We Were There, November 3, 2015

good afternoon to you all it's very nice to have you with us my name is Judith Pucci and I am a tribute center walking tour guide this afternoon you are here to hear two of my fellow guides tell you stories of their experiences from that day as you will hear their stories go beyond the historic events of September 11th and they explore instead the personal costs of that day so let me introduce you to Frank Ventura who is obviously sitting next to me and Leo Carrillo gurgaon ski leh Acharya immigrated from Poland to the United States in 1989 she is the American story she is an engineer her office was on the 82nd floor of the North Tower that was the first building to be attacked that morning Frank is a detective sergeant he was with the New York City Police Department now for almost 25 years on September 11th he was with the Brooklyn North narcotics division regard to begin with Leo Katya story so I am going to briefly set the scene for you it is the morning of September 11th 2001 the time is now 8:40 6:00 a.m. that is when the first plane hijacked flight 11 is crashed into the North Tower about 1,300 people a little over 1300 people are on the floors above impact all of them died access to every elevator in stairway was destroyed by the plane Leo Korea's office was about 14 floors below impact so while she was very much in danger she at least had the chance of surviving it's on yours hello everyone on September 11 2001 I was given a second chance in my life that they started for me like most other workdays I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning in my Brooklyn apartment had a little breakfast with my husband he prepared fresh coffee and we made plans for dinner later that day my husband drove me to work every day he left the apartment before me to get our car from the parking garage and I was getting ready to leave my apartment and one detail I recall was the moment when I opened my closet and picked a very high heel shoes and I put one on my foot and then my eyes caught another pair of shoes which was flat very comfortable ones and some voice at that very moment was telling me in my heart changed to the comfortable ones no I never had something like this before just on that day and I did change my shoes in the last second before I left my apartment and this little detail made a big difference for me on that day so my husband stopped in front of the North Tower the building that I walked in and the one that was hit by the first plane he keeps me goodbye in the car and in order for me to get to that to my floor to 82nd floor I had to take two elevators that's how elevator system worked there firstly Express to 78th floor and then I changed the local one to 82nd I came to my office it was 7:30 a.m. more than an hour before the attack it was beautiful sunny day I was so lucky to have my desk at the window on the east side of the tower and first couple of minutes I spent just looking you know at the view because I had excellent view on that day sometimes I was joking that from that level I could see my home country Poland and then I started to work I was finalizing one of my projects and quarter to nine a minute before the impact in my office there was absolute silence and all of a sudden the silence was broken by tremendous blast I always have problem to describe this and it was like concrete storm with a huge amount of air that was pushed inward our tower immediately swayed one direction then to the opposite direction and then finally came to its original position I thought at that very moment that this is the that was the earthquake but at the same moment one of my co-workers yelled to us get out right now dead out I immediately run toward the door when I got to the door the exit door from my office on my floor the entire hall on my floor was already felt with the black dark smoke it was like a wall of smoke at the door so I stepped back and I thought this is the end that was the end of my life you know I was so scared I hope you never get such a critical moment of life I was so scared that I have to die and the only thing I did at that very moment I started to pray and I asked God for peace in my heart I said if you if if this is your will for me to die now please let me die in peace and you know what everyone st. now a to just fraction of seconds because this were only my thoughts so at the same moment I recall an email which I received from my sister from Poland and night before the attack it was on September 10th and this is unbelievable story about this email because my sister wrote about another accident that I survived in my tower a month before the attack I survived another accident in the express elevator it happened on August 15th I was living for lunch and when I entered the express elevator on 78th floor and the door closed the elevator fell there was a man with me among other people who at the same second press the stop button but the elevator at that second had fallen 30 kite floors so you know on that day on August 15 that was the first time I thought that was the end of my life thank God we were not injured but I was in horrible stress they took us down after a while I went home and I didn't come to my office for the entire week because I was so scared of elevators on the following day I called my mother in Poland and told her what happened to me and you know what my mother said the first thing she said you shouldn't work in this building anymore see sometimes you had to listen to your mom right and I said mom don't worry just thank God that I am fine what my mother did on the following day she went to the church in Poland and she requested the Thanksgiving mass the priest opened the calendar on September 17th and he said the only day I can provide this mass service for you is I'm sorry that was August 17th he opened the calendar and he said the only day I can provide this mass service for you is September 11 2001 so my mother said that was fine on September 10th my sister sent me this email and she wrote tomorrow the whole family in Poland is going to the church to thank God for your survival now when I was on this 82nd floor and I pray to God for peace in my heart at the moment when I will have to die and I recall this email I knew that was not a coincidence and I had got so much faith in my heart and just run through the smoke toward Estelle Wells and I ran down it took me over an hour to get out of the tower the lower floors I was the more crowded it was I remember when I was on 44th floor the second tower was hit at that moment because our Tower shaked again but not as much as with the first impact when I was somewhere on 20th floor the first firefighters were coming up and I thought we are saved because nobody would send people up and I was wrong finally I got out of the tower and then you know I saw two towers on fire no one from us was in the tower had any idea what was going on outside the security people were not allowed to tell us because they were afraid of panic so when I got out and I was standing just in front of the towers many people many tourists like you guys were standing in front of the towers with cameras taking pictures and I thought and safe again some in my heart was telling me at that moment run away run away from this place and I immediately ran toward Brooklyn Bridge it took me about five minutes to get close to the bridge when I turn and that was the moment when the first Tower collapsed actually the second tower collapse first you know I couldn't believe the tower can collapse like this people on the bridge told me that this is the attack on America I wanted to contact my family and I didn't have my cell phone yet but the telephones were not working anyway on this area no public transportation system everything was shut off so I had to walk home in my case it was nine miles all about 15 kilometers so I started to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge when I was on the other side my Tower collapsed and you know I thought that this was the end of the world I was so depressed covered with a lot of dust everybody like me was walking home and I was trying on my way home every single public telephone if it's working it took me four hours to get finally to one of the intersections on my way home when I found the first working telephone and I recall that moment when I heard dial tone my hand shaped and I hardly dialed my husband's work place his boss pick up the phone when he heard my voice yet oh my god you're alive mark she's alive your wife is alive so my husband immediately pick up the phone and you know my husband's a tough man he never cries never and that was the first time I've heard him crying on the phone he asked me where I am because he wanted to pick me up but there was such a bad traffic that I walked faster home than he drei finally in the end afternoon of that day three of us were together at home and I recall that moment how much we hugged each other on that day how much we realize how important each of our life is and how important our love is sometimes you hurt each other with some stupid things which are not worth it at all that day was a lesson was a lesson for me was a lesson for my whole family in the evening three of us played together and when I went to my bed at night time my husband came to one side of me and might have a son to the other side and they both held my hands like this and that's how they fell asleep on that night I couldn't sleep the whole night next night following tonight and I thought I will never sleep again 24/7 no sleep at all and then I started to pray again and I said to God if you saved me on that day you must say to me now because I cannot live like this anymore you know I bet if there are not coincidences in our life and the reason I'm doing this and I'm here today in front of you is because I got so much on that day and I have to give it back somehow and I know that every one you also may have some critical moments of life but if you have faith you can't get over it thank you god bless you well Katya was one of about 20,000 people to safely evacuate the trade center that morning while those people were moving away and running away from the trade center the extraordinary commitment of the rescue and recovery workers continued he continued long after September 11th not only here at the Trade Center with the cleanup but also at the Staten Island landfill where about one third of the debris that used to be the World Trade Center about one third of that debris was taken and that is where Frank along with many others searched for months through that debris for remains thank you thank you for having me what it wasn't it was a crime scene the largest crime scene in this nation's history this is the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island what they did was they brought the evidence I'm referring it to you as evidence because that's what it was to this location to be exact 1.8 million pounds of evidence to be searched through for evidence that would not solve the crime because that wasn't something we were doing it was to identify the victims of this horrific day just to give you an idea of what the conditions were at the landfill in Staten Island and terminology landfill could mean a lot of things but it was essentially in New York City a landfill is a garbage dump your household garbage would go to this location and would be put on piles and that's how the New York City used to do it in the 70s it had changed and the the landfill the whole 49 acres was abandoned and they would truck the garbage out to different locations so this was a spot they chose because it was like I said 49 acres and it was enough room to bring the evidence and search it for any human remains or personal belongings because that's what essentially we were looking for there the ground was always wet there was methane bubbles coming out of the ground we would wear these Tyvek suits everybody do it their white suits with like respirators so you didn't know there was maybe a hundred of us on the field with rakes going through very dim lighting looking through the debris trying to identify different objects and human remains when uh as we would go through it these suits were very close to phobic it was very difficult conditions to to operate under we had a tent that I call a mash tent which was where we ate so at one point as we were going on there were people who weren't first responders they wanted to donate their time they could do they want to do anything so we would go into this tent which got larger and larger and they would be speaking to us entertain painting us playing the guitar singing handing out Bibles just to keep sanity in these conditions so just to give you an idea about this of the landfill and as time went on we had gone through the debris what had come up time and time again and a lot of the debris was unrecognizable so you couldn't tell if it was what it was sometimes we had to call in an expert to determine but these um what did come through was people's ID cards with their faces on it and the faces were clear as day vibrant faces like lost souls and for some reason we had boxes and boxes of these it could have been something that you know they wanted to be ID'd wanted to let their family know that you know some sort of closure and that was most of the the work that was done it was done on conveyer belts it was done with rakes and it was a lot of it was hand hand done so it was a chore it lasted months as we left there it actually it went to about six months of the landfill it ended from maybe November to July of gathering this evidence and leaving there and encountering people in the street or anywhere we went we got a very warm feeling a lot of thank-yous the thank-yous helped a lot and it was a real good feeling to get that knowing that you know you brought closure to a lot of people and like I said a normal crime scene when I work crime scenes would be much smaller and we would try to find solve the crime but this is the mission here was to to bring people closure families so it was basically a DNA job that's anyway I could put it so it's time went on after that I had got transferred and I was in the Major Case Squad which under Major Case Squad was the missing persons squad and the missing persons squad to this day is in charge of identifying remains and and people who were lost so nobody ever stopped this investigation it's open it's still active and we're working it as hard as we can just want to let everybody know never forget thank you he remains of 41 percent of everyone who died here that morning at the Trade Center that's a little over 1100 people their names are on the memorial but their physical remains are in a condition that simply exceeds the reach currently of DNA technology as Frank said that technology is improving so the identifications even 14 years later continue the most recent was this past March or young man 26 years old from New Jersey we do this not just for the therapeutic value of telling our stories but we do it also because it was a day that touched all of us it changed the way we all live and for us to have a shared connection is meaningful so we always leave time at the end for questions if you have anything that you've always wondered about this is your moment don't be shy don't be hesitant to ask I know this is an overwhelming experience so I won't give you all a moment or two to just collect your thoughts okay that's it so who's first who's gonna be bold and brave here please a tribute to or article counting that as evidence and that is and that's an excellent question did you all hear what it was okay the question was we speak about the remains but there were other identifying objects IDs purses wallets that sort of thing how many people who died here even if families have not received the physical remains did they receive something that the person they loved had with them that day and also are we including these non-human remains as part of those who have been identified correct I've got it go Frank quick you enter photographs ID cards is a great determination that your loved one was there but I found working with the families and it just wasn't enough DNA is solid and just so you know to get a DNA hit you need two two sides so we would collect toothbrushes hairbrushes something from the families that the person who is missing you know because we didn't determine that anybody was you know at that point you know bad news you know that's what we would say so you would have to get that DNA hit - they would proceed with any you know ceremony that they would because that's that's 100% there's no in-between yes the 41% who remain unidentified what remains unidentified are and their physical remains so even if some object that was with them were found would not declassify them from being unidentified do you happen to know if the cards ID cards things like that or there was a return to family yes they were they were families were given the opportunity to review look through them and to identify because at the point we you know we didn't know oh you know what who you know so that was state dia they would have to make the ID in this you know match the name anyone else yes yes this process of attempting to discover very challenging [Music] let me see if I can rephrase the question so that everyone knows what it was and correct me because I'm not sure that I've quite got a handle on it you're asking now since it's now 14 years later and with everything that we have learned since does that influence and what was it about the event itself and they know that that's not that's opportunity to discuss on the social practice intersecting just be part of an unnecessary actually please [Music] and I think if I'm getting the gist of what you're saying you're asking more about what would be a spiritual aspect of understanding in the years since how do people process what had happened to them I think what you're getting to is something that is not been done in any official capacity but individuals who especially if they were here in the experience that day Leo Katya story is a very good example of how does each individual person process that day according to their own beliefs and mindsets well Katya is a great example because she very much believes in the the intervention of God and the protection of God I am somebody who feels that people lived and died that day based on luck so it's very much a personal perspective that we bring to it so I think we're all going to filter through our understanding and even exploration of the events of that day from those individual perspectives you know what afterwards will be outside there so you might be able to just you know that's it people come here with an open heart and that really is is one of the reasons why we do this because there is such a sense of decency and goodwill before yes please yes it had a second chance in life her second chance yeah this is the question that often people ask me in general I think I look very different in the value of my life so I have different priorities and something that was important for me before 9/11 it's not important at all now my family is very important and what I can add God gives me also some gifts after 9/11 I was able to to be present on my son's wedding I have one son only and I have three grandkids now after 9/11 see those are the things that give me different view in in my life so it's yeah the most important is the priority which definitely change in my life I'm going to yell play one more how do you keep sane in that attitude of doing that kind of work and that's a very good question how Frank dealt with the most basic fundamental aspects of death he was collecting remains and the question is how do you do that for as many months as he did and just remain sane how did you Frank well yes that's a great question you have to understand it's an occupation it's a job it's a calling and we take it very seriously and we're trained to that's why I found it hard to call the evidence debris because it wasn't and sometimes it comes out and I correct myself it's evidence it's it was human remains it was belongings it was twisted metal dirt mud but it was it's hard and we worked together for a long time my colleagues and myself and we can get goofy at times so we would stop and joke around a little bit you know we throwing footballs around like I said we had a tent and that took our mind off and the tents start getting bigger and bigger I'm a sergeant I have detectives that work for me I would look around I said Oh Michaels in the tent for two hours get him out of there you know cuz I got an account for him get back and start digging cuz we gotta go you know we got to go home in 12 hours if we don't get through this pile what are we gonna do you know it's very professional and that's how you know and then you could stop and dwell and think of the you know we please work you you make notifications on terrible things and you got to prepare yourself and be professional about it you know but it does affect us we do feel it sometimes you know harder than others but you know we're human so like I say thank you both for doing this it's not the easiest thing to do I know I would like to thank all of you before we leave as well and not just a polite thank you for having Tom Waddell that is certainly well deserved I would like to thank you because you really are essential to this process of storytelling because it is with you that we take a piece of a brutal day and by doing what we have just done by sharing it we turn it into something of a life-affirming experience and for that we thank you [Applause]

Channel: 9/11 Tribute Museum

Views: 38,927

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Id: BYC7h0_JS_A

Length: 36min 21sec (2181 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 24 2019