Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Hour 2: 25 years after 9/11

Transcript

Hour 2: 25 years after 9/11 · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

0:00
Speaker 1: And on that day, a lot of the media that
0:03
Speaker 1: responded to the first plane hitting a World Trade Center
0:07
Speaker 1: tower got to see the second plane in real time
0:12
Speaker 1: and report on it live. And one of those people
0:16
Speaker 1: is the legendary former WOR news director, Joe Bartlett. And
0:22
Speaker 1: in the old WOR studios, you could see the towers
0:26
Speaker 1: from the windows and Joe looked out his window and
0:30
Speaker 1: reported live.
0:32
Speaker 2: Oh my God, Ed, another plane just hit the World
0:34
Speaker 2: Trade Center.
0:35
Speaker 3: Another plane.
0:37
Speaker 2: It was a medium-sized plane.
0:38
Speaker 4: Unbelievable.
0:40
Speaker 2: It looked like, oh my God, this is a deliberate act, Ed.
0:45
Speaker 2: This plane flew directly into the second World Trade Center.
0:50
Speaker 2: A huge flame and conflagration just broke out.
0:54
Speaker 1: And we have Joe Bartlett on the phone live, former
0:58
Speaker 1: WOR news director. Joe, that was an incredible job that day.
1:03
Speaker 1: And just that what we played for you was an
1:07
Speaker 1: incredible combination of journalistic skills and human emotion, exactly what
1:12
Speaker 1: that moment called for. Can you tell us, walk us
1:16
Speaker 1: through that moment?
1:18
Speaker 3: You know, it was good morning, Larry and Curtis. It
1:22
Speaker 3: was just an ordinary day. And then we got the
1:25
Speaker 3: call that there was a plane had hit the first
1:27
Speaker 3: tower and we're trying to figure out what happened. And
1:31
Speaker 3: as you said, I could look directly south to the
1:33
Speaker 3: World Trade Center. And I'm watching that as I see
1:35
Speaker 3: this other plane come down the Hudson. Really, it was
1:39
Speaker 3: surreal because it was at a low level and I'm
1:42
Speaker 3: trying to figure out what's going on with the tower.
1:44
Speaker 3: And I see this small, not small, but a large plane.
1:48
Speaker 3: going directly toward the scene. And I'm thinking to myself
1:51
Speaker 3: in the back of my mind.
1:52
Speaker 5: Why is he there?
1:53
Speaker 3: And then bang, it hit the building. And right away,
1:58
Speaker 3: you knew something awful had occurred. In fact, I remember
2:02
Speaker 3: as I was describing this, I said something sinister has
2:05
Speaker 3: just happened. And I think what struck me about all
2:10
Speaker 3: of this is the enormity of what was happening. But
2:16
Speaker 3: beyond that, Just the rapid succession of unbelievable events. Just
2:23
Speaker 3: think about it. 846, the first plane hits the North Tower. 903,
2:29
Speaker 3: the second plane hits the South Tower. Then a plane
2:33
Speaker 3: hits the Pentagon. And it's unbelievable. All these things are
2:38
Speaker 3: happening every 10 minutes or so. Then the tower collapsed.
2:44
Speaker 3: The South Tower collapsed. Unbelievable. And I'm thinking to myself,
2:48
Speaker 3: how many people were in that tower? How many people
2:50
Speaker 3: have just died? And it was hard to get a
2:54
Speaker 3: grasp on what was happening. And obviously, you're just shocked.
2:59
Speaker 3: You're sad. You're scared. And all those emotions are going
3:04
Speaker 3: through your mind. And I just keep talking about what's happening,
3:10
Speaker 3: describe the events, and We'll figure out the rest later.
3:13
Speaker 3: That's my thought.
3:15
Speaker 6: And Joe, later on, when the towers have completely gone down,
3:19
Speaker 6: there's no TV coverage. Everyone is dependent on radio. People
3:24
Speaker 6: down in the lower Manhattan area had no cell phone contact.
3:29
Speaker 6: So as the go-to news guy, how did you handle
3:34
Speaker 6: trying to sort of sort through the rumors, the innuendos?
3:39
Speaker 6: There was no internet at the time. How did you
3:41
Speaker 6: handle that to make sure you were putting out the
3:44
Speaker 6: right information as opposed to maybe even stoking more fear
3:50
Speaker 6: and more concerns that people had who were in shock?
3:54
Speaker 3: Well, we relied mainly on callers who would call us
3:59
Speaker 3: and tell us firsthand what they have seen. I remember
4:02
Speaker 3: we had one of our reporters down there, Mara Rubin.
4:05
Speaker 3: And we were extremely concerned when the towers fell because
4:08
Speaker 3: we thought she was right. She had been reporting from
4:11
Speaker 3: the scene. So we thought that she was right there. Fortunately,
4:14
Speaker 3: she was with Mayor Giuliani and was safe. But I
4:19
Speaker 3: don't know, Curtis, you just keep going. You just keep
4:23
Speaker 3: going and you try to be as accurate as possible.
4:27
Speaker 3: There were probably some moments where we were maybe a
4:31
Speaker 3: little inaccurate, but... You just do the best you can.
4:36
Speaker 3: And you're thrown into this situation. And as your natural
4:41
Speaker 3: instincts as a reporter come out, just describe the scene
4:45
Speaker 3: and insert a little bit of your personal opinion from
4:47
Speaker 3: time to time and figure it out later. But it
4:52
Speaker 3: was hour after hour after hour. The uncertainty, you didn't
4:57
Speaker 3: know what was going on. That's another factor that's in
5:00
Speaker 3: your head. But again, you just plod forward with your job.
5:05
Speaker 1: You talked about Mara. I want to play something you
5:07
Speaker 1: said about Mara on that day.
5:09
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh, this is terrible.
5:14
Speaker 2: And as we heard earlier from Mara Rubin, I certainly
5:17
Speaker 2: hope she's all right.
5:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were concerned about her. I know a lot
5:21
Speaker 1: of news organizations that were concerned about their people at
5:24
Speaker 1: the scene.
5:26
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely. I mean, we didn't think that the tower
5:30
Speaker 3: was going to collapse. Okay, it got hit by a plane.
5:32
Speaker 3: That's terrible. But to collapse, and you're watching it. I
5:38
Speaker 3: remember watching the scene, and I'm looking, and then all
5:40
Speaker 3: of a sudden, like the tower disappeared. It's like you
5:45
Speaker 3: can't even think of that. You could never really think
5:50
Speaker 3: of that kind of scenario because I thought those buildings
5:53
Speaker 3: were pretty sturdy.
5:54
Speaker 6: Well, I think it's very important that people realize the
5:58
Speaker 6: importance that radio played because no other forms of communication
6:04
Speaker 6: and explanation were taking place. Now, in radio, we have
6:08
Speaker 6: an emergency broadcast system. So if there is a national emergency,
6:12
Speaker 6: the president could be heard from wherever he happened to
6:15
Speaker 6: be at that moment. We didn't know where the president was.
6:18
Speaker 6: We didn't know where the vice president was. It wasn't
6:20
Speaker 6: until later on the day we heard from the mayor, Rudy,
6:23
Speaker 6: to give us updates that So people had to. Many
6:27
Speaker 6: people hadn't listened to radio in years. Now we're forced
6:31
Speaker 6: to rediscover radio because it was their only way to
6:34
Speaker 6: know what was going on.
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Speaker 3: The other thing about that moment, Curtis, is we really
6:40
Speaker 3: didn't know what was going on. We were under attack.
6:43
Speaker 3: And for Americans, it's crazy. It's never a thought. We
6:49
Speaker 3: thought we were very well protected. We have two oceans
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Speaker 3: protecting us. We have the massive military of the United
6:55
Speaker 3: States of America. So we don't get attacked. And it
7:01
Speaker 3: was hard to figure out what was happening. Although, I
7:05
Speaker 3: do remember in our discussion that we did kind of
7:08
Speaker 3: quickly surmise that it may have been Osama bin Laden
7:13
Speaker 3: because he had been behind the bombing of the U.S.S.
7:16
Speaker 3: coal in Yemen and claim responsibility for that. So we
7:22
Speaker 3: thought it could be Osama bin Laden. Keep in mind, too,
7:25
Speaker 3: we did have a previous attack on the World Trade
7:28
Speaker 3: Center in 1993.
7:29
Speaker 1: I want to play something for you because you mentioned
7:33
Speaker 1: a moment ago, I think I even said on the air,
7:35
Speaker 1: this is sinister. We have a clip of that and
7:37
Speaker 1: then I have a question afterwards.
7:39
Speaker 5: There's no doubt about this.
7:40
Speaker 2: If you have two eyes, you know what happened here.
7:43
Speaker 5: This is absolutely sinister.
7:45
Speaker 1: And you were correct, and you were correct about Osama
7:48
Speaker 1: bin Laden. You did a wonderful job. As a matter
7:51
Speaker 1: of fact, I thought journalism that day and the days
7:55
Speaker 1: after was amazing. I wish we could get back to that,
7:58
Speaker 1: but it's moments like this where we all rise to
8:01
Speaker 1: our best, and you certainly did. After that, how long
8:05
Speaker 1: were you on this story, and were you able to
8:09
Speaker 1: go home?
8:11
Speaker 3: You know, I don't even remember. I probably did go
8:14
Speaker 3: home because I didn't live that far away. But I
8:16
Speaker 3: was on the air almost through the afternoon, I think.
8:20
Speaker 3: And then, you know, right back the next day. And
8:23
Speaker 3: then I think it was like maybe two days later
8:25
Speaker 3: that I went down to Lower Manhattan, as far as
8:28
Speaker 3: they would let you go. I think it was a
8:30
Speaker 3: little bit south of Canal Street. But I think Curtis
8:33
Speaker 3: mentioned it earlier. When you went down there, you smelled death.
8:36
Speaker 3: I mean, he said it smelled like a crematorium. There
8:40
Speaker 3: was an awful, awful smell in the air. And it
8:45
Speaker 3: was pungent. You really knew it. And it was the
8:48
Speaker 3: smell of death. And it was just a horrific scene
8:51
Speaker 3: down there.
8:53
Speaker 6: And I think the other thing to you, Joe, and
8:56
Speaker 6: so many others who are down there reporting to all
8:59
Speaker 6: of us, you didn't stoke the fear, fright, and hysteria
9:03
Speaker 6: that nowadays, because there's so many forms of communication. would
9:08
Speaker 6: have existed. Conspiracies, everything would have surfaced. You guys and
9:13
Speaker 6: gals were cool, calm, and collected in the most perilous
9:19
Speaker 6: of times that we would ever experience in our lifetime.
9:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you really didn't know. This was a very
9:26
Speaker 3: historic moment. I thought the irony, too, was 9-11, 9-1-1.
9:30
Speaker 3: It was hard to know what to make of it.
9:38
Speaker 3: It was a historic, you knew this was a historic moment,
9:42
Speaker 3: but you didn't know the context. You didn't know what
9:47
Speaker 3: it was all about for a while. And it was
9:51
Speaker 3: just America was under attack.
9:53
Speaker 5: We were afraid.
9:54
Speaker 3: And the one thing that I tried to do in
9:59
Speaker 3: all of the reporting, was just to be calm and
10:02
Speaker 3: not overly frighten people and just basically describe the scene
10:07
Speaker 3: as we saw it.
10:08
Speaker 1: Well, you did that. I will say this. In my career,
10:11
Speaker 1: I've seen some awful, awful things. And it stays with you.
10:16
Speaker 1: And sometimes it haunts you when you don't even think
10:19
Speaker 1: about it. Is this still haunting you? Have you been
10:22
Speaker 1: able to forget certain moments?
10:24
Speaker 3: Well, look, I haven't been affected as severely as people
10:28
Speaker 3: who lost loved ones or people who were on the
10:30
Speaker 3: pile and eventually got cancer. But yes, there's a couple
10:35
Speaker 3: of things. On 9-11, there's an anxiousness that I go through.
10:42
Speaker 3: And when I see a clear blue sky, And I
10:46
Speaker 3: see a lot of blue skies down here in South Carolina.
10:49
Speaker 3: When you look at the clear blue sky, I think
10:50
Speaker 3: of 9-11. It was a beautiful day, spectacular morning. And
10:55
Speaker 3: the sights of those planes flying through the clear blue
10:59
Speaker 3: sky to the World Trade Center and what happened after that,
11:03
Speaker 3: it's beautiful. It's in my mind. It will always be there.
11:07
Speaker 3: And that's what I think about when I see the
11:09
Speaker 3: blue skies. And sadly, all the people that died on
11:12
Speaker 3: that day, people that just went to work, they got
11:15
Speaker 3: caught up in this horrific moment. And sadly, it cost
11:20
Speaker 3: them their lives.
11:22
Speaker 1: Joe Bartlett, former WOR news director. Thank you so much, Joe.
11:26
Speaker 1: Thanks for spending some time with us this morning.
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Speaker 3: You're welcome, Larry. You too, Curtis.
11:30
Speaker 5: Take care.
11:31
Speaker 6: I just heard from Joe Bartlett. That was a magnificent
11:35
Speaker 6: memory of his. And we heard his live audio that
11:38
Speaker 6: he had done of the attack itself and his conclusion
11:41
Speaker 6: that it was Osama bin Laden. Your management here, Natalie,
11:46
Speaker 6: did not in any way, shape or form interfere with
11:50
Speaker 6: his professional opinion because of everything that led up to it.
11:53
Speaker 6: I was on the air at WABC 846 that North
11:57
Speaker 6: Tower is hit with a flight. I come on the
12:00
Speaker 6: air and say, look, it's Osama bin Laden. He has
12:04
Speaker 6: fulfilled his promise. My management pulled me right off the air, said,
12:09
Speaker 6: you say anything like that again, you're fired. Later on
12:13
Speaker 6: in the day, they apologized once they began connecting the dots.
12:17
Speaker 5: But how could you not?
12:18
Speaker 6: The attack of the coal, the attack of our embassy
12:21
Speaker 6: in Tanzania and Kenya, John Miller's exclusive interview in Afghanistan
12:25
Speaker 6: with Osama bin Laden, he was telling us, And we
12:28
Speaker 6: knew he had been attacked on 93. So I salute
12:32
Speaker 6: WOR that allowed Joe Bartlett his experience to express his feelings.
12:37
Speaker 1: And it turned out he was correct. Yeah, Joe Bartlett
12:41
Speaker 1: is amazing. I could just sit and listen to tapes
12:45
Speaker 1: of Joe Bartlett's coverage that day just to learn from
12:50
Speaker 1: it because he was amazing. Let's get some talkbacks.
12:54
Speaker 8: Yeah, one story you really don't hear too much about
12:56
Speaker 8: is that after the second plane hit, they locked down
12:59
Speaker 8: the city.
13:00
Speaker 5: Closed the bridges, closed the tunnels.
13:03
Speaker 1: I was in a truck working for Fashion Week, so
13:06
Speaker 1: I couldn't get.
13:07
Speaker 5: Home until late, late that evening. But everyone came together.
13:10
Speaker 6: Because when they started letting cars go through, you couldn't
13:14
Speaker 6: leave unless you filled.
13:15
Speaker 1: Your car to capacity, and everybody did it gladly, helping
13:19
Speaker 1: each other out to get out of Manhattan.
13:24
Speaker 5: The effect was felt across the country.
13:26
Speaker 6: People came together where you would have normally assumed there
13:29
Speaker 6: would have been chaos because of fear, fright, and hysteria.
13:32
Speaker 9: I mean, people were welcoming strangers into their cars because
13:36
Speaker 9: you wanted to help somebody, you know, get out.
13:38
Speaker 5: Yeah.
13:39
Speaker 1: It was an amazing time, and it lasted for months.
13:42
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a togetherness in this country for months.
13:46
Speaker 1: I wish we had that again.
13:48
Speaker 10: It's a time for us to all pause and reflect,
13:50
Speaker 10: reflect on what's important in life. Peace, love, unity, not
13:55
Speaker 10: only when there's a tragedy, but every day. We need
13:59
Speaker 10: to come together. We need to accept each other's differences
14:04
Speaker 10: and not let it matter. God bless all of us.
14:07
Speaker 10: God bless the United States. And God bless our president,
14:11
Speaker 10: our leader. Maybe we'll be peaceful each and every day.
14:15
Speaker 5: Oh, that was wonderful.
14:18
Speaker 8: Hey guys, so I was in Manhattan on 9-11, a
14:21
Speaker 8: little further uptown. And once everything went down, my father-in-law
14:26
Speaker 8: and I met up to try to donate blood.
14:29
Speaker 5: We wanted to do something to help.
14:31
Speaker 8: And it turned out they were only accepting O-negative blood,
14:34
Speaker 8: which neither of us was. And yet, even still, the
14:37
Speaker 8: line was around the block to donate.
14:40
Speaker 5: God bless you.
14:41
Speaker 11: Yeah, I.
14:42
Speaker 1: That unity, that's what a lot of people want to
14:45
Speaker 1: talk about. That togetherness, that feeling that I need to
14:49
Speaker 1: do something was pervasive on that day. And it is
14:55
Speaker 1: wonderful to hear. Thanks for that.
14:57
Speaker 12: I lived in Queens at the time. I started as
14:59
Speaker 12: a normal day, took the express bus down the FDR
15:02
Speaker 12: to my job at 59 Wall. Then someone from our
15:05
Speaker 12: trading desk said a large plane had hit the tower.
15:08
Speaker 12: And then another one. We were not allowed to leave
15:11
Speaker 12: our building. As the two towers each time fell, we
15:14
Speaker 12: felt the ground rumble and it was pitch black outside.
15:17
Speaker 12: Couldn't see anything. I was not allowed to leave until
15:20
Speaker 12: 5 p.m. to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to get
15:24
Speaker 12: a bus home.
15:26
Speaker 1: You realize everyone has a story from that day. Everybody
15:31
Speaker 1: remembers what it was like when the towers fell, when
15:35
Speaker 1: the towers were hit. And the days and the moments afterwards.
15:39
Speaker 9: And it's interesting the stories you do remember. I remember
15:43
Speaker 9: a woman walking and she had lost her shoes coming
15:49
Speaker 9: down because she was running down the stairs. And to
15:52
Speaker 9: run down the stairs, she had to take her high
15:54
Speaker 9: heels off. And there she was walking on the streets
15:57
Speaker 9: without shoes so she can get escaped.
16:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's just stayed in your memory.
16:02
Speaker 4: All this time.
16:03
Speaker 7: It stayed in the memory.
16:04
Speaker 10: I don't know why.
16:05
Speaker 6: Two things for baby boomers we will never forget. The
16:09
Speaker 6: moment we heard that JFK was assassinated in Dallas, you'll
16:13
Speaker 6: never forget what you were doing and what was happening.
16:16
Speaker 1: And likewise, the attack on 9-11. Yeah, I would say
16:20
Speaker 1: those are the two. You're absolutely right. Thank you so much.
16:23
Speaker 1: Is this a new one here or is this one
16:25
Speaker 1: that I played?
16:25
Speaker 5: No, it's not.
16:26
Speaker 6: Let me just make mention that two weeks before the attack,
16:29
Speaker 6: I had been up to Bryan and Seneca, the firehouse
16:32
Speaker 6: in Hunts Point. I went for a lunch and the guys,
16:35
Speaker 6: you know, were having their lunch. They had a manual
16:38
Speaker 6: on the table with the World Trade Center sites in
16:42
Speaker 6: a gun site because the men were training how to
16:45
Speaker 6: scale these skyscrapers because the attack of 93 was And
16:50
Speaker 6: they were saying, you know, our radios don't communicate after
16:53
Speaker 6: a certain level. We've been trying to let those in
16:57
Speaker 6: charge know. And I thank my friend Eddie Brown, who
17:02
Speaker 6: eventually became the UFA treasurer, because he had invited me
17:06
Speaker 6: for that. So I saw how they were training for
17:09
Speaker 6: just such a situation. And we did not provide them
17:13
Speaker 6: with the proper radio communication.
17:15
Speaker 5: Shame on us. Let's get to Daria Albinger now with
17:18
Speaker 5: the 7.30 news, Daria.
17:20
Speaker 13: Morning, guys.
17:20
Speaker 7: I'm going to give you a cultural signpost here before
17:22
Speaker 7: I start. Do you know what the lead story was
17:24
Speaker 7: before 9-11 on 9-11?
17:28
Speaker 5: The primary that day?
17:29
Speaker 7: Michael Jordan returns to the NBA.
17:32
Speaker 5: Ah, that's right.
17:34
Speaker 7: That was my lead at 6 and 7 o'clock when
17:36
Speaker 7: I was anchoring on ABC News and Talk that morning.
17:39
Speaker 7: Changed after 7.30 and 8 o'clock, and most people don't
17:43
Speaker 7: remember what the other news was that day, but we
17:45
Speaker 7: certainly remember.
17:46
Speaker 6: Two years away, he was playing baseball with the Birmingham
17:49
Speaker 6: Barons in the minor leagues. Two years he was away.
17:52
Speaker 6: You're absolutely right. That was historic.
17:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, that was the big story that morning.
17:57
Speaker 5: He was away because he was suspended. That's why he
17:59
Speaker 5: was away. Gambling.
18:02
Speaker 7: But things changed. Sunny and less humid today, guys, with
18:04
Speaker 7: a high of 79 degrees. For some of us, it
18:06
Speaker 7: does seem like it happened yesterday when terrorist jets flew
18:09
Speaker 7: into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Today,
18:13
Speaker 7: we remember the 9-11 attacks 25 years later. The ceremonies
18:17
Speaker 7: get underway in an hour from now, and they will
18:20
Speaker 7: include a new moment of silence.
18:21
Speaker 14: Today, a seventh moment of silence will be held to
18:24
Speaker 14: honor the lives lost in later years from 9-11-related illnesses.
18:28
Speaker 14: More than 9,000 people, including 453 New York City firefighters,
18:35
Speaker 14: A toll that now exceeds the number killed on the
18:38
Speaker 14: day itself. Some dying from cancers related to toxic air
18:42
Speaker 14: at Ground Zero.
18:43
Speaker 7: That's ABC's Olivia Rubin. Security will be even tighter than usual.
18:47
Speaker 15: With four former presidents due to attend, Joe Biden, Barack Obama,
18:51
Speaker 15: Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, plus Vice President J.D. Vance,
18:56
Speaker 15: The Secret Service has been installing special security fencing.
18:59
Speaker 3: Around the 9-11 memorial.
19:01
Speaker 15: As always, the solemn ceremony is by invitation only.
19:04
Speaker 11: The ceremony is not open to the general public.
19:07
Speaker 7: And because of the security footprint around the site, New
19:10
Speaker 7: Yorkers should expect significant traffic and pedestrian restrictions throughout lower Manhattan.
19:16
Speaker 15: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch urging those who aren't attending the
19:20
Speaker 15: 25th 9-11 ceremony to stay away. Sally Kessler, WOR News.
19:26
Speaker 7: President Trump will deliver remarks from the Pentagon. The 9-11
19:30
Speaker 7: tribute in light will return at dusk tonight. The twin
19:32
Speaker 7: beams will remain illuminated until dawn tomorrow. The president ending
19:37
Speaker 7: the GOP midterm convention in Dallas last night, repeatedly pleading
19:41
Speaker 7: with attendees to pretend he's on the ticket. He also
19:45
Speaker 7: doubled down on his promise to pay every American adult
19:48
Speaker 7: $ 5, 000 if repatriated. maintain control of the House and the Senate.
19:53
Speaker 7: Yankees beat Colorado 10-3. They host the Mets tonight, and
19:56
Speaker 7: San Francisco beat the L.A. Rams 27-7 last night in Australia.
20:01
Speaker 7: Next news, 8 o'clock bulletins at once. I'm Daria Albinger
20:04
Speaker 7: on 710WOR.
20:05
Speaker 5: Thank you, Daria.
20:06
Speaker 1: When we'll come back, a very emotional interview with Matthew
20:09
Speaker 1: Bochy for a deeply personal look at the lasting impact
20:15
Speaker 1: of 9-11. Bochy was only nine years old when he
20:19
Speaker 1: lost his dad on that day. And now we're honored
20:23
Speaker 1: to be joined by Matthew John Bocci for a deeply
20:26
Speaker 1: personal look at the lasting impact of 9-11 from the families.
20:32
Speaker 1: He wrote a book from the perspective of a child
20:35
Speaker 1: of 9-11. Matthew lost his father in the World Trade Center,
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Speaker 1: of course, when he was just nine years old. Matthew,
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Speaker 1: can we take you back to that day and how
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Speaker 1: it happened, how it unfolded for you?
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Speaker 4: The morning was kind of... Eerily similar to the weather
20:51
Speaker 4: we're having right now this week. And it was so beautiful.
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Speaker 4: I remember that feeling of summer transitioning into fall. And
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Speaker 4: I was pulled out of class at about 9 o'clock
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Speaker 4: in the morning. And when I walked into the hallway,
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Speaker 4: I saw my brother Nick standing there with his teacher.
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Speaker 4: And they told us that a plane hit our dad's building,
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Speaker 4: that he was safe. And they were evacuating the tower.
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Speaker 4: There was nothing to worry about. And I sort of
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Speaker 4: began to question what was going on because I watched
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Speaker 4: my friends and my classmates getting pulled out of school
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Speaker 4: one by one. their parents coming into school, into the classrooms,
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Speaker 4: taking their kids out. And I kind of questioned why
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Speaker 4: my mom decided to keep me in school. And I
21:29
Speaker 4: sort of realized when I got home later that day,
21:32
Speaker 4: as I reflect back now, why she chose to do
21:34
Speaker 4: it that way. Because when my brother and I got
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Speaker 4: off the bus at three o'clock in the afternoon, we
21:39
Speaker 4: walked up the hill to our house. I saw about
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Speaker 4: 30 or 40 cars parked in the driveway and walked
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Speaker 4: inside the house. And that's where I saw the footage
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Speaker 4: for the first time and slowly began to understand how, um,
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Speaker 4: how severe the events really were.
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Speaker 6: This is Curtis Lee with Matthew. At that point, recognizing
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Speaker 6: what had occurred, how did you and your family continue
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Speaker 6: on from that moment on?
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Speaker 4: So we held out on a lot of hope that
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Speaker 4: my dad would make it out of the building and
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Speaker 4: that he got out of the building. That day, seeing
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Speaker 4: the footage, was the day that they only showed in
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Speaker 4: my opinion, very specific and graphic things on TV. Some
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Speaker 4: of those images would, in my opinion, change my outlook
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Speaker 4: on life and that day in general. And sort of
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Speaker 4: fundamentally changed me and how I dealt with my grief
22:37
Speaker 4: regarding my dad's death. Yet we still held out onto hope.
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Speaker 4: I would call my dad's cell phone every day, leave voicemails,
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Speaker 4: begging him to come home. I sort of fell into
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Speaker 4: this naive belief that maybe He was in the collapse
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Speaker 4: and that something hit him in the head. He didn't
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Speaker 4: remember who he was or where he was from and
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Speaker 4: that he'd eventually make his way back home. They found
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Speaker 4: him a few days later and then they came to
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Speaker 4: the house a week later to tell us that they
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Speaker 4: found him. We buried him 10 days after the event.
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Speaker 4: And I still kind of didn't want to believe it
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Speaker 4: to be true. I still didn't want to think that
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Speaker 4: it was true. And I thought that maybe one day
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Speaker 4: he still would come home.
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Speaker 1: I can't imagine being that young and getting the news
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Speaker 1: that that way with an event that big. And I'm wondering,
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Speaker 1: as you went through this journey of trying to deal
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Speaker 1: with this, what were the low points and how did
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Speaker 1: you get through it?
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Speaker 4: I think there's no rule book into how people deal
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Speaker 4: with tragedies and loss in general, right? But I think
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Speaker 4: that losing my father in such a publicized, sensationalized way
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Speaker 4: was something that I struggle with and I challenged with
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Speaker 4: a lot. The fact that I felt his death was
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Speaker 4: essentially accessible for anyone to witness and watch at any
23:49
Speaker 4: given point was a really difficult part for me to
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Speaker 4: sort of navigate and challenge. So I became pretty obsessed
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Speaker 4: from an early age in the following days, weeks, months
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Speaker 4: after he died, uh, into looking at the footage and
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Speaker 4: that took over my life. And, um, I got to
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Speaker 4: this point when I was about 14 years old, where
24:10
Speaker 4: I was questioning every family member. that spoke to him,
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Speaker 4: mainly my mom and my dad's brother, and wondering what
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Speaker 4: they thought happened to him. And unfortunately for me, I
24:19
Speaker 4: had an uncle through marriage who stepped into my life
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Speaker 4: and took advantage of that vulnerability and used it to
24:28
Speaker 4: take advantage of me. And that would lead me down
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Speaker 4: a road of drug and alcohol abuse for years and
24:33
Speaker 4: took me a long time to pull myself out of that.
24:35
Speaker 4: And today I'm now over 11 years sober, but But
24:39
Speaker 4: it was a long journey and a long battle to
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Speaker 4: get here. And in all honesty, I don't think I've
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Speaker 4: come to that. I didn't start coming to the peace
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Speaker 4: regarding my father's death and all the events surrounding it
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Speaker 4: until only recently. It's taken a long time to get
24:51
Speaker 4: to this point.
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Speaker 6: Now, Matthew, throughout that ordeal for yourself and your family
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Speaker 6: and extended family, your peer group who didn't have that
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Speaker 6: kind of personal loss, how did they relate to the
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Speaker 6: attack on 9-11 and how does your generation react to
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Speaker 6: it 25 years later?
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Speaker 4: My generation, we grew up in this, we remember what
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Speaker 4: it was like before. And we grew up throughout it.
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Speaker 4: And obviously after it, I will say sadly that the,
25:21
Speaker 4: the check-ins and the phone calls every year have gotten
25:25
Speaker 4: less and less as the years have gone by. I
25:27
Speaker 4: feel like people reach out with more monumental years. Um,
25:31
Speaker 4: but a lot of my friends and I don't blame them.
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Speaker 4: They didn't understand how to approach it in general. I mean, it's,
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Speaker 4: It was not even anything that was taught in school
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Speaker 4: when we were in high school. And when we got
25:41
Speaker 4: to college, it still wasn't taught in school. So how
25:44
Speaker 4: do you sort of relate to someone who went through
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Speaker 4: a national worldwide tragedy, essentially, and an event that changed
25:51
Speaker 4: all of our lives? How do you relate to someone
25:54
Speaker 4: when you haven't gone through anything remotely similar? It's just
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Speaker 4: there's no way to sort of level with them, you know?
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Speaker 4: So I think they kind of struggle with that themselves
26:03
Speaker 4: because they didn't know what to say at times.
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Speaker 5: Did writing the book help?
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Speaker 4: Writing the book was extremely cathartic for me because it
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Speaker 4: was the first time I put pen to paper and
26:12
Speaker 4: no longer had to carry the secrets anymore. And I
26:16
Speaker 4: was free of it. It was therapeutic and extremely powerful
26:19
Speaker 4: for me to finally let it out. Doing so, I
26:21
Speaker 4: kind of found that a lot of other 9-11 children,
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Speaker 4: now adults, went through the same experiences that I went through.
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Speaker 4: I thought I was very, very unique in the obsession
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Speaker 4: of looking at the footage and the struggles that I
26:32
Speaker 4: went through after, mental health challenges. And over the years,
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Speaker 4: I found... numerous 9-11 children who have reached out to
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Speaker 4: me and basically expressed that they went through the same
26:41
Speaker 4: exact thing. They struggle with the same exact experiences, the
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Speaker 4: feelings of being different, the feelings of being judged and
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Speaker 4: pitied and looked at. And I sort of allowed myself
26:49
Speaker 4: to be a voice for those kids who didn't have
26:51
Speaker 4: the power to speak up about their struggles.
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Speaker 5: Well, Matthew, you just are an amazing person.
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Speaker 1: We really appreciate so much you spending some time with
26:59
Speaker 1: us and telling your story. The book is called Sway.
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Speaker 1: And I'm certain that people can get that anywhere on
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Speaker 1: Amazon or bookstores?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, bookstores, etc.
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Speaker 5: Perfect. Thank you very much. Matthew John Bocci.
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Speaker 6: Up next, we're going downtown to Natalie Magliore, who is
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Speaker 6: live from the World Trade Center site, before the commemoration
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Speaker 6: begins in the next hour. 25 years later, WOR remembers
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Speaker 6: September 11th, 2001.
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Speaker 3: Here's Curtis and Larry.
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Speaker 6: We're less than an hour away from when the first
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Speaker 6: flight hit the North Tower in the attack of 9-11.
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Speaker 6: Natalie Migliore has been down at the site. Natalie will
27:49
Speaker 6: continue to be there throughout this morning. But what is
27:52
Speaker 6: happening at this.
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Speaker 5: Moment, Natalie?
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Speaker 16: Yeah. Good morning, uh, Curtis and Larry. I'm actually just
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Speaker 16: watching a family of families start pouring into the ceremony. Um,
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Speaker 16: there's actually a family wearing custom made shirts, um, in
28:08
Speaker 16: an honor of their loved one. There has to be
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Speaker 16: at least a dozen of them that are now just
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Speaker 16: waiting to get into the ceremony. Uh, what started out
28:14
Speaker 16: as a quiet moment has now become a quiet morning
28:17
Speaker 16: has now become a little bit more chaotic as people
28:19
Speaker 16: are starting to pour in. And of course, uh, the
28:22
Speaker 16: ceremony is starting to get underway. Now, I stand here
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Speaker 16: in a shadow of the Freedom Tower, and to my left,
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Speaker 16: it's all gated, and I'm staring at what would lead
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Speaker 16: me to the reflecting pools if it wasn't for today's
28:37
Speaker 16: ceremony where 2,983 names will be read aloud. That's the
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Speaker 16: World Trade, those who were lost in the World Trade Center,
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Speaker 16: the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93, along with the 1993
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Speaker 16: World Trade Center bombing. So, Billy, guys, ask anyone about
28:53
Speaker 16: that day. Yeah, I remember that day.
28:58
Speaker 6: I worked.
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Speaker 5: I was NYPD retired. I was home.
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Speaker 12: Then I said, I better get down there, and I
29:06
Speaker 12: went down there, and all hell broke loose there.
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Speaker 11: I'm guessing pretty much everyone remembers where they were at
29:12
Speaker 11: that moment. Yeah, the world's gotten even wackier.
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Speaker 17: Where were you at that moment?
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Speaker 11: I was with my husband. We were actually going to
29:22
Speaker 11: get a cup of coffee before he dropped me off
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Speaker 11: to work.
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Speaker 18: I was on West Street, heading towards the towers in
29:28
Speaker 18: a taxi with two other guys, about.
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Speaker 5: We don't know, 50, 100 meters away.
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Speaker 18: And after the first plane hit, a policeman came up
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Speaker 18: to us us and the other cars and said, turn
29:42
Speaker 18: us around.
29:42
Speaker 4: And send us on our way back.
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Speaker 16: Yeah, so that's John Hender, who was actually in New
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Speaker 16: York 25 years ago today, visiting from Australia for business,
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Speaker 16: heading in a taxi to a meeting at the World
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Speaker 16: Trade Center. His wife, Robin, tearfully recalling being woken up
30:02
Speaker 16: in the middle of the night to a phone call
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Speaker 16: from John.
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Speaker 19: I was probably a bit out of it.
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Speaker 10: I didn't really understand.
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Speaker 19: Then he rang back, I don't know how much longer,
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Speaker 19: and told me two planes had flown into the tower
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Speaker 19: and he said he'd seen wheels coming down the street
30:24
Speaker 19: and he didn't know where the rest of the party
30:26
Speaker 19: was that he'd come here with. So it was quite,
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Speaker 19: it was a shock, it was upsetting, it was sort
30:34
Speaker 19: of surreal, unbelievable and seemed like it took forever. You know,
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Speaker 19: he then couldn't come out of, couldn't get.
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Speaker 6: Out of New York.
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Speaker 16: Yeah, it took John six days to get home, but
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Speaker 16: the Henders are so emotional because they know so many
30:52
Speaker 16: weren't able to come home. They'll visit the reflecting pools
30:56
Speaker 16: for the first time tomorrow, actually, not knowing what to
31:01
Speaker 16: expect they'll feel.
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Speaker 18: I just want to see it again.
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Speaker 16: Do you suspect you'll get emotional?
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Speaker 5: Yes, I think so.
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Speaker 4: I think so.
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Speaker 18: It took a little while to hit home what was happening.
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Speaker 18: But once the towers came down, we knew this was serious,
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Speaker 18: and a lot of people were lost, and it was
31:23
Speaker 18: very emotional.
31:25
Speaker 16: Now, it's a day that's earmarked by long pauses and
31:28
Speaker 16: tolling bells. The bells are actually not part of the ceremony,
31:33
Speaker 16: but church bells are ringing right now as I speak
31:35
Speaker 16: to you guys. New York City's Bryant Park has 2,753
31:40
Speaker 16: empty chairs on its lawn today, symbolizing all the people
31:44
Speaker 16: lost just in the Twin Towers that day. And it
31:48
Speaker 16: would be more than double that if we counted the
31:50
Speaker 16: people who have died due to 9-11-related illnesses in the
31:54
Speaker 16: past two and a half decades since, whether working the
31:57
Speaker 16: pile or or living or working in the area. So again,
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Speaker 16: a lot of, uh, promotion as we sort of watch
32:05
Speaker 16: people filtering to the ceremony right now, a heavy press
32:09
Speaker 16: presence as well. And, uh, we'll just be here. We'll
32:13
Speaker 16: be here today.
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Speaker 6: Well, what I liked about your report, it was devoid
32:18
Speaker 6: of politics. It's focused on the day, the commemoration and
32:22
Speaker 6: the memories that people had. I hope that, Our politicians
32:27
Speaker 6: abide by this. Follow the lead that you're sensing from
32:31
Speaker 6: all the people who are starting to relate to you
32:35
Speaker 6: what their experience was.
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Speaker 5: No politics mentioned, Larry, at all. I think they will.
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Speaker 1: I think that's been the case in the past, and
32:44
Speaker 1: everybody knows. I would be surprised if anybody at Ground
32:47
Speaker 1: Zero that's a politician even speaks today.
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Speaker 5: Many of them won't.
32:51
Speaker 1: I know four presidents are going to be there. Donald
32:54
Speaker 1: Trump's at the Pentagon. He is going to speak, but
32:57
Speaker 1: I'd be shocked if even he talked about politics today.
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Speaker 1: It's just not the day for that, and they know better. Natalie,
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Speaker 1: you get the sense, I would imagine, from the families
33:07
Speaker 1: that this is all about the person they lost, nothing
33:10
Speaker 1: else this day.
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Speaker 16: Absolutely. I mean, some people don't even have anything to say.
33:16
Speaker 16: I wanted to interview this young woman. She was dressed
33:18
Speaker 16: in all black, but she was crying, and I just,
33:22
Speaker 16: I didn't want to stop her. There was just this,
33:24
Speaker 16: sense of it was just bringing up memories for her
33:30
Speaker 16: as she was entering the ceremony. And I just, I couldn't,
33:34
Speaker 16: I don't know, I wanted to give her that moment.
33:36
Speaker 16: And I don't typically do that, but I think that
33:39
Speaker 16: this is truly about reflecting on people who they lost.
33:42
Speaker 16: And she seemed so young that maybe she was reflecting
33:44
Speaker 16: on somebody who she maybe never really even had the
33:47
Speaker 16: time with.
33:48
Speaker 6: Well, thank you, Natalie. And up next, Warner Wolfe. He
33:51
Speaker 6: was at the FANS. He was not in the studio
33:54
Speaker 6: that day. He was right near the World Trade Center site,
33:58
Speaker 6: and he'll connect us to his memories of that day.
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Speaker 6: But first, the news at 8 o'clock.
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Speaker 3: 25 years after 9-11, the day New York changed forever.
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Speaker 5: We remember.
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Speaker 3: 710WOR, the voice of New York, an iHeartRadio station.
34:18
Speaker 7: 75 degrees at 8 o'clock.
34:21
Speaker 5: Good morning.
34:21
Speaker 7: I'm Daria Albinger. Sunny and less humid today with a
34:24
Speaker 7: high of 79 degrees. The Weather Channel forecast is coming
34:28
Speaker 7: up right about now. 25 years ago today, we still
34:32
Speaker 7: had no idea what was going to happen in less
34:35
Speaker 7: than an hour. That's when the first plane slammed into
34:37
Speaker 7: the World Trade Center. Today, we pause to remember the
34:40
Speaker 7: September 11th attacks.
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Speaker 17: John Hender is one of those people who was visiting
34:45
Speaker 17: New York City on business from Australia on September 11th, 2001,
34:50
Speaker 17: in a taxi heading straight to the World Trade Center.
34:53
Speaker 18: A couple of big lumps of building hit. just in
34:56
Speaker 18: front of the taxi. One hit the taxi but wasn't
34:59
Speaker 18: very big.
34:59
Speaker 5: So we were very, very lucky.
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Speaker 18: We were heading to a meeting, a business meeting. I
35:04
Speaker 18: think it was either in the first tower or a
35:06
Speaker 18: building immediately.
35:07
Speaker 3: After the tower.
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Speaker 17: This is the first time he's returned to New York
35:10
Speaker 17: City after taking off on the first plane back to
35:13
Speaker 17: Australia six days after the attacks. He plans to visit
35:17
Speaker 17: the reflecting pools. Natalie Migliore, WOR News.
35:21
Speaker 7: Almost 3,000 people were killed at what is now known
35:25
Speaker 7: as Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And some
35:29
Speaker 7: of the families still do not have closure.
35:32
Speaker 13: Forty percent, about 1,100 people, have still never been formally identified.
35:38
Speaker 13: The New York City Medical Examiner's Office will never stop trying.
35:42
Speaker 13: Fragments of human remains recovered from the dust and debris
35:46
Speaker 13: are stored at the 9-11 Memorial and will be frequently
35:49
Speaker 13: tested as DNA testing evolves.
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Speaker 7: ABC's Erin Katursky, former Presidents Biden, Obama, Bush, and Clinton
35:58
Speaker 7: will be here in New York. President Trump will give
36:00
Speaker 7: remarks at the Pentagon. And tonight, the annual Tribute in
36:04
Speaker 7: Light will return. Starting at dusk, the twin beams will
36:07
Speaker 7: shine four miles into the sky and stay illuminated until dawn.
36:11
Speaker 7: WDOW News Time 802.