story20630.xml

story20630.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-11

I am an employee of General Motors and a Lieutenant and EMT-B for Argentine Township Fire and Rescue in Linden, MI. I was on second shift on 9/11/01 and had gotten up at approximately 8:45 AM that morning and was watching my daughter, Hunter. My wife called and told me to turn the television on. I could not believe my eyes. I knew in my heart at that moment that, if given the opportunity, I was going to New York to help in any way I could. I stopped at our fire hall on my way to work and received permission to go from our Chief, Richard Sargent.At that point, I was quite confident there would be rescues instead of recoveries. I also received permission to take any EMS supplies I thought we might need. A representative from our police department came over to the hall and handed our Chief a request from the Port Authority to all trained EMS personnel to respond to the Meadowlands for staging. We had just recently hired a firefighter named Tom Smith. Toms father was a FDNY firefighter assigned to Squad 288 and Haz Mat 1. His name was Kevin Smith and he perished in the collapse. His body was recovered 1/10/02. Toms brother, Brian Smith, is a FDNY EMT who was injured in the collapse. We spent time at Fort Totten researching the status of Kevin and Brian Smith. After loading splints, cervical collars, oxygen, saline and other EMS supplies, Tom, Julie Lennox and I departed Michigan at 10:00 PM on 9/11/01. We arrived at the Meadowlands at 8:30 AM on 9/12/01. After checking in with staging and having our credentials checked, we were given a police escort down to Ground Zero. I could not believe the destruction, the fighter jets and the smell. There were papers everywhere and fire trucks destroyed everywhere we looked. We checked in at the command post at West and Vesey, along with hundreds of other volunteer and paid on-call firefighters from all around the country. Our first day was spent working the perimeter and helping unload trucks and tasks of that nature. We spent time in the American Express building and about 1:00 PM it threatened to collapse as we were standing on the sidewalk outside of it. Thousands of fire and EMS personnel ran for their lives. It turned out to be a false alarm. On 9/13/01, I approached the District Chief who was running the command post and explained to him the story of firefighter Smith and his missing father and how important it would be to us to receive a meaningful assignment. I knew there was great concern about freelancing. I believe his name was District Chief Pfeiffer. He told us he would do his best. Because I had two inexperienced firefighters with me and Tom had the additional stress of his father being unaccounted for, I knew I had to be careful in terms of what they were allowed to do. At about 2:00 PM on 9/13/01, I went to the temporary morgue. There was body bag after body bag being loaded into refrigerated trucks. I was helping out with this task when a District or Battalion Chief came running into the American Express building screaming for EMTS because they had found some survivors outside the Winter Garden area. I identified myself as an EMT and was asked to follow him into the rubble, along with other EMTs, doctors and paramedics. A bucket brigade of ironworkers, firefighters and others was formed to remove the rubble from this area. A civilian casualty was recovered and the hopes of finding survivors were dashed after two hours of removing the debris by hand. There was still no room to bring in the heavy equipment at this point. I was able to make contact with my firefighters to get them at least involved in the debris removal process and was successful. The firefighters at Haz Mat 1 / Squad 288 were extremely gracious to us even as they mourned their losses. I believe there were eleven of them from that house unaccounted for. They allowed us to stay there and were really supportive of Tom. The response from the public as we walked out and drove under the underpasses on the freeways of New York City is something I will never forget. It brought tears to my eyes to see the outpouring of emotion from the American people. I left Saturday because I had taken this time off from work without pay and needed to get back. On the way back, my wife Heidi and sister-in-law Erica and I stopped in Pennsylvania for lunch. I was extremely distraught and was not able to eat. An elderly gentleman with a European accent noticed the FEMA New York City Search and Rescue shirt I had on and came over to thank me. I said thank you and was overcome with emotion. He bought our lunch. FDNY had also requested that no more fire units respond unless specifically requested. FEMA and many USAR teams from all over the country were now involved in the recovery process. The FBI, FEMA, Secret Service, ATF, and National Guard among others, were all deployed to this disaster. This was a crime scene. I am proud to say I was there and did my small part to help in any way I could.



Lieutenant Joseph M. Ludwig, Jr., EMT-B
Argentine Township Fire and Rescue
9048 Silver Lake Road
Linden, MI 48451
(989) 271-9680
E-mail: lieutenant62002@yahoo.com