Staten Island, just to pick up a file when the secretary yells "someone check the TV, the radio just reported a plane into the WTC." Being an EMT gears me toward flirting with disaster, so I popped my head into the break room to see what the tv news would show...

I saw that plume of smoke, and knew it was not a small plane as they were saying. I rallied a few of my co-workers and headed down to the ferry terminal to see what was going on. It was then that the second plane hit. Our pagers all went off at once moments later, and we hauled ass back up to the office. I changed into my "work clothes," got my trauma kit and 02 bag, and told my boss I was heading in to help, as they were screaming for EMTs at that point. I treated some folks on the ferry when the first boat of wounded arrived, and then took the second boat over to Ground Zero.

Most of the patients I treated that day were minor injuries. Most were firefighters, cops and fellow EMTs with eye injuries or simple traumas. I was on the pile for a while, acting as a litter bearer and securing remains when we found them. Where I was, we found no live victims. There is nothing more frustrating than that fact, that you can't help because there's no one left to help.

They bombed the WTC?

Interesting factoid: the official FBI case reporting name for the 9/11 attacks is PENTTBOM (PENTagon/TradeTowers BOMbing), because the planes were used as weapons of mass destruction.



Oh, btw, I have a tribute to the towers on my website-NYCPhoto-Images with a New York Accent



Edited By Is Don on the phone? on Aug. 02 2002 at 9:36