Posted on 09/26/2001 12:35:37 AM PDT by fella
Mood changes at ground zero
09/25/2001
By Alan Hempstead as told to Donna Fielder / Staff Writer
EDITOR'S NOTE: Denton firefighters Alan Hempstead, Jeff Dixon and Capt. Brad Fuller are members of the elite Texas Task Force 1, part of the Urban Search and Rescue Response Team helping at the World Trade Center. This is the last installment of a personal diary of one firefighter's experience at ground zero; the men have finished their tour and are heading home.
New York City , Sept. 24, 9 p.m.: They worked us hard today. It was 8 o'clock before we got off the pile.
We were digging out a female and needed to finish before we left. We found a lot of bodies today. I don't mean just our team. I mean the whole operation. It's getting really bad. The smell is so bad. You just can't imagine.
The mood has changed. When we first got here, we couldn't wait to get out on the pile and get started. Now, it's OK, we have to get out there and get this done.
But there are two new strike forces here tonight, one from Colorado and one from Nebraska. And they can't wait to get started.
Tonight, we were getting on the bus and counting off, and somebody's radio was on so we could hear them talking out on the pile. They were dropping them down into a pit. We heard somebody say, "I need a body bag. Bring a whole bunch of body bags." At first we weren't finding that many. Now, we're finding them. And it's so bad.
Last night the night crew found a large part of an airplane with several bodies.
We were in this void today, and we realized we were in the U.S. Customs vault. It was full of about a billion dollars worth of seized narcotics. The FBI jumped on that fast.
Today was my last day on the pile. Our guys on the night shift are working tonight, then we'll leave New York City for Fort Dix Tuesday about 1900. We should be flying into Bergstrom in Austin on Wednesday. They say we?re going to have a sit-down dinner with the governor.
After that, we'll take a bus back to College Station and get the equipment cache back in shape. Then, we?ll come home. We'll be ready.
I was thinking on the bus coming back tonight , every generation has its moments when something happens that changes everything. My dad had Vietnam, and the JFK assassination. I was just four days old when JFK was shot. I was sitting at Station 3 having breakfast when the first plane hit the tower. About an hour later, I got a page putting me on alert for the task force.
They talk about the War on Drugs, and the War on Crime , the war on this and that. This is a real war, and it's on our home turf. Back through history, freedom has always had a cost. That price is paid in human lives. I've been seeing the results.
When you're out on the pile, the things you see are so terrible your mind doesn't allow you to take it all in at one time because your mind can't handle it. Each time you go out there, your mind accepts a little bit and it will eventually make a picture you'll carry with you all your life.
It's changed my mind about some things. When I come home, I'll be making some financial decisions that will allow me to spend more time with my family.
I'll never really be quite the same. Nobody can go to that site and walk on it and not be changed.
Nobody.
That was my feeling, too, about a half- hour ago. But then I read a piece about the authorities believing that Bin Laden has production facitities in Afghanistan for making WMD's. If this is true, then it's necessary for them to identify the facilities to make sure they are targeted and destroyed. It will do little good to get Bin Laden if we leave those facilities intact.
So maybe the media has been asked to avoid inciting a war fever to give the government time to identify those facilities.
That may or may not be true, but it would certainly explain the laid-back reporting.
Sad, but true. But, we won't forget, we can't forget and these basta*** will pay for what they have done.
There were all kinds of body parts, heads, legs, arms, hands, feet, torsos, and parts or torsos, not for the normal viewer, and blood and guts, things I will never forget and I'm sure none of us wanted out children to see. IMHO
"Freedom has always had a cost." Yes, it does. In fact, it's never "owned", but can only be "leased", and the currency is, as it always has been, blood.
Nobody.
This should be required reading by every US Citizen
I have a very good friend who is on one of the Search and Rescue teams. He just returned home in the last few days. He has said that he cannot explain what he saw in words. Maybe someday I will be able to report what his experiences were.
The media may be limiting what it shows, but isn't the government limiting access down there too?
And why is this happening? It may be too graphic to show; I can understand that. I don't have to see body parts to understand what a horrific act has been committed here.
Is the media trying to subvert our will? That I don't agree with, at least it is not a coordinated effort. I don't see them pushing the "Give Peace A Chance" line.
Is the government trying to limit our immediate visceral response to the images, to prevent our calling for immediate action, and limit the amount of anti-Arab crime in the US? Possibly, and if so, I think its a good idea. I trust our leaders to respond appropriately at the right time.
And let's not forget that even seeing more pictures cannot do justice to what is really at the WTC site. I think the American people are pissed off enough; we know enough about what happened, via pictures, via stories of visitors, via stories of people like these guys, to support the government's response.
Denton is the Regional Center for a big FEMA orrganization and my guess is these guys are attached through that to the Task Force they are on..
Yes we are all adults, but there is a common decency. There are people who would love to post pics of the bodies and planes all over the internet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.