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What struck me most about the article is the mention of the elevator mechanics leaving the site. On day two I was doing SAR in the pit. I was working about two levels down with a guy from Alberta, Ala. who had driven non-stop with a buddy just to help. We crawled down through the twisted steel looking for any cavities where survivors might be trapped. Needless to say we found none. There were thick black plastic bags to hold any body parts we fund but there were precious few of those, just dust.

We were working in the rubble of the south tower. We made our way into a bit of a cavern where FDNY people were working. There was no room to do anything but crouch and it was awful hot. The top of an elevator car was exposed and the FDNY was trying to crack it open. They were frustrated by the lack of the proper tools. I realized at the time that they probably thought that the car held the remains of other firefighters who had used it to access higher floors in the first few minutes.

It was so early after the collapse that none of the rubble had been removed, except by hand. Since this elevator car was only about 15 feet below the surface of the pile it probably fell from one of the higher floors. Had it been in the lobby it would have been pulverized.

I couldn't help there so I went on to another area and then back up to the top to look for my son who was also working in the pit. He had survived the attack at GZ and had come back in as a way of fighting back.

There are a thousand images of GZ that will always be with me. The faces of the men trying to crack into the elevator are high on that list.

Thanks for the ping! (already got here, but had to come back).

Anyway, here's a Rick Rescorla bump.
--Security Chief for Morgan Stanley, who perished on 9-11...getting virtually all of
Morgan Stanley's crew out of one of towers, despite the soothing messages over the intercom
for workers to stay in place.
I think the number of Morgan Stanley people who got out was in the thousands (3000-4000?)
and they only lost something like 8 people, even though their operation was high up
(something like the 65th floor?).

And of course, Rescorla was also the last man out of the WTC in the 1993 bombing, survivor/hero
in Vietnam, and University of Oklahoma graduate with a masters degree and law degree.
I think he got it all in before he had to check out...