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