Latest / Heroes Behind the Badge / Chief Joe Morris 9/11 Story (Part 2) | Leading the Recovery at Ground-Zero
Transcript
- 0:08Paul Boomer: Previously on Heroes Behind the Badge, chief Joe Morris shared his
- 0:12firsthand account of 9/11 mobilizing from LaGuardia, arriving at ground zero and
- 0:18surviving the collapse of the South Tower.
- 0:20By the end of that morning with the superintendent and other
- 0:24chiefs lost inside the towers.
- 0:26Joe found himself the senior surviving officer, designated to command the
- 0:31Port Authority police response.
- 0:32In part two, Joe continues his story.
- 0:35We'll hear how he led through the recovery operation, the proudest and most tragic
- 0:40moments of his career, and how he helped rebuild both a department and the lives
- 0:44of the men and women who served under him.
- 0:47Craig Floyd: So at 11:30 AM.
- 0:49after the ta, this is a couple hours now after the towers have collapsed, chaos
- 0:55still, ongoing at the site, obviously.
- 0:59What were the first actions you took?
- 1:01that's a, great responsibility at a time of chaos at, time of tragedy.
- 1:07what, what did, were you thinking?
- 1:09What did you do?
- 1:11Joe Morris: when I got after the first, South Tower came down and getting back.
- 1:18I thought of words from 1993 because I responded with Chief Knox, who was the
- 1:23chief operations officer at the time, and I said to him, chief, what do you do now?
- 1:29And he said, Joe, you gotta look at this like it's a tidal wave.
- 1:33Our job is to survive and to bring order to chaos.
- 1:39And that's, it's getting, pushing, myself off the floor, the bus.
- 1:44That's what was in my mind.
- 1:46Order to chaos.
- 1:47So the first thing is to get who we had left, who was coming out of the
- 1:51dust, where to go, and we settled.
- 1:56We went a further couple blocks north after the second tower.
- 2:00Because you had the, again, to get people together.
- 2:05We met at the, Manhattan Borough Community College was located there.
- 2:11They had a small auditorium where Port all Port Authority people came in.
- 2:15It was loud, it was cops and people from all over.
- 2:18And at that point I raised my voice and I said, whoa, enough.
- 2:23Sit down.
- 2:24We gotta get together here.
- 2:26And what I told them to do, break up aviation tunnels and bridges.
- 2:31Civilian, from the financial break into your groups because
- 2:35we gotta get, get this in order.
- 2:37So that was the first.
- 2:39Then with the police, I went out on the street, I saw Chief Hall and
- 2:47Bob Belfi inspector, and I said, we're gonna move up to the, the, the,
- 2:55college's gymnasium because it was open.
- 2:59He actually had doctors there and nurses setting up.
- 3:02But we went in and I, it was a great location because it had seating.
- 3:08It was out, it was parking and it had bathrooms and water and everything
- 3:13we needed so that, and it was a central place we could get people in.
- 3:17So you are talking to about one o'clock people.
- 3:21We finally gathered maybe 300 cops when the buildings came down.
- 3:26What Authority?
- 3:27Police, and the response had 400 police officers down there.
- 3:31I could think so we had.
- 3:34disappearing.
- 3:35So I, we started, then again, you asked why I had the detective
- 3:39sergeant with me, Tony Fitzgerald.
- 3:41I said, Tony, get your detectives who come here and I want you to
- 3:45go get somebody over the morgue.
- 3:47And somebody, I had heard that the city had set up a command post up here, 92.
- 3:52So we sent somebody up there.
- 3:55I sent the detective over to,
- 3:59the New York Police.
- 4:01Headquarters they had set up, they have on their floor.
- 4:04They had a command post.
- 4:06Actually at one point before 1130.
- 4:09I actually drove over there with two, two detectives and put a detective over
- 4:13there to see what was going on, because I knew we needed a presence there.
- 4:17So we had a presence there.
- 4:18Then I drove back.
- 4:20That's when I, you talk about things.
- 4:23I went to get my car where I had parked it.
- 4:27My car literally was incinerated.
- 4:30The only thing left was the steel.
- 4:32Even the rubber tires were burned off of it.
- 4:34Just the steel, no paint That, that caught my attention, I guess so because, so that,
- 4:43that's, the things that you come back.
- 4:44So I went back to the, gymnasium and that, that's when 1130 I was designated,
- 4:50so I started breaking down the cops.
- 4:52I told them.
- 4:54The only, get me all the officers here that had emergency
- 4:57service, trained, qualified.
- 5:00Of course we had some trucks, so we got them together and in my
- 5:04mind, those were the only officers that were gonna go down there.
- 5:08It was just you.
- 5:09You just couldn't send cops, the way they were dressed, it was
- 5:13just smoke and everything else.
- 5:16Plus, you have to remember, building seven was still up.
- 5:24Burning was just north of the complex.
- 5:27The city, when they put their er, they made their, OEM offices there.
- 5:33They put a 500 gallon tank of diesel in the building.
- 5:37Oh.
- 5:37And that caught fire.
- 5:39And that building was going on, and you couldn't get close because we knew
- 5:43it was gonna collapse and it collapsed at five 30 at night, came down on it.
- 5:47So you had all kinds of things like that.
- 5:51Bill Erfurth: Joe, you were at the, at your CP at your command post there
- 5:55at the university, and then as days passed along, did you incorporate a
- 6:01multi-jurisdictional command post where you all centralized together and, worked
- 6:07in unison, or did you still just have
- 6:10Joe Morris: no.
- 6:10What happened late that afternoon or in the afternoon?
- 6:15Again, this the city, OEM and actually the fire department had
- 6:20the jurisdiction of leadership for all of this because of fire.
- 6:24So that big tent was set up at the, and West Street, big 10 at a big
- 6:30tent, and that was a command center.
- 6:33on the eastern side was Broadway, was the border.
- 6:38It went up, the Canal Street was the northern border.
- 6:41The Hudson River was the west border, and I believe, I'm trying to think,
- 6:45the street of the South, it was three or four, four blocks south of that.
- 6:49That was the zone.
- 6:50Nobody could come in.
- 6:51The National Guard was designated by the governor.
- 6:54the fire department,
- 6:58was, the lead for rescue recovery and to, create it.
- 7:03It wasn't that first day, but going towards the second
- 7:05or third day because of the.
- 7:08There's only so
- 7:09much you could do with hands and pails.
- 7:11They had to get heavy
- 7:12Joe Morris: equipment in.
- 7:14Bill Erfurth: I remember that w when I was working that, a number of people
- 7:18from my department went there, as did so many others, and I was just curious
- 7:23how that was coordinated as a central command as far as where they could
- 7:28go or who they were assigned with or what their daily functions would be.
- 7:32Joe Morris: They really hooked up with a department, NYPD or us.
- 7:38or, the fire department.
- 7:41And that's why like we had New, Jersey State Police wanted to volunteer.
- 7:46We, we, gave them cover that only lasted for maybe two weeks, right?
- 7:52Then we said, thank you very much, but it's time for our crews to do right.
- 7:58So that even that day going forward, I, I had my pick of who I wanted
- 8:04the lieutenants to work for me.
- 8:07The sergeants in ESU, in the ESU, like I say, ESU, were the only ones I let down.
- 8:13That first day, I actually sent cops home around four o'clock, four 30.
- 8:18I had them sit on the bleachers and I told 'em, look, you wanna go there to work?
- 8:24I'm not gonna allow it.
- 8:26I want you to go back to the com, go, back to the commands, go home and get sleep.
- 8:33Because you're gonna be working a lot of overtime in the months to come.
- 8:36Yeah.
- 8:36Yeah.
- 8:37Bill Erfurth: How many days, How many days after, after 9/11
- 8:41before you actually went home?
- 8:44Joe Morris: I could, I, I went home that night around, I, at, I left there
- 8:52around I guess nine o'clock at night.
- 8:55I went over to the command center over at Journal Square TransPortation Center.
- 9:00I went home.
- 9:02And again, I, I never called home.
- 9:05I, always told my wife, bad news travels fast.
- 9:09I got home around, I guess quarter to 12 and my sons were there and,
- 9:16about three or, both of them had graduated college, one of my older.
- 9:22So there were guys there in their early twenties that they grew up with.
- 9:25That was, wonder, whatcha doing?
- 9:28I went home, I woke up at, 3 30, 4 o'clock, and I went back to work five
- 9:33o'clock in the morning going command post.
- 9:36So part of the decisions we made with Tom Farrow was the staffing.
- 9:43What we did was, again, knowing, knowing the contract, it was deemed
- 9:48an emergency ordered overtime so that there was no days off.
- 9:55You work 12.
- 9:56Everyone's gonna work a 12 hour tour, at your normal tour and four hours
- 10:01overtime and you are your days off.
- 10:05You were working 12 hour tours, your vacations, you came in work,
- 10:09you got paid, but you worked.
- 10:10That's how we covered that Lasted and no days off, right?
- 10:16No days off.
- 10:17Bill Erfurth: So I wanna, I want to ask you, because it's, it, I had a similar
- 10:21experience in 1993 when Hurricane Andrew, struck South Miami Dade County,
- 10:27and at that time in this nation, it was the worst natural disaster in
- 10:32the history of the United States.
- 10:33And it was the same kind of thing.
- 10:35We went on to Alpha Bravo shifts.
- 10:38I, we, worked.
- 10:3918 hour days for six months straight.
- 10:41But there's always that aha oh shit moment.
- 10:44And that was what I was getting at when I asked you about when you first went home.
- 10:49more so in, I guess digging in more specifically is when you had your
- 10:55first moment of, just quietness your me first, me moment where you could sit
- 11:01and reflect on this and say, holy shit.
- 11:04How this just changed not only so many people's lives and so many people
- 11:10perished, but how it changed you?
- 11:15Joe Morris: To be quite honest with you, it was probably the Friday morning
- 11:19following it going to work because you were down there, the smells and
- 11:27the debris, you can't even describe the how gruesome it was, but just the
- 11:33carnage of people and property persons.
- 11:37And, the Thursday the weather wasn't great and Friday we had the
- 11:43president coming and I literally, on the way in driving, I was stopped.
- 11:49And I remember I stopped at a light when you get off Route three to
- 11:55go towards the Holland Tunnel on.
- 11:58the, road, there was a light there and I said, God, how
- 12:02am I gonna get through this?
- 12:05And then I thought of my dad who did 32 months overseas in North Africa, Sicily,
- 12:11D-Day Cherbourg, the Battle of the Bulge.
- 12:15I said, if he's gonna do it, he watch over me.
- 12:18That was the first time it really hit me.
- 12:21Otherwise, it was business to do.
- 12:23I had things to do.
- 12:24I couldn't ref, I didn't have time to reflect on that kind of stuff.
- 12:28Bill Erfurth: Yeah.
- 12:28So what was, your most proud moment and then your most tragic moment?
- 12:38Joe Morris: When we finished, when the job was done, that was my most proud moment.
- 12:42The closing ceremony, actually, I have a picture on the wall over me.
- 12:46I'm standing with Joe Esposito, the chief of NYPD, chief of the
- 12:50department, and Tom Purtell, who was chief of their, ESU together there.
- 12:57And that was the proudest just before the closing ceremony there,
- 13:02because what we achieved with them,
- 13:05Craig Floyd: how long ago was that, Joe, after the attacks?
- 13:07Joe Morris: That was the closing was in May, may 20.
- 13:11May the attacks September, the closing in May.
- 13:14Wow.
- 13:14That was the proudest.
- 13:16The d the day that really affected me the most is the lieutenants that I picked.
- 13:23And the other two key thing that I did was that I took two of the most
- 13:28hardheaded lieutenants that I knew that, you had tr they wouldn't,
- 13:34they were independent and but I knew that would represent the PAPD’s.
- 13:41Billy Keegan worked midnights at the tent.
- 13:45John Ryan, who he, I could tell you, he, he is one big, I hate to,
- 13:51ballbuster and I put him there because I knew he was gonna do it right.
- 13:56and I told them, look, I'm not gonna be making a lot of decisions here.
- 14:01Here's what I want our department to do.
- 14:05And they understood me for having worked me.
- 14:08I'm not gonna be o over everything.
- 14:11You make the decisions and you come back and if I don't like it, I'll let you know.
- 14:15But that was the key decisions though.
- 14:18Two, those two people because we didn't get short change in representation
- 14:22because there in the first weeks there, the fire department, you needed to
- 14:25get a pass to go and I said passed to get in and then so that way NYPD and
- 14:32they, it was butting heads, believe me.
- 14:35The Port Authority I always thought was like Switzerland.
- 14:38We would, get the between them and try to get the best deal
- 14:42outta it most of the time.
- 14:44So that's the, that, that's the kind of stuff there.
- 14:47The most tragic Craig was at, Saturday morning in February, following
- 14:54February, where the debris got down to almost the basement and it was
- 15:00the, stairway that we last placed.
- 15:04Jimmy Romito and Captain Kathy Mazza.
- 15:09And it was Officer Walter Lesczynski was one of the police officers and
- 15:16they were rescuing a woman when it collapsed and we found their bodies.
- 15:20So I actually, I came in, it was early in the morning, I came in to take part,
- 15:27taking them out and, the only way we represent identified Romito it was
- 15:33by teeth in the stomach and his name from his utility shirt that he had on.
- 15:39That's the way it was.
- 15:42Two two.
- 15:43You about,
- 15:47captain Mazza was one of them, as was Officer Huczko.
- 15:53We didn't find out till we got the bodies up to the fire department at the top that
- 15:58their bo, they thought it was one body, their bodies were entwined, the ribs.
- 16:02Okay.
- 16:03that's the kind of stuff you are finding and what, was, I can never say enough
- 16:09about cops that worked there, the fire department and, all the construction
- 16:14workers, what they had to put up, what they put up with and what they saw.
- 16:19My, my youngest guy ended up working for Tully down airs again,
- 16:25I was blessed that my, my godson, I hadn't seen him four or five years.
- 16:31He was the, job boss for Tully and the whole site was cut into four quadrants.
- 16:36So he had one quadrant with Tully.
- 16:39My son ended up working for him and he stayed in construction to this day.
- 16:44But Ed, and we had it in, we never told anybody.
- 16:47We connected so that if we needed to get something in or quicken them, it worked.
- 16:51So connect.
- 16:52You talk about connections.
- 16:53I.
- 16:55Craig Floyd: I remember, the story about Kathy Maza.
- 16:58She was the head of the police academy there for the Port Authority,
- 17:02a captain when she perished.
- 17:04And I remember the story, the woman you mentioned that she was helping get
- 17:09out of the tower, basically she knew the tower was about to collapse and
- 17:15she knew that she was about to die.
- 17:17And she ordered her other officers who were with her at the time,
- 17:21trying to assist this woman who was incapable of walking on her own.
- 17:26She ordered them out of the building so that they could spare their own lives,
- 17:30but she knew that she was gonna remain with this woman till the end, and she
- 17:34knew the end was probably, coming soon.
- 17:38And, she would probably die along with the woman who couldn't get out.
- 17:42quite a story.
- 17:43one heroism.
- 17:44It.
- 17:45Unbelievable.
- 17:47help me understand, Joe.
- 17:49I know we're nearing the end and we gotta wrap this up, but, there's
- 17:54one thing that always, I wondered, and that is when did it go from a.
- 18:00Rescue effort to a recovery effort.
- 18:03we moved along, but at some point you must have thought, okay, there's
- 18:07still people that we can rescue.
- 18:09Maybe these officers who were missing initially.
- 18:12Maybe they're not dead.
- 18:13Maybe we can recover them and, rescue them before, the end.
- 18:18when, did all that change?
- 18:19'cause I was there a week after the attacks and as I understood
- 18:23it, then there was still hope that maybe you would find some, people
- 18:28that were still alive in the rubble.
- 18:30Joe Morris: Realistically, that, following Saturday in my own mind, it was, just
- 18:38because of what you were finding.
- 18:41You weren't finding whole bodies, the people that were alive.
- 18:45We had the, the two cops rescued the, the next morning and, John McLaughlin.
- 18:51Is that right?
- 18:52Correct.
- 18:53You had a gentleman that came out at eight o'clock and it was a
- 18:55Marine that went down so that you.
- 18:58What you were, we were finding were pieces of bodies.
- 19:03that first day, like we found, one of our officers, Howard, he got hit
- 19:08in the head with a falling while he was at a command post with the fire
- 19:11department with Daniel Nigro, the Chief of the fire department, he was
- 19:15with them when they, it got hit with debris when the South Tower came down.
- 19:19And I had seen them, maybe they were about 12 yards west of me.
- 19:24I was, they were in the, The southbound lanes of West Street, and
- 19:28I was in the north, the northbound lane I saw, and I turned, that's
- 19:32from the South Tower debris.
- 19:34What, I, what protected me that from the South Tower was the bridge.
- 19:41it stopped the debris from going further north.
- 19:45That's what I.
- 19:47Bill Erfurth: Oh, and I think that, you should be absolutely credited.
- 19:51I'm sure that this has come up before that you made the right choice and
- 19:55the right decision, and that you had the foreknowledge to pick that spot,
- 20:01knowing that would be the safest place.
- 20:05Joe Morris: that's probably that I look back, Greg.
- 20:08That's probably the best decision I made that when I first got there.
- 20:12Just myself and SPI would go, and I told them, don't go any place because,
- 20:19you would've talked, you talk another 40 cops or 30 cops when I look back.
- 20:24Bill Erfurth: you could have,
- 20:25Joe Morris: you know, that was probably, you know what I exercise again.
- 20:27I learned from working with, my job again, it, you should go off the ranks.
- 20:33It's command and control.
- 20:35I'm, it's not my job.
- 20:38the ones that got before me, it was their job to go rescue people.
- 20:42I could tell by what was there, there was no people for me to rescue.
- 20:45It was all, people, that's their job.
- 20:50and that was subconscious.
- 20:52That, but that's, probably the best decision I made was not letting them go.
- 20:57And, like I said, it, changed the way police or anybody.
- 21:04You gotta create, you gotta send people in to be like the,
- 21:09miners send the birds in to die.
- 21:16Bill Erfurth: Question here.
- 21:18we all know, those of us that were working or alive at, that time of 9/11,
- 21:26we know how it affected the country.
- 21:28We know how it affected New York.
- 21:30We know how it affected multiple families and people and whatnot.
- 21:35How did it affect you?
- 21:36How was, how did your life change from 9/10 to 9/11?
- 21:44Joe Morris: So there's one thing also that was imPortant that afternoon,
- 21:47and they showed up on their own.
- 21:49You had people that come in for psychological cops.
- 21:53The cops, they came and I made every cop and even myself sit down and talk
- 22:03with this.
- 22:04And we developed a program, again, very close with the Port Authority, risk
- 22:09management, and medical department.
- 22:13People in and we created a program so that helped.
- 22:19the other motion, there was one of my neighbors who's one cops, the cop,
- 22:22he's a lieutenant in Glen Ridge, had told me that the Oklahoma City 19
- 22:28rescue workers committed suicide.
- 22:31And I made up what?
- 22:33that's not gonna happen.
- 22:35So that the Port Authority, that's another thing, There's a lot of things, but we
- 22:41in instituted a program and when we were closing down, all the commands during
- 22:47that whole period, were seeing people, we had daily people going and talking
- 22:52through psychological and direct, and at the end of the operations, down at the
- 22:59site, in October, we also did, closed out.
- 23:03We didn't let.
- 23:05Any cop come.
- 23:06We had special, the guys, we picked who we wanted.
- 23:09There's 75, a hundred cops that worked there at arrest from October till we
- 23:13closed down in May because the lieutenants picked them, they said they're ready.
- 23:17So we had debriefing that took place, with, the cops.
- 23:23The cops with Jim Reese from the FBI, who we met.
- 23:27When I met before that, he came to give court Authority high command.
- 23:31Talking about retirement in August of 2000.
- 23:35But we did that program and I could say great pride after all of this.
- 23:42One Port Authority police officer committed suicide since that day and had
- 23:48hurt suicide, had nothing to do with 9/11.
- 23:51So that, that's something with time I'm proud of.
- 23:55Absolutely.
- 23:56we've lost people with diseases and stuff there.
- 24:00Not one person has committed suicide.
- 24:03Bill Erfurth: Yeah, that's an amazing achievement right there.
- 24:06Craig Floyd: So I'm just curious, what was that counseling that you provided?
- 24:10Was that mandatory or was it voluntary?
- 24:14Joe Morris: No, mandatory.
- 24:14Out of the commands.
- 24:16That program was mandatory to go to, actually it was, conducted at, two
- 24:22days at Ano, at the Marriott Hotels.
- 24:27We fed them and the, after first, the first day you had, a dinner,
- 24:32they can invite their wives, or partners would come for the dinner.
- 24:37And the next day, part of the counseling involved them also
- 24:41so that it was, planned out.
- 24:44And again, Port Authority put out the monies and everything needed.
- 24:49Again, working with our risk management people thought we had
- 24:53the right breathing of gears.
- 24:54The both right masks they brought for us, we were, whatever they could do for us.
- 25:01Medical and risk management.
- 25:03Got the equipment, Port Authority did what they had to do to take care.
- 25:09Craig Floyd: Joe, you lost 37 officers on 9/11.
- 25:13you had, many months long, recovery effort.
- 25:18many of your officers at Ground zero, some of whom unfortunately have died
- 25:23of diseases related to their work at ground zero and breathing in the
- 25:27toxins during that difficult time.
- 25:30I'm just curious, the department.
- 25:32Today is thriving.
- 25:35I, think there's great pride in the fact that you are working for the
- 25:39Port Authority Police Department of New York and New Jersey.
- 25:44you're following in the footsteps of those who died on 9/11.
- 25:48But what, in those months after 9/11, what was the wellbeing of your officers?
- 25:54Was that the toughest challenge, or how would you describe the
- 25:58challenges, the toughest challenge you faced to build, rebuild this
- 26:02department after such a tragedy?
- 26:05Joe Morris: It again, Port Authority's an, unique where I
- 26:09had to talk to the, again, 9/11.
- 26:14After 9/11 when I became the chief.
- 26:17Authority, high executives from the same police area they had, they
- 26:20lost their officers so that the interrelationship that I had wasn't
- 26:26just business, but it was personal.
- 26:29We knew each other so that we worked to get everything done.
- 26:34again, we had an existing list of 7,000 people on it and I needed
- 26:39to rush people through it, but it was an old list, five years.
- 26:43We identified who were active police officers and we put
- 26:46'em in the first class.
- 26:47We, had, from a night or 23, week course or 26, we went down to 10
- 26:55for active police officer and we worked with the union because even
- 27:01if you are on that list to get on, we had, you had seniority rights.
- 27:05So we worked with the unions GU for the, funds.
- 27:10So you had that working.
- 27:11So that when we needed the classes, I had, the medical, who was there to do
- 27:17the testing for the, human resources to do all the administrative work and the
- 27:24acade, the, the, Fairleigh Dickinson.
- 27:28Now the other key thing that I had was, again, it's always the people and the,
- 27:34the Deputy Direct, the deputy, Director of Public Safety, Mike Scott, he survived.
- 27:40He was on the phone with Fred Morrone.
- 27:43Fred's last word was, "oh shit" when the building came down, poor
- 27:47Mike was on the phone with him.
- 27:49But Mike was, 25 year, pro with the Port Authority, ran the path
- 27:54trains Chief Superintendent was on the ethics board for 20 years, and
- 27:59I tell people I was the cop or the teenager and he was the businessman.
- 28:05Because he took care of all the, logistics, the rentals,
- 28:10the cost contractors contract.
- 28:12That was key.
- 28:13And I, to this day, we are best of friends.
- 28:17We even went into the TSA when we retired together and we both
- 28:22recognized that matters, but the
- 28:27that's how things got back people.
- 28:29Craig Floyd: let me, Dennis, I'm gonna turn it over to you to close it, but let
- 28:33me just say that today the Port Authority is bigger and stronger than ever.
- 28:39The Port Authority Police Department of New York and New Jersey.
- 28:42And, Joe Morris, you're the man responsible for, that.
- 28:47the fact that they're thriving today after such a devastating
- 28:51loss and, tragedy on 9/11.
- 28:54I'm proud to be your friend, sir. I'm so glad you joined us here on
- 28:58Heroes Behind the Badge because you are truly a hero behind the badge.
- 29:04Joe Morris: Ed Cetnar, who's the superintendent of police now, retired
- 29:07state Jersey State Police who was injured on, yeah, he has injuries
- 29:12from 9/11 when they were, they went, the recovery, rescue recovery when
- 29:17they volunteered to go injured.
- 29:18But he's, always the most respect and anything he wants anything I
- 29:24want, he, he would, he'd give, gives to me so I get the most respect
- 29:30and, You know what I, was blessed.
- 29:34As I said, some people said, it's like winning the lottery.
- 29:37When you became a PA cop.
- 29:38I was blessed to have seen the ad in the paper while cleaning a
- 29:43window, trying to take the test.
- 29:46I looked back.
- 29:47That's how I became.
- 29:49Dennis Collins: Chief, you're a great storyteller.
- 29:51We could go on and on Boy, you have the stories and I wanna thank
- 29:57you for coming on and retelling.
- 29:59I'm sure you've told this story hundreds of times.
- 30:02No, not a lot.
- 30:03I'm glad maybe we're one of the first we got the inside scoop guys because.
- 30:09We can't ever forget what happened.
- 30:11And as we said at the beginning, a lot of people that are alive today
- 30:16have no direct knowledge of this.
- 30:18This is how we keep people informed of the heroic activities by our police
- 30:25and our fire department on 9/11.
- 30:27So thank you for coming with us on Heroes Behind the Badge.
- 30:31Thank you Also.
- 30:33For your decades, your three over three decades of service to the
- 30:36people of New York and New Jersey.
- 30:39and I look at.
- 30:41The terrible loss of life, the terrible destruction, the whole concept.
- 30:46I remember exact, we all remember what we were doing when this
- 30:49happened, we gotta remember that tens of thousands of people survived.
- 30:55And of your 400 officers, god forbid, 37 passed.
- 31:00But most of your officers on the scene survived.
- 31:05the terrible.
- 31:08Tremendous loss of life overshadows that, but you guys that were out
- 31:13there on the scene did a lot of things right, and let's not forget that.
- 31:17Let's not forget that.
- 31:18And its great you are,
- 31:20Joe Morris: again, it it's the people, but it was the people in the Port
- 31:23Authority, in the right spots that, civilians and how you, the evacuation
- 31:30drills and everything else, that's what, why most people survived the numbers.
- 31:36Just it worked.
- 31:38It was just, if you look at who died, it was above where the planes hit.
- 31:43That's, who most of the deaths were,
- 31:45Dennis Collins: which was almost a death sentence from, the be.
- 31:47Oh, absolutely.
- 31:48There was not much you could do, but you guys did an unbelievable job.
- 31:53You and your team clearly are heroes behind the badge.
- 31:56You exemplify exactly what this podcast stands for.
- 32:01So thanks again for joining us.
- 32:03I wish all of our audience, please go to follow,
- 32:11You can hit the little buttons wherever you get your podcast because that tells
- 32:16us that you like what we're doing.
- 32:18If you like something that Joe Morris said today, please follow, or subscribe
- 32:24to Heroes Behind the Badge Podcast.
- 32:26We'll see you next time on Heroes Behind the Badge.