My buddy, Hal Wilson, and I went into the pile at 1100 on September 12th
with our search dogs, Cody and Sue. You couldn't believe the teamwork and
the silence with hundreds of firefighters stumbling through the mess.
On the way in through rubble, we walked past deserted restaurants with white
and checkered table cloths, saw fully stacked bars, wine on tables and menus
posted in hallways.......then the full realization of the disaster hit us.
We linked up with four state police K-9 teams which were the dirtiest,
filthiest dog teams we had ever seen, covered with gray dust, mud and torn
up clothes. They were pulling out as we were deployed on to the site by a
fire officer. The troopers and their dogs being relieved were absolutely
expressionless with that thousand meter stare.
As Hal and I were escorted to the pile and up on to tons of debris, wrecked
police and fire vehicles, hose lines, steel girders, pieces of aluminum,
drywall, broken glass and steel rods that reminded me of punji stakes in
Vietnam, we stumbled a dozen times. Then a lieutenant brought us to a burned
out rig that had been a hose truck from a rescue unit. It was gray and the
cab was cleaned out...no seats, steering wheel, dashboard, nothing...
The lieutenant asked Cody and me to climb down into a pit ten feet deep and
search for any signs of life. I called into the back of the hose truck
several times but there was no response. Then Cody, my golden retriever,
began scratching the earth and whimpering. I told the firefighters above
me, "We have a body down here!"
My dog and I were lifted out of the pit by about a dozen firefighters and
the digging began with pikes and shovels. Minutes later the call came
out...."Body bag!" An orange body bag was sent into the pit and out came a
firefighter's remains. Six firemen with a basket lifted the remains to the
top of the pile and then they started stumbling towards the restaurant area
and the morgue truck parked outside.
A battalion chief asked me, "How good is your dog?" I didn't have to answer
for Cody was scratching into a hole on the hose line. Within thirty seconds
he came up with blood on his paws. "Body bag!" was heard again.....and a new
team of firefighters with a basket and and orange roll of plastic asked my
dog and me to step aside.
We turned away and were directed to another team of fire fighters standing
around a steel girder and an enormous slab of concrete which had been a wall
just the day before. We were directed into the hole under the steel girder
and the slab where a fire fighter had punched a hole into a pile of debris.
I sniffed into the hole and smelled gas. Then Cody began scratching to my
left and I made eye contact with another fire officer directly behind me. I
nodded my head and the officer called out for another body bag. But this
time I was trapped! I couldn't get out from under the slab. It was like
being caught under a stairway in a dark basement. I didn't panic but I
couldn't go forward and I couldn't back out with my boots caught in some
other concrete chunks.
Then Cody turned me around pulling me to the left. He was gasping for air
and desperate to escape from the hole. I held on to his lead and crawled
out. Then the firefighters above me pulled me out and lifted Cody to the
surface.
Three bodies recovered in thirty minutes was more than I expected from that
dog. But we were exhausted so we climbed up on to the top of the "pile" and
waited for another mission. We sat there under steel girders that looked
like a giant's fingers about to claw at us.
A building nearby began to crumble and the order came to pull out. My helmet
was burried in my back pack under three days of rations for Cody. I was too
tired to search for it so I just stumbled away looking for my buddy Hal and
his dog, Sue. They were searching at another rig burried under the rubble.
When I got back to the ruins where the restaurants were, two nurses gave me
some water and another gave me a glass of orange juice. My buddy, Hal, and
his dog, Sue, were right behind me. Hal found a metal tray in a trash pile.
The dogs needed an awful lot of water. Then out of nowhere a line of
firefighters with dirty grim faces passed by, each of them pouring out their
own water into the metal tray. Another firefighter gave us two sandwiches
and some more water. The dogs consumed every drop of water....three or four
quarts and then the buildings began to crumble again. We were ordered out of
the pile. It was now 1430....
____________________________________________
Diary of a Search and Rescue K9 Team: Part 2
We're hurting but what do you want for old guys.....our camouflage BDU smell
of burnt flesh, dust, mud, etc....it took two showers to clean up....still
coughing....dust in the lungs is very bad....and we had masks issued by NYPD
EMS...
SCPA checked out the dogs when we were pulled off the pile at 2:30 PM on 12
Sept .................................We were given a bottle of water...Dogs
got physicals, shots, eyes washes....great treatment...we were ordered to
rest for an hour before heading out to Penn Station ....followed orders...
On the way home via 6th Avenue, Cody was dragging and we stopped at 23rd
street...watered him and Sue with two quarts each...
A Franciscan priest blessed both dogs just after we were released from
duty....so we know they are OK!
When we reached Penn Station they took a break on the marble floor in the
waiting room...more water...we got beer...two cool ones each...courtesy of
SSPRESS...
Train ride home was great...Cody slept under my chair against the a/c......
By the way we were not charged any fares... we were given food, water,
fruit, anything we wanted or needed...and dozens of passersby said, "Thank
you!"
God Bless America!
Paul B. Morgan
Author, K-9 Soldiers, Vietnam and After and The Parrot's Beak
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