by Dean King
The teams noted that there were many bodies. The remains were taken to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner office. The medical examiner’s office identified remains that belonged to 179 of the victims. At the conclusion of the search and recovery, 184 out of 189 people were identified. The remains of the hijackers were also identified. But the remains of five victims were not found.
Chapter 7 – The Heroes Of 9/11
The 9/11 bombings were not just about death and despair. That day was not just about billions of investment lost due to the collapse of the buildings. Most importantly, it was about the selfless souls who put themselves on the line to save others, putting aside self-preservation in place of concern for their fellow men. These are the real heroes. They lacked superpowers to keep the buildings from collapsing. But what they did to the best of their abilities was far greater. It was something that would mark them a place in history as modern day heroes.
Captain Anthony Whitaker
Anthony Whitaker was the PAPD’s captain, and he and Sergeant Alan DeVona worked as a team. They usually met in the mall section of the WTC before the 6:45 roll call. On September 11, right after the roll call, Captain Whitaker went to the lobby of the North Tower while Sergeant DeVona went to the police desk in 5 WTC near the North Tower.
Captain Whitaker was from Brooklyn. He was the commanding officer at the WTC for three years on the day the towers were hit. He survived, and he also saved countless people when he ordered a full evacuation of the WTC.
Captain Whitaker, left
Captain Whitaker had made it his routine to stand near the lobby of the North Tower at 8:30 in the morning for 30 minutes. He would usually nod and smile at people rushing from subways to get to their offices. He didn’t know all the names of these people, but he recognized many of their faces. He was always there to show “command presence” as a way to assure people that the PAPD police officers were on duty and to be an example to his subordinates.
Whitaker had no idea that that day was not like any other days of his duty. All of a sudden, he heard a loud roar. When he looked up, he saw a gigantic fireball coming at a speed from the lobby. The people in the way of the fireball were burned. He was on his way to run to the passageway between the Twin Towers when something told him to go into a corridor leading to an elevator.
Whitaker grabbed the security guard standing there and pulled him toward the end of the corridor. Whitaker struck his head and lost consciousness. When he came to, he ran along the darkened hallway to the direction of the North Tower. Momentarily, he was struck dumb as two figures engulfed in flames rushed toward him. Upon close inspection, he noted that the figures had no clothing, no skin and the flesh was burned. The figures did not make a sound s they passed by.
Whitaker did not know that a plane had hit the North Tower, he did not know of the hijacking, but he knew that an evacuation must be carried out at the entire WTC immediately. On the radio, he heard Sergeant DeVona giving instructions to evacuate 5 WTC and 6 WTC. At a break in the radio traffic, Whitaker ordered to evacuate the entire complex. His order was delayed due to communications problems.
Whitaker took his initiative and supervised the officers who were on the lobby. On his way to meet with PAPD Chief William Hall, Whitaker arrived at the footbridge near the Deutsche Bank building. Chief Hall was not there; he was on West Street. Whitaker went back and took another path. He again blacked out, and when he came to for the second time, he was under the footbridge at West Street. He crossed the West Street to a truck bay at the World Financial Center. A fire truck pulled up, and he instructed the firefighters to set up an emergency center there.
Once again, he called the police desk at the WTC and ordered a complete evacuation of all buildings in the complex. He then met with Chief Hall and they walked up Vesey Street to the direction of Church Street. As they passed the truck bay of Building Seven, they heard a loud roar. They looked up and saw the South Tower collapsing. As it did, it created a hurricane force wind that had them diving into the open doors of the truck bay. It turned dark due to heavy smoke. After the cloud of smoke cleared, Whitaker returned to the street.
There, he looked up at the North Tower and saw that it was also toppling. He ran to Alan Reiss, the director of the WTC, and told him to get as far away as possible. Whitaker then ran to an intersection where policemen and firefighters were standing and told them to run as the tower was about to collapse. He then ran to a PAPD command bus and told the driver to get out of there. As he ran, he passed by fire trucks and told the firefighters the same thing. While some people obeyed him, others stayed where they were. He and Reiss were running away from West Street and were half a block away when they heard the same roar.
North Tower started to collapsed into itself, creating a new cloud of smoke and wind. They hit the ground and held onto each other as the cloud of smoke and wind rolled over them. When it cleared, they went to the Port Authority command bus that Whitaker had ordered to get away earlier. Whitaker brought some civilians into the bus and told the driver to move to safety.
Whitaker had lost many of his people that day, and many of them stood on their post and guided people out of the area. After the collapse of the Twin Towers, rescue and recovery operations began. The PAPD worked 12 hours each day since that morning until May 30, 2002. Whitaker himself commanded the night shift from 6 PM to 6 AM.
Pelco President and CEO David McDonald summarized the heroic acts of Whitaker in the following words: “As commanding officer at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Chief Whitaker personally directed the evacuation of the entire World Trade Center Complex. Thousands of innocent civilians from that horrific day owe their very lives to this man.”
Sergeant Alan DeVona
Sergeant DeVona saw as the plane struck one of the towers, but he thought it was a private plane. Like Whitaker, he had no idea that it was a terrorist attack. DeVona acted quickly and advised the officers at the police desk to contact all the available unit in the city. He also ordered them to contact the central police desk for full mobilization. He also told them to prepare for the evacuation of the North Tower.
DeVona assigned PAPD officers their duties. Some were to man the police desk, others to aid in the evacuation. He deployed teams to go into the North Tower to assist in rescuing survivors. The collapse of the South Tower sent a black cloud toward where they were. He hid beneath the four-foot high desk and was shielded from the flying debris. When the cloud cleared, he turned on his Streamlight flashlight and saw two survivors – a man and a woman – one of which had a foot injury. He guided the pair outside of the building until they met an EMS crew and he turned the pair to them. He was with Whitaker and Alan Reiss when the North Tower collapsed.
Being a witness to the collapse of the towers and losing friends on September 11 was too much for DeVona. On April 15, 2003, he went on medical leave because of post-traumatic stress disorder and retired on September 4, 2004. He was depressed and this affected his health and his family relationship. He even contemplated killing himself, but he was talked out of it by a retired police officer friend.
This helped him to have a new direction in life. He improved his relationship with his family, he memorialized the lost heroes of the PAPD and even planted 37 holly trees to symbolize the 37 officers who died on 9/11. He then contacted other people working at the Port Authority. Some people had told him about those who were suffering from depression. DeVona located them and told them about his experience and how he got out of his depression. He was able to make a difference by being a shining beacon for others.
Rick Rescorla
Rick Rescorla was born in a small town in England. He had joined the British army as an infantry paratrooper. He had also served at the British Army Intelligence in Cyprus and later on joined the Colonial Police Force in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
Due to Rescorla’s impressive records and outstanding performance, he was offered the position of security director at the New York headquarters o
f Dean Witter. In 1985, the offices of Dean Witter moved to the South Tower of the WTC. In 1997, Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley, the offices still in the WTC. In 1990, Rescorla retired from army.
Rescorla with wife
When the plane struck the North Tower, Rescorla was in his post in the South Tower. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was the largest tenant in the South Tower, with offices occupying between 43rd and 74th floors. The employees were preparing to evacuate the building, and then they heard an announcement that the building was safe and that all should stay in their offices.
Rescorla thought that the North Tower might collapse into the South Tower. He feared for the safety of all the employees. Ignoring the announcement, he ordered an evacuation of the building using stairwells and not elevators. He used the 44th floors, where his office was, as an assembly point for employees working above that level. He then proceeded to direct the employees to take the stairwell just as they had rehearsed during the drill.
There were some employees who did not follow his lead, but the majority paired up and helped the others in climbing down the narrow stairwells. Rescorla urged them to keep moving. Eighteen minutes later, the second plane hit the South Tower. The building shook for a while, causing the employees to panic. He urged them to calm down. They found a stairwell that was clear of smoke and the evacuation resumed.
Rescorla climbed up the higher floors to check on the descending employees. The employees helped each other as they climbed down the stairs while Rescorla continued to encourage them with his megaphone. The employees reached the relative safety of the ground floor.
After ensuring their safety, Rescorla returned to the upper floors with his deputy Wesley Mercer to help other tenants of the tower. Many of them remained in their offices. On the 10th floor, John Olson, a regional director of Morgan Stanley, saw Rescorla and told him to leave the building. Rescorla said that first he had to get everyone out. He talked briefly with his long time friend Dan Hill on the phone, who told him to get out as the South Tower might collapse before the North Tower. Rescorla also talked on the phone with his wife, Susan, who was in tears. He told her,
“I have to get people out of the building but I want you to know that whatever happens, you have made my life.”
That was the last time that Susan heard of her husband.
Then the South Tower collapsed. Out of the 2,700 employees of Morgan
Stanley, 13 died when the building collapsed. These included Rescorla, his
deputy, and four security guards. One executive ignored Rescorla’s warning and
rode an elevator that was working. In 1993 when a truck bombed exploded at the
basement of the WTC, this same executive refused to leave, saying he had things
to do. He even required his secretary to stay. But on that day, his secretary left
and was safe, but the executive was never seen again. Rescorla never made it to
safety, but the countless people who had followed his directive will be forever
grateful for him.
Captain Jay Jonas
Captain Jay Jonas headed the Ladder Company 6 in Chinatown. He was in the firehouse when they heard of the plane striking the North Tower. They were called to the site a few minutes later. He got his order to go up for search and rescue.
Capt. Jay Jonas
He was nearing the 27 th floor when took a head count of his men. Two were missing, so he came back down and found the two men two or three floors below. Upon their return to the 27th floor, the building shook and swayed back and forth. The lights went out for a few seconds, then they heard a very loud roar outside. Captain Billy Burke of Engine 21 who was also on the 27th floor checked the windows on the south side of the tower and reported that the South Tower had just collapsed.
Captain Jonas knew the danger and so he told his men to get out. Surprisingly, the men were hesitant to leave, and he only learned later that his men didn’t know about the collapse. Still, Jonas remained calm, knowing that any signs of panicking can only add to stress.
He proceeded to lead the men down the narrow stairs. There were other firefighters and civilians on the stairs, moving down quickly until they reached the 20th floor. This was where they found Josephine Harris, 59 years old and having foot problems. One of the men, Joe Garcia, helped her to descend the stairs after they met Lieutenant Mickey Kross. Both of the men were exhausted.
One of Captain Jonas’ crew assisted Josephine and they began descending the stairs again. They passed Lieutenant Warchola of Ladder 5, also on his way down and assisting a civilian complaining of chest pains. The two remained on the floor and would follow them down shortly.
Josephine Harris
As Captain Jonas and the men climbed down, their pace was slowed down as they assisted Josephine. Some people passed them on their way down, and later on Captain Jonas learned that these people were crew of Engine 28. They got out of the building minutes before it collapsed. They survived.
Upon reaching the 4 th floor, Josephine fell to the floor, exhausted. She begged them to leave her and save themselves, but the firefighters chose to stay with her. Captain Jonas left them in search for a chair to carry her downstairs. He found a room, but it was mechanical floor and there were no chairs. The men would just have to carry Josephine.
Now that he was separated from the men and far from the stairwell, the captain ran. He was three feet from the stairwell door when the floor shook violently. He knew the building was collapsing. He forced open the stairwell door and dived onto the landing, rolling into a ball and covering his head. The loud roar became louder as the floors above him crashed on top of another. Everyone crouched down and covered their heads. They thought it was their end, waiting for the moment when the floor above them would crush them. A few seconds later, there was only darkness and silence. They were alive but trapped. They were rescued after being trapped for almost 6 hours.
Betty Ong
Betty Ong was a 45-year-old flight attendant of American Airline Flight 11. A native of San Francisco and of Chinese descent, she had no idea what the future had in store for her on that fateful day of September 11.
Flight 11 was the first plane to hit the WTC. Ong was among the first responders, alerting the American Airlines about the hijacking. She knew it was a big risk, but she hid in the galley and called the airline reservation desk through the crew phone.
As Ong reported of the hijacking and what was taking place at the minute, she remained calm and professional. There was no sign of panic in her voice. She relayed as much information as she could about the hijackers in the 23 minutes that she was on the phone.
Surprisingly, Ong had been in a difficult and stressful situation before wherein she displayed courage. Before she had worked for the American Airlines, she had worked for the family store. She was on duty when it was robbed. She had told her father about the situation, and firmly declared that she was not going to give the robbers money. They even held a gun to her head.
This showed Ong’s courage and selflessness. Her family particularly remembers the last words she said: “Pray for all of us.” She was not thinking about herself, but all of the passengers and crew in the plane. Her family will forever remember her as a loving and caring person. And an American hero.
Amy Sweeney
Amy Sweeney was Ong’s fellow flight attendant in Flight 11. She was 34 years old when she was asked to take an extra shift on September 11 because the person who was originally assigned to the position was ill.
Sweeney used the airphone to contact the American Airlines during the hijacking. She got through to Michael Woodward, the manager on duty, and told him about the hijacking. She supplied him the seat assignments of the hijackers, and thanks to this information, the identities of the hijackers were discovered. She further gave detailed information about what was taking place in the plane in the crucial moments before the crash.
Welles Crowther
Welles Crowther was 24 years old and was
an equities trader for the Sandler O’Neill and Partners whose office was on the 104th floor of the South Tower. After the tower was hit at 9:03, he called his parents and left a message that he was alright. His parents would later say that Welles was in control despite the tension in his voice.
He climbed down to the 78 th floor sky lobby. There was a group of people there, many of whom were injured. Having trained as a volunteer firefighter after high school, he knew what had to be done in emergency crisis. He showed leadership amidst the chaos by ordering the people who can get up and walk to come with him. Those who were able must help others. He then led them out.
Some people followed him as they made their way to the only passable stairwell. On their way down, he found a young woman in shock and carried her over his shoulder. Welles asked Ling Young, a woman in the group who had a big gash in her forehead and whose 40 percent of her body was burned, if she could carry a fire extinguisher. She said she could.
The continued their way down until they reached the 61th floor where the air was clear and there were lights on. Young left the extinguisher as they probably would not need it and Welles ordered them to continue evacuating. He then returned to the upper floors.
When he reached the 78 th floor, the ones who were reluctant to leave were already lined up and ready to evacuate. He led them down the stairs and when they reached the 61st floor, he told them to continue climbing down. He headed back up for the second time. He led the third group all the way down to the 40th floor. From there they took a working freight elevator that brought them down to the lobby.
On the lobby Welles met FDNY Assistant Chief of Department Donald Burns and a lieutenant. The men were planning to bring a “Jaws of Life” machine upstairs to lift slabs of concrete to free victims. At about the same time, Ling Young and Judy Wein happened to be in the same ambulance with another woman who had an asthma attack. Young told the driver that the woman might die unless they bring her to a hospital. The ambulance pulled out toward the hospital.