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Waiting for the Call: The September Eleventh Disaster

It smelled the same as war. It looked the T-shirts at cost with no labor for the
same as war. Grant Coates, the vice printing that would identify them as
president of VVA's New York State sheriff's deputies. A drug manufacturing
Council, thought the memory of it might company gave $4,000 in supplies, masks,
have been one of the good things he and other equipment. Kaye's co-workers
brought back from Vietnam. "Been there, made cookies for the deputies to share
done that," he thought. onboard the ship on which they would be
He knew the physics of war's destruction, bivouacked.
recognized its immutable laws. He'd been "One of the ladies who made apple
in combat with the Army Rangers. He'd brownies lost her son in the Beirut
been a tracker, working with a Labrador Marine barracks attack," Kaye wrote to
retriever to find theenemy when contact The VVA Veteran editor Mokie Porter. "He
broke off. He built a civilian career as was her only son. She said `God bless
a police officer and worked K-9 there, them for helping.' Another lady I work
too. Now he was retired and working with, her 10-year-old son is having a
part-time for the Delaware County, New tough time. She said he built a tower
York, sheriff, himself a Vietnam veteran from building blocks the other day and
who was in-country about the same time then flew a plane around it. He kept
Coates was. trying to figure out how it happened.
Coates had been around death and violence When she asked him to help her make the
all his adult life. The professions he cookies, he wanted to help the deputies
chose made it unavoidable. When the call find the people. Pretty special stuff."
came on September 11, instinct and The Delaware deputies had not been
experience fell into place, and he knew summoned to search for survivors.
another mission had come. He knew what to Recovery had replaced rescue as the
expect and how to prepare. He knew it mission. They looked instead for
would be nasty. He knew there would be evidence, combing the great mass of
the smell of death in the air. rubble brought to the Staten Island
He'd been there and done that, 32 years landfill. They worked in a cold rain,
ago in another war. sifting the pile for the airplanes' black
But the World Trade Center had to be boxes and other aircraft parts; looking
assessed on a heretofore unknown scale. A for body parts, personal effects,
mountain of rubble, 1.2 million tons of firefighter's hats, police shields, IDs,
it, thick steel beams twisted like credit cards--anything identifiable.
pretzels, thousands of dead and missing, "Two areas, football fields, surrounded
a range of destruction that dwarfed those by generator lights," Coates said. "Each
who approached it. item was logged in."
"When you're talking about something of Everywhere they went, the outpouring of
this magnitude, I don't think they have a aid from civilians amazed them. Cops had
think tank to consider all the much experience with abuse and little
logistics," he said. with pats on the back. Crowds were always
The first night, as they walked toward trouble--until September 11, when they
Ground Zero, the civilians on the became something different.
sidewalks watching them go by checkpoints "A complete 180," he said. "We train for
looked like zombies. Two blocks away, he the worst; we don't train mentally for
saw the pile of rubble where the two people being nice. The care that total
great buildings once stood. strangers gave us, it's not something
"You could see the cranes with these we're used to in law enforcement."
gigantic claws taking the rubble out," he People sent soap, food, toiletries,
said. "I have a picture of three workers toothpaste, clothes, boots, shower
walking past a claw, and this claw, you sandals, gloves, helmets, batteries, and
could probably put around a dump truck. miner's lights for the helmets. They sent
But from where we were, the claws looked so much the workers on the ground
like Tonka toys on a beach. Unless you couldn't hand it out fast enough.
were up close, and you could see the size "Everybody was standing up to help
of the claw and the size of the pile the somebody else," Coates said.
claw was working on, you didn't get the Everywhere they went, it never
perspective of how big the pile was." changed--thanks for the help, God bless
He had been working a private security you--and especially so at the Jesuit
job for United Way on September 11 and retreat where they stayed and met Father
had just checked into a motel when Ryan, who gave them not only food and
television news showed the black smoke shelter but healthy doses of wit.
billowing from the first tower. "It was like out of M*A*S*H," Coates
Coates grew up in Manhattan, on the West said. "The first time I saw him, he was
Side. He looked at the burning building, wearing a t-shirt and he had a cigar in
and the first thing he thought of was the his mouth. He'd pop up at all hours of
World War II bomber that crashed into the the night just to see if we were okay.
Empire State Building long ago. He He'd say, 'Don't forget the kitchen is
wondered how something like that could always open. No locks on the doors. If
happen with today's aviation equipment. you see something you want, take it.' He
Then the second plane came. had a salad bar and said, `Now that will
"I knew right away we'd be going," he always be full of ice and it will have
said. "They were going to need our help." juices and water and beer and carafes of
A message went out from New York State wine, and every now and then I'll come
Emergency Services to the sheriff's out with a non-denominational bottle of
office, the message Coates anticipated scotch for you.'"
after he saw the second plane explode Then it was back into the streets--a
inside the World Trade Center tower. The gray, haunted landscape filled with
sheriff turned over the operation's aching backs, skinned knuckles, and
planning to Coates. exhausted men and women on a mission.
He made calls, interviewed prospective "We were walking to a Salvation Army
team members, and in four hours had feeding point about 7:30 one night," he
assembled an eleven-man squad, many of said. "We noticed everything was dead
them part-timers who took time from their silent. Nobody was talking. The reason
regular jobs to go. was because about a hundred
His wife, Kaye, was on the phone, too. In search-and-rescue people were coming down
two hours, they had rounded up $4,500 in the street with their dogs, heading into
equipment. A clothing company sold Ground Zero. They were all volunteers.




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