11
Sep

 

SPARTAN PERFORMANCE                                 CROSSFIT SUFFOLK

One round for time:

343 meter row  (for the 343 FDNY members killed)

37 weighted sit-ups, 25/15# (for the Port Authority officers killed)

23 power snatch, 75/55#  (for the NYPD officers killed)

3 muscle-ups or strict pull-ups (for the NYS Court officers killed)

1 mile run (for the FBI Agent killed)

 

THOUGHTS ON SEPTEMBER 11TH

by George Demetriou

On September 11th my thoughts, like the the thoughts of millions
of Americans, are on the attack from eleven years ago and on the people
who lost their lives.

I think of my brother and sister NYPD officers who were not obligated
to enter the Twin Towers, but did so selflessly anyway because of a
sense of duty and of those who never came out.

I think of Detective Viggiano who was an Academy mate, winner of 3
close range gun fights with drug dealers, but was killed by enemies from
afar, murderers who were already in hell by the time Viggiano lost his
life.

I think about Sgt. Gillis, a childhood friend of my wife, who was on
his way home, off-duty, when the attack occurred.  Rodney went to the
Towers anyway.  All that was recovered was some of his equipment.

I think of the horrible images of seeing people jumping from the
Towers and the one documentary where you could hear bodies hitting the
building or the ground.

I think of standing before the "Pile", awestruck, looking for
something that resembled a piece of office furniture,  or anything that
would connect the destruction to the fact that people worked here days
before and seeing nothing, but smashed steel and concrete, trying to
deal with the fact that the "pile" was once the World Trade Center.

I think of my wife, working in NYPD headquarters for her regular
shift then walking down to the "Pile" because she had to "find my
friends".  She never did.  She was diagnosed with something called RADS
(Reactive Airway Dysfunction) shortly after working at Ground Zero. 

I think of the people who paid the ultimate price just for showing up at work on a beautiful September day.

I think of the children who had their mother or father taken from them.

I think of Tommy from my hometown.  We went to the Academy together,
but Tommy left the Police Department and went to the Fire Department. 
He entered the Towers and like over 300 of his fellow firefighters,
never made it out.

I think of the Port Authority Police Officers and the Court Officers,
many who came from other locations or from home and paid the ultimate
price.

But I also think of the way the people of New York came together to help others.

I think of the groups of people on the West Side Highway who would
just stand there for hours cheering us on and thanking us whenever cops
went by them.

I think of the response by volunteers from the suburbs, other states
and Canada.  They brought food, medical equipment, search equipment,
search dogs, but mostly they brought love of their fellow human beings.

I think of volunteers, David Karnes and Jason Thomas, two retired
Marine Corps Sgts., who continued to search after night fall and found
trapped and injured Port Authority Police Officers.

I think of the response by our military, especially the work done by
our Special Operations Command and the work they are still doing.

I think of the fantastic work done by my former co-workers of the NY
office of the Joint Terrorist task Force, an awesome collection of NYPD
Detectives, State Troopers, FBI Special Agents, Customs Enforcement
Agents, Immigration Enforcement Agents, Port Authority Police
Detectives, CIA Officers, NSA Officers, US Marshals, Coast Guard
Officers and some I'm probably forgetting.  I truly got serve in the
company of heroes and am honored to have done so.

I think of Rick Rescorla.  Rescorla was the VP of Security for Morgan
Stanley/Dean Witter, the largest tenant of the World Trade Center. 
Rescorla served in the Army and fought in the Battle of Ia Drang, Viet
Nam in 1965…the battle depicted in the book, We Were Soldiers Once…And Young
by General Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway.  Rescorla's photo graces the
cover of the book.  Rescorla was proactive as a security official.  He
would have the people he was responsible for practice evacuating the
building.  Eleven years ago today he effectively evacuated nearly three
thousand employees of Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter out of the World Trade
Center.  He saved the entire company except for himself and some of his
staff who stayed behind to make sure they didn't leave anyone "on the
field of battle".  The entire time of the evacuation Rescorla kept
everyone calm and moving along, while singing and stating, "Today is a
day to be proud to be an American" through his bullhorn.

Mostly I think that Rescorla's last words to the employees of Morgan
Stanley/Dean Witter are so true today as they were eleven years ago.

 

Lisa

Lisa at ground Zero 2

 

The Real Heroes Are Dead

"Hill could hear Rescorla issuing orders through the bullhorn. He was
calm and collected, never raising his voice. Then Hill heard him break
into song:

Men of Cornwall stop your dreaming;
Can’t you see their spearpoints gleaming?
See their warriors’ pennants streaming
To this battlefield.
Men of Cornwall stand ye steady;
It cannot be ever said ye
for the battle were not ready;
Stand and never yield!

Rescorla came back on the phone. “Pack a bag and get up here,” he
said. “You can be my consultant again.” He added that the Port Authority
was telling him not to evacuate and to order people to stay at their
desks.

”What’d you say?” Hill asked.

”I said, ‘Piss off, you son of a bitch,’ “ Rescorla replied.
“Everything above where that plane hit is going to collapse, and it’s
going to take the whole building with it. I’m getting my people the fuck
out of here.” Then he said, “I got to go. Get your shit in one basket
and get ready to come up.”

Hill turned back to the TV and, within minutes, saw the second plane
execute a sharp left turn and plunge into the south tower. Susan saw it,
too, and frantically phoned her husband’s office. No one answered.

About fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was Rick. She burst into tears and couldn’t talk.

”Stop crying,” he told her. “I have to get these people out safely.
If something should happen to me, I want you to know I’ve never been
happier. You made my life.”

Susan cried even harder, gasping for breath. She felt a stab of fear,
because the words sounded like those of someone who wasn’t coming back.
“No!” she cried, but then he said he had to go. Cell-phone use was
being curtailed so as not to interfere with emergency communications."
James B. Stewart, The New Yorker, February 11, 2002

 



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9-11-never-forget firefighters

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