September 12, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on September 11, 2001, firefighter Niels Jorgensen ran toward the collapsing Twin Towers as part of the FDNY brotherhood that risked everything to save lives. Like so many first responders, he later faced a slower, quieter enemy: cancer caused by the toxic dust that blanketed Lower Manhattan after the attacks. His illness connected him with someone far outside the firehouse brotherhood: billionaire David Koch. Their backgrounds could not have been more different, yet their paths converged in the fight against 9/11-related disease. Jorgensen shares the story of the unexpected bond that grew out of tragedy.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This is our American Stories remembering September eleventh, two thousand
and one. And this segment is a tribute to soldiers
who fall him. And this is a tribute from Tony Dolan.
And if you don't know Tony Dolan, he was one
of the youngest Poolitzerprise winners in American history for his
(00:41):
investigation of official corruption and organized crime in Connecticut in Hartford.
He's a legend there to this day. Death threats against
him put a whole lot of guys in prison. He
was the chief speechwriter for Ronald Reagan for eight years,
responsible for some of the greatest rhetoric of the twentieth century,
the Evil Empire Speech and the ash Heap of History speech.
(01:04):
Tony's tribute originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal, and
he's titled they will be remembered for all those who served,
and he graciously recorded it for us. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I heard the thump as I was saying over the
phone to John Gibson at the National Security Council that
it couldn't be an accident since now a second plane
had hit the World Trade Center. Putting down the phone,
I walked over to the window and looked out on
One ten, which runs in front of the Pentagon. Construction workers,
their faces reflecting fear, even terror, were running across this
(01:48):
major highway like it was a country road. They had
seen the smoke pouring out from around the corner where
Flight seventy seven had hit the building. John, I'll have
to call you back, I said when I got back
to the phone. I think we just got hitped move
it to the right, said the soldier. When another soldier
(02:09):
bent over to adjust the pedal of his wheelchair. When
he saw who was helping him, a three star general,
he goped, A sorry, sir for not saying sir, I'm
the one who should be calling you. Sir, replied the
general as he wielded the young veteran to the assembly
point for the other wounded. The soldiers were there for
(02:30):
the first of many tours of the Pentagon organized for
the wounded and their families. For many, this was their
first time outside the rooms and hallways of Walter Reed
Hospital since their injuries, so they had trouble handling what
came next. As they came around a corner, the hallway
erupted with thousands of cheering, flag waving Department of Defense employees.
(02:53):
Many of those in the parade of crutches and wheelchairs,
including family members, were overcome as they moved along. Later,
one wife, sounding almost angry through her uncontrolled tears, told
the Pentagon organizer, you should have warned us, You should
have warned us, Sir, Could I ask you a question?
(03:19):
I knew what was coming. As the wounded toward the
press briefing room. It was always the same question for
the older guy in the suit, whom they thought might
have some authority, no matter how many limbs were missing
or how serious the head wound. They asked me, sir,
is there any way you could help me get back
(03:40):
to my unit? Guests of honor at a Washington think
tank dinner, the two enlisted men in wheelchairs and the
sergeant with a cane looked uneasy as they waited entirely
unnoticed at the edge of the huge, crowded ballroom. The
event planners were clipboards and bugs in their ear just
(04:02):
rushed by. When I saw them from a distance, I
maneuvered through the crowd and went up to them. They
looked up at me as I summoned words that have
inspired our fighting forces down the years. Gentlemen, would you
like to follow me to the bar? Yes, sir, Thank you, sir,
(04:23):
was the enthusiastic response. The crowd parted magically on our
way to two beers in a gin. Later, the same
crowd owed and odd when they heard of the soldier's
battlefield exploits. After the dinner, when the van arrived for
the trip back to Walter reed, I would see how
good they were at helping fold up their wheelchairs, put
(04:44):
them in the back, and then hop along towards their
seats with a hand against the side of the van,
all the while thanking me for the drinks. Hard to
hear and hard to watch. The hero is grateful hopper
like the wife at the Pentagon Parade. My reaction was emotional,
(05:10):
and I thought somebody should have warned me. Yes, as
his name tag showed, the newly appointed Aid to Joint
Chief Chairman, Peter Pace was the son of another well
known general. In answer to my questions, he added it
was also a West Point graduate, and he listed the
several state side locations where he had been stationed. With
(05:35):
General Pace and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld just ahead
of us as we headed towards the Press briefing room.
I thought that this young officer was going to have
trouble gaining the respect to fellow officers who had seen combat.
We turned the corner, though, and then he said, I
was in a rack too, Sir, and as I saw
(05:56):
his empty uniforms leave, he added, but I got hurt there.
People fled the funeral service for Navy Seal Jonas P.
Kelsol as the building shook reassurance during an earthquake, though
is a church full of Navy seals. The squadron commander
(06:19):
kept right on giving his eulogy, and Kelsole's comrades didn't
budge Victoria Jennings. Kelsole, her self, a former Marine with
a tour in Iraq, added to the intrepidity by speaking
nearly unfalteringly of her hero husband and his belief in
(06:40):
America's mission outside. Retired Colonel Oliver North, a Vietnam veteran,
said the former Marine commentant P. X. Kelly, a Vietnam veteran.
Both of them friends of Victoria's father, Jerry Jennings, an
administration official and a Vietnam vetter. Aren't these kids amazing?
(07:04):
General Kelly readily agreed. It's the reason why he explained,
when he was recovering from an operation at Bethesda Naval Hospital,
he felt compelled to get himself moved off the deck
with the admirals and onto the casualties floor. The casualties
(07:24):
I think of them sometimes, those I knew, the wounded,
the ones who only wanted to get back to their
unit or left limbs on foreign soil. The ones whom
generals wanted to call sir or commandants, wanted the honor
of being on their hospital floor. I think too sometimes
(07:45):
the families of the fallen, the ones whose composure made
wounds not inadequate but impossible, And so I sometimes wonder
where they are and how life played out for them.
If I were to see them again, I know that
even if they asked, I would be reluctant to offer
any thoughts on their sacrifice and its meaning or that
(08:06):
of those they loved. But if they asked again, if
they pressed the question, I know I would answer, and
I know what I would tell them, that I have
lived a while and seen the verdicts of history and
know they are not always quickly rendered. But that about them,
(08:26):
the jury's finding is already in that what they did
was right and true, making others safe, protecting the weak
the innocent, giving others what they would never have had,
the gift of the future, the gift of tomorrow. And
I would say in doing all this, they had made
themselves apart, in fact, the best part of history's great story,
(08:51):
the American story. And so I would tell them they
will be remembered.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And that was telling. And for all of you've served
have lost loved ones. We don't just do these things.
I memorial day here on our American Stories, nine to eleven,
remembered more after these messages, this is our American stories
(10:22):
remembering the anniversary of nine to eleven. Many companies and
families lost loved ones that day. I lost one of
my best friends, co captain of my high school basketball
team for two years. There was nothing we didn't do
together for so many years. Paul Battini. There was one
(10:45):
investment company that lost six hundred and fifty eight of
its nine hundred and sixty employees. Before that day, Canter
Fitzgerald hadn't been all that well known beyond Wall Street. However,
after nine eleven it was known as the business to
have lost the most employees on nine to eleven. Quote,
(11:07):
we have death Fame. CEO Howard Lutnick said a few
days after the horrific event, Lutnick participated in an emotional interview.
He didn't just lose all those employees, by the way,
one of them was his brother. Here he is explaining
why he wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
My little boy.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I have a five year old and it was his
first day of kindergarten at Harstman, so I took him
for his first day of big boys school. And because
of that, I was late getting down to the office,
and therefore I wasn't in the building. I was on
my way.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
I saw the building on fire, so I didn't go in.
But I stood at the door off a church street
where there were flags there. When I stood at the
door and people were coming out, and I was yelling
at them, you know, to run and get out, and
there were police sort of around me yelling at people,
told them to get out, and I would ask him
(12:05):
what floora they were coming from, what flora they're coming from?
So I would say fifty five, and I'd scream, we
have fifty five. And because I kept wanting to get
up the building and well, my brother, my brother was
on one hundred and third floor. He worked. He worked
for me, and he worked at Canner. And he called
my sister h just after the just after the plane hit,
(12:26):
and he told her that.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
He said that the.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Smoke was pouring in. He was he was stuck in
a corner office. There was no way out and the
smoke was coming in. He's not good and things are
not good, and he's not gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And he just wanted to say that.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
He loved her when he wanted to say goodbye. And
I tell everyone that that he loved them. And then
the phone went the phone went dead.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
The plane crashed into floors ninety three through ninety nine.
Canter Fitzgerald was located right above the.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
One hundred and one hundred and five, the top floors
of the of number one World Trade Center, which they
called down the North Tower. I got to the ninety
first floor, and I knew if I got one employee,
if one person came down from that floor, that I
know that there had to be others. There would be
others behind them, there would be others going out other doors.
That that would be good. But I got up to
ninety one and then I heard this sound. It sounded
(13:19):
like another plane was going to hit the building and
was it. But it didn't sound like it was far away.
It sounded like it was like right by the ceiling
is above us. It was so unbelievably loud, and someone
screamed out another one's coming. So I just turned around
and ran and I and I was running. I was
it was Number two World Trade Center collapsing. So I'm
standing underneath a building like an idiot. And I started
(13:41):
running and I'm trying to get ahead of the smoke.
And then the smoke comes around the corner on Trimmy
Church where I ran, and knocks me down underneath the truck.
And I'm sitting there in this black, the blackest black
that can ever be. I reached out I tried to
see if I could see, and I took my hands
and I put it up and I actually touched my eye.
I couldn't see my hand. I could feel the articles
in the air. They were like this big. I could
(14:02):
feel them going in and I wasn't I couldn't think
that like pick up my shirt and put I was
just I was just sitting there thinking, I can't believe it.
I can't believe by standing there, I died so I
just started walking.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I just start walking.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Straight, and I just walked straight, and I just keep
walking straight.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
And I called my wife four hours later.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
She was hysterical crying, And so I understand why I
took lots of people a long time. I was. I'm
a pretty together person. And I four hours I walked.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I just walked north.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I just keme walking, and he just kept walking. All
the Canter Fitzgerald companies are connected by speakerphone, so there
were voices heard from the tower amidst the chaos.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, we have, you know, a speakerphone because all our
offices are connected. In our equity business, they were all
connected to each other because they talked to each other
all day and they heard them saying, you know, we
need help, we need help, we need help. It wasn't
it wasn't screens. It was there was nowhere to go.
You couldn't go down, couldn't go up. There was nowhere
to go. But I don't know of a single one
(15:05):
of my employees who got down zero zero. And it's
really said, but I think we're all pulling together with
a view that we wanna make things happen for them.
We we need to take care of them. We need
to figure out how to take care of them and
give them more take care of them. And I think
it's gonna be a different kind of drive than I've
ever had before. It's not about my it's not about
(15:26):
my family. I can't to kiss my kids. I get
to kiss my kids tonight, but other people don't get
to kiss their kids. And I just have to help 'em.
And I think, I think it's amazing, and I think
it's amazing. They have three hundred people. They lost all
their friends, they lost the person to their left, they
lost the person to their right.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And they call me up and they say, I wanna
go to work. I said, why do you wanna go
to work? Let's just go to funerals. And they go, no, no,
I wanna go to work. I can't stay home.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
I can't stay home.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I have to make I have to work.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
I have to do something. So they they actually wanted
to try to figure it out to be in business.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
It's unbelievable, it doesn't make make sense.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
But the reason they want to be in business, and
there's only one reason to be in business, is because
we have to make our company be able to take
care of my seven hundred families, seven hundred families, seven
hundred families.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Just can't say it. I can't say that crime.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Well, a different kind of drive that he'd never known
before kicked in to Howard Lutnik and those remaining employees.
Howard further explains what Canter Fitzgerald was doing before and after.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Caunter Fitzgerald is the primary. It's like the exchange for
the world's bond markets. I mean, it's it. It is
the exchange for the world bond markets. We last last
year we did fifty trillion dollars in business today. The
remaining employees of canaforite CHERYLD and east Peed have worked
(17:06):
every second since that bomb. And they made the decision.
And I told them there's no reason for us to open.
I don't care when we open. If we opened, it
doesn't matter to me. And they collectively, two hundred and
fifty of them collectively voted that they were going to
open the markets. And this morning, at seven am, those
people opened for business, not to make money, not to
(17:30):
but they did it because they thought if the if
the fend the treasure wanted it to be open, and
it was important enough for them to show straight for
America for these markets. Then they were going to do
their damn just to get it opened.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
And they did, and it.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
I I voted against it.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I said, why, I don't want you to work.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
I want you to go home and kiss your kids
and hug your families. And but they it's them, they wanted.
They wanted to do it, maybe for themselves, maybe for
the their friends who they lost. But to write the
second it are electronics systems are running around the world,
and it's I don't know, maybe it's a miracle. Maybe
it's because these people are just they do unbelievable. I
(18:08):
think you can only be a good pause if you
have the right people. And I'm glad they chose to
be with me. But I'm the saddest person in the
world that they chose to be with me. Chose to
be with me. Too many people, so many names, so many.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
People I loved, so many people we all loved. Again,
that's Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Canter Fitzgerald. They lost
so much, but they did go back to work. And
here's why. After nine to eleven, the Canter Fitzgerald Relief
Fund was established. All those people went back to work
(18:47):
for a cause, a big cause. They have distributed more
than one hundred and eighty million dollars to the family
of Canter Fitzgerald, one quarter of the firm's profits. What
a great American story, What a sad American story, Canter
Fitzgerald's story, Howard Lutnick story. Here on our American stories,
(19:11):
nine to eleven remembered, and we continue with our American
(19:40):
stories and with a story about nine to eleven. Doctor
Mike McGhee is the author of All Available Boats, which
is about Manhattan's trains and bridges shutting down on nine
to eleven and the heroic evacuation of three hundred thousand
people off of the island by boats that happened to
be the area. It was a larger evacuation than Dunkirk,
(20:04):
and it was executed by a wide variety of boats
that answered the call for help, from pleasure boats to tugboats. Today,
Mike tells us about the Fire Department of New York's
fireboats that bravely served that day.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
One of them was the John J. Harvey, which had
been decommissioned. It was, in nineteen thirty one, the fastest
most powerful fireboat in the world. It could pump eighteen
thousand gallons a minute, which was just unheard of at
the time. It was named after John J. Harvey, who
had died in a fire on a boat. But the
(20:43):
interesting thing about it is that at the time of
nine to eleven it was completely decommissioned, but it was functional.
And the guy who actually was in charge of the
John J. Harvey was a architectural preservationist who had gotten
(21:07):
interested in saving.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
The John J. Harvey.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
So this boat, which is about one hundred and thirty
feet long, was formally preserved and saved beginning in nineteen
ninety nine, and Huntley Gill was the guy who raised
the funds and coordinated it, and then he.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Became the captain.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
He was aided by a former truck mechanic whose name
was Tim Ivory, who became the chief engineer for the boat.
And he just got a kick out of, you know,
keeping this thing functioning. It's a mechanical wonder. And then
there was a third person named Jessica DeLong who happened
to be from Massachusetts and was a maritime historian who
(21:49):
had gotten interested in the boat became one of the
crew members for it. So at the time of the attack,
Huntley Gill was asleep in his Manhattan apartment. Tim Ivory,
who lived on a houseboat in a marina in New
Jersey on the New Jersey side, was having breakfast at
a diner, and Jessica DeLong was writing a freelance article.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
In her Brooklyn flat.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Within hours, the three of them were on the boat,
and the boat was on the Hudson heading south to
the disaster. And the first thing they did when they
arrived there was to over a loudspeaker address the crowd
that hadn't gathered to be evacuated, you know, the most
(22:39):
panicky people and those who were injured in the falling
of the towers immediately obviously tried to get off the south.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Side of the island and they were all gathered there.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
So at Pier sixty three on the Hudson River, where
the boat originated, it headed south and the first thing
it did was use a loudspeaker to tell people anybody
want to go uptown, And one hundred and fifty people
boarded the fireboat and they took them uptown. Then they
got a call by the time they reached uptown to
(23:11):
discharge these one hundred and fifty people that got a
call to rush back because the fire trucks had already
run out of water and they needed this retired John J.
Harvey to pump eighteen thousand gallons of water a minute
to fill.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
The trucks that were all out of water. So that's what.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
They did, and they stayed in action down there for
four days.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Now. One of the boats that was there as well
was the John D. McKean fireboat.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
That fireboat was actually in service at the time, and
it was a newer boat. It wasn't that brand new.
It had been commissioned in nineteen fifty two, again named
after a firefighter in nineteen fifty three actually who had
lost his life in a steam explosion on a boat.
(24:07):
The captain, though, Ed Metcalf, this was only his second
day as captain of that boat, so he had just
arrived and the second day of his command, he gets
this call to come down immediately to.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
The seawall at Liberty Street.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
In fact, this was right after the first plane had
hit and the second plane had not yet hit. They
were down there within about five minutes and Metcalf got
off the boat to go to the command center to
see what the fire department wanted him to do next.
He subsequently was lost in the turmoil and the collapse
(24:50):
of the second building after the second plane hit, which
they all saw, you know, and that's another part of
this story. You know, who witnessed those attacks, or anyone
who witnessed all of the citizens covered in inches of
dust and debris slowly walking either north out of Manhattan
(25:17):
or south to try to be evacuated by boat. Anyone
who witnessed those images has never really forgotten those images.
And when Ed Metcalf didn't come back immediately, one of
his crew members, Tom Sullivan, went to trying to find
out where he was, and Tom ended up in some
(25:39):
of the wreckage of the second building collapsing and nearly
lost his life as well. But in any case, what
happened was that this boat, the John D. McKeen, which
is one hundred and thirty feet long, it played a
major role in the evacuation, and it was not designed
(26:00):
obviously to transport people. In fact, these boats, the way
they're designed, they need a gangplank of about twelve feet
to reach the shoreline, and the shorelines down there were
never designed for multiple purposes at either. I mean, one
of the things that we learned from this event is
(26:23):
that that New York Harbor area was not well designed
for a disaster. You know, the people who run these boats,
they talk about the commercial uses and bringing in liners
and shipping containers over on the New Jersey side, but
in general, it isn't a very good edge between the
(26:46):
water and the land for boarding human beings, not designed
for that at all. So the fact that they were
able to move safely somewhere between three hundred and fifty
thousand and five hundred thousand people off that island in
a short period of time is nothing short of a miracle.
(27:08):
And when they moved the John D McKeen fireboat and
started using it, people were panicked.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
The towers had just collapsed.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
People thought that the entire southern tip of Manhattan was
going to blow up.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
They didn't know what was coming next, and they were panicked.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
And you had not simply wall streeters covered in dust,
but you had babies and nannies and civilians who lived
in the buildings around this area all trying to get
off the island, and the John D McKean fireboat really
ran into a lot of challenges in terms of children.
(27:50):
Their deck was about eight foot down from the loading shores,
and they were literally throwing some of the babies to
the open arms arms of these firefighters on the boat,
and then the babies were taken down and four babies
to a cot were placed.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
In the firemen.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
We're taking care of the babies as they were loading
the nannies. In one case, a lady who was panicked
actually jumped in the water and got trapped between the
boat and the shore, and the firefighters had to actually
jump into the water and save them by throwing a
(28:32):
plank ladder down and boosting them up. One firefighter had
to dive under the water to push an exhausted lady
onto the ladder. So this is a very chaotic situation,
and so for the boat captains, who were not used
to doing this kind of work to remain calm and
(28:54):
to as much as possible protect the safety of people
who were inclined to do anything at that moment to
get off the island.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
One of the common features.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Of almost everyone that we interviewed was that when the
boats were moving away from the island and looking back
you could see initially the twin towers on fire, and
then they all witnessed their collapse, and then they were
(29:28):
just gone. The thing that was most in common in
every story was the extreme quietness on the boat itself
that was nothing like they had ever experienced, the solemnness.
Everyone was deep inside themselves.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
And he is right about the silence. And that's the
silence in New York and also in Washington, DC. And
I bet it was the quietest time in American history.
People would just shocked. A special thanks to Monte Montgomery
and Alex Cortes for the work. Doctor Mike McGee, author
of All Available Boats Are nine to eleven. Special here
on our American Stories
This is our American Stories remembering September eleventh, two thousand
and one. And this segment is a tribute to soldiers
who fall him. And this is a tribute from Tony Dolan.
And if you don't know Tony Dolan, he was one
of the youngest Poolitzerprise winners in American history for his
(00:41):
investigation of official corruption and organized crime in Connecticut in Hartford.
He's a legend there to this day. Death threats against
him put a whole lot of guys in prison. He
was the chief speechwriter for Ronald Reagan for eight years,
responsible for some of the greatest rhetoric of the twentieth century,
the Evil Empire Speech and the ash Heap of History speech.
(01:04):
Tony's tribute originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal, and
he's titled they will be remembered for all those who served,
and he graciously recorded it for us. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I heard the thump as I was saying over the
phone to John Gibson at the National Security Council that
it couldn't be an accident since now a second plane
had hit the World Trade Center. Putting down the phone,
I walked over to the window and looked out on
One ten, which runs in front of the Pentagon. Construction workers,
their faces reflecting fear, even terror, were running across this
(01:48):
major highway like it was a country road. They had
seen the smoke pouring out from around the corner where
Flight seventy seven had hit the building. John, I'll have
to call you back, I said when I got back
to the phone. I think we just got hitped move
it to the right, said the soldier. When another soldier
(02:09):
bent over to adjust the pedal of his wheelchair. When
he saw who was helping him, a three star general,
he goped, A sorry, sir for not saying sir, I'm
the one who should be calling you. Sir, replied the
general as he wielded the young veteran to the assembly
point for the other wounded. The soldiers were there for
(02:30):
the first of many tours of the Pentagon organized for
the wounded and their families. For many, this was their
first time outside the rooms and hallways of Walter Reed
Hospital since their injuries, so they had trouble handling what
came next. As they came around a corner, the hallway
erupted with thousands of cheering, flag waving Department of Defense employees.
(02:53):
Many of those in the parade of crutches and wheelchairs,
including family members, were overcome as they moved along. Later,
one wife, sounding almost angry through her uncontrolled tears, told
the Pentagon organizer, you should have warned us, You should
have warned us, Sir, Could I ask you a question?
(03:19):
I knew what was coming. As the wounded toward the
press briefing room. It was always the same question for
the older guy in the suit, whom they thought might
have some authority, no matter how many limbs were missing
or how serious the head wound. They asked me, sir,
is there any way you could help me get back
(03:40):
to my unit? Guests of honor at a Washington think
tank dinner, the two enlisted men in wheelchairs and the
sergeant with a cane looked uneasy as they waited entirely
unnoticed at the edge of the huge, crowded ballroom. The
event planners were clipboards and bugs in their ear just
(04:02):
rushed by. When I saw them from a distance, I
maneuvered through the crowd and went up to them. They
looked up at me as I summoned words that have
inspired our fighting forces down the years. Gentlemen, would you
like to follow me to the bar? Yes, sir, Thank you, sir,
(04:23):
was the enthusiastic response. The crowd parted magically on our
way to two beers in a gin. Later, the same
crowd owed and odd when they heard of the soldier's
battlefield exploits. After the dinner, when the van arrived for
the trip back to Walter reed, I would see how
good they were at helping fold up their wheelchairs, put
(04:44):
them in the back, and then hop along towards their
seats with a hand against the side of the van,
all the while thanking me for the drinks. Hard to
hear and hard to watch. The hero is grateful hopper
like the wife at the Pentagon Parade. My reaction was emotional,
(05:10):
and I thought somebody should have warned me. Yes, as
his name tag showed, the newly appointed Aid to Joint
Chief Chairman, Peter Pace was the son of another well
known general. In answer to my questions, he added it
was also a West Point graduate, and he listed the
several state side locations where he had been stationed. With
(05:35):
General Pace and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld just ahead
of us as we headed towards the Press briefing room.
I thought that this young officer was going to have
trouble gaining the respect to fellow officers who had seen combat.
We turned the corner, though, and then he said, I
was in a rack too, Sir, and as I saw
(05:56):
his empty uniforms leave, he added, but I got hurt there.
People fled the funeral service for Navy Seal Jonas P.
Kelsol as the building shook reassurance during an earthquake, though
is a church full of Navy seals. The squadron commander
(06:19):
kept right on giving his eulogy, and Kelsole's comrades didn't
budge Victoria Jennings. Kelsole, her self, a former Marine with
a tour in Iraq, added to the intrepidity by speaking
nearly unfalteringly of her hero husband and his belief in
(06:40):
America's mission outside. Retired Colonel Oliver North, a Vietnam veteran,
said the former Marine commentant P. X. Kelly, a Vietnam veteran.
Both of them friends of Victoria's father, Jerry Jennings, an
administration official and a Vietnam vetter. Aren't these kids amazing?
(07:04):
General Kelly readily agreed. It's the reason why he explained,
when he was recovering from an operation at Bethesda Naval Hospital,
he felt compelled to get himself moved off the deck
with the admirals and onto the casualties floor. The casualties
(07:24):
I think of them sometimes, those I knew, the wounded,
the ones who only wanted to get back to their
unit or left limbs on foreign soil. The ones whom
generals wanted to call sir or commandants, wanted the honor
of being on their hospital floor. I think too sometimes
(07:45):
the families of the fallen, the ones whose composure made
wounds not inadequate but impossible, And so I sometimes wonder
where they are and how life played out for them.
If I were to see them again, I know that
even if they asked, I would be reluctant to offer
any thoughts on their sacrifice and its meaning or that
(08:06):
of those they loved. But if they asked again, if
they pressed the question, I know I would answer, and
I know what I would tell them, that I have
lived a while and seen the verdicts of history and
know they are not always quickly rendered. But that about them,
(08:26):
the jury's finding is already in that what they did
was right and true, making others safe, protecting the weak
the innocent, giving others what they would never have had,
the gift of the future, the gift of tomorrow. And
I would say in doing all this, they had made
themselves apart, in fact, the best part of history's great story,
(08:51):
the American story. And so I would tell them they
will be remembered.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And that was telling. And for all of you've served
have lost loved ones. We don't just do these things.
I memorial day here on our American Stories, nine to eleven,
remembered more after these messages, this is our American stories
(10:22):
remembering the anniversary of nine to eleven. Many companies and
families lost loved ones that day. I lost one of
my best friends, co captain of my high school basketball
team for two years. There was nothing we didn't do
together for so many years. Paul Battini. There was one
(10:45):
investment company that lost six hundred and fifty eight of
its nine hundred and sixty employees. Before that day, Canter
Fitzgerald hadn't been all that well known beyond Wall Street. However,
after nine eleven it was known as the business to
have lost the most employees on nine to eleven. Quote,
(11:07):
we have death Fame. CEO Howard Lutnick said a few
days after the horrific event, Lutnick participated in an emotional interview.
He didn't just lose all those employees, by the way,
one of them was his brother. Here he is explaining
why he wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
My little boy.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I have a five year old and it was his
first day of kindergarten at Harstman, so I took him
for his first day of big boys school. And because
of that, I was late getting down to the office,
and therefore I wasn't in the building. I was on
my way.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
I saw the building on fire, so I didn't go in.
But I stood at the door off a church street
where there were flags there. When I stood at the
door and people were coming out, and I was yelling
at them, you know, to run and get out, and
there were police sort of around me yelling at people,
told them to get out, and I would ask him
(12:05):
what floora they were coming from, what flora they're coming from?
So I would say fifty five, and I'd scream, we
have fifty five. And because I kept wanting to get
up the building and well, my brother, my brother was
on one hundred and third floor. He worked. He worked
for me, and he worked at Canner. And he called
my sister h just after the just after the plane hit,
(12:26):
and he told her that.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
He said that the.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Smoke was pouring in. He was he was stuck in
a corner office. There was no way out and the
smoke was coming in. He's not good and things are
not good, and he's not gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And he just wanted to say that.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
He loved her when he wanted to say goodbye. And
I tell everyone that that he loved them. And then
the phone went the phone went dead.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
The plane crashed into floors ninety three through ninety nine.
Canter Fitzgerald was located right above the.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
One hundred and one hundred and five, the top floors
of the of number one World Trade Center, which they
called down the North Tower. I got to the ninety
first floor, and I knew if I got one employee,
if one person came down from that floor, that I
know that there had to be others. There would be
others behind them, there would be others going out other doors.
That that would be good. But I got up to
ninety one and then I heard this sound. It sounded
(13:19):
like another plane was going to hit the building and
was it. But it didn't sound like it was far away.
It sounded like it was like right by the ceiling
is above us. It was so unbelievably loud, and someone
screamed out another one's coming. So I just turned around
and ran and I and I was running. I was
it was Number two World Trade Center collapsing. So I'm
standing underneath a building like an idiot. And I started
(13:41):
running and I'm trying to get ahead of the smoke.
And then the smoke comes around the corner on Trimmy
Church where I ran, and knocks me down underneath the truck.
And I'm sitting there in this black, the blackest black
that can ever be. I reached out I tried to
see if I could see, and I took my hands
and I put it up and I actually touched my eye.
I couldn't see my hand. I could feel the articles
in the air. They were like this big. I could
(14:02):
feel them going in and I wasn't I couldn't think
that like pick up my shirt and put I was
just I was just sitting there thinking, I can't believe it.
I can't believe by standing there, I died so I
just started walking.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I just start walking.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Straight, and I just walked straight, and I just keep
walking straight.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
And I called my wife four hours later.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
She was hysterical crying, And so I understand why I
took lots of people a long time. I was. I'm
a pretty together person. And I four hours I walked.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I just walked north.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
I just keme walking, and he just kept walking. All
the Canter Fitzgerald companies are connected by speakerphone, so there
were voices heard from the tower amidst the chaos.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, we have, you know, a speakerphone because all our
offices are connected. In our equity business, they were all
connected to each other because they talked to each other
all day and they heard them saying, you know, we
need help, we need help, we need help. It wasn't
it wasn't screens. It was there was nowhere to go.
You couldn't go down, couldn't go up. There was nowhere
to go. But I don't know of a single one
(15:05):
of my employees who got down zero zero. And it's
really said, but I think we're all pulling together with
a view that we wanna make things happen for them.
We we need to take care of them. We need
to figure out how to take care of them and
give them more take care of them. And I think
it's gonna be a different kind of drive than I've
ever had before. It's not about my it's not about
(15:26):
my family. I can't to kiss my kids. I get
to kiss my kids tonight, but other people don't get
to kiss their kids. And I just have to help 'em.
And I think, I think it's amazing, and I think
it's amazing. They have three hundred people. They lost all
their friends, they lost the person to their left, they
lost the person to their right.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And they call me up and they say, I wanna
go to work. I said, why do you wanna go
to work? Let's just go to funerals. And they go, no, no,
I wanna go to work. I can't stay home.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
I can't stay home.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I have to make I have to work.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
I have to do something. So they they actually wanted
to try to figure it out to be in business.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
It's unbelievable, it doesn't make make sense.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
But the reason they want to be in business, and
there's only one reason to be in business, is because
we have to make our company be able to take
care of my seven hundred families, seven hundred families, seven
hundred families.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Just can't say it. I can't say that crime.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Well, a different kind of drive that he'd never known
before kicked in to Howard Lutnik and those remaining employees.
Howard further explains what Canter Fitzgerald was doing before and after.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Caunter Fitzgerald is the primary. It's like the exchange for
the world's bond markets. I mean, it's it. It is
the exchange for the world bond markets. We last last
year we did fifty trillion dollars in business today. The
remaining employees of canaforite CHERYLD and east Peed have worked
(17:06):
every second since that bomb. And they made the decision.
And I told them there's no reason for us to open.
I don't care when we open. If we opened, it
doesn't matter to me. And they collectively, two hundred and
fifty of them collectively voted that they were going to
open the markets. And this morning, at seven am, those
people opened for business, not to make money, not to
(17:30):
but they did it because they thought if the if
the fend the treasure wanted it to be open, and
it was important enough for them to show straight for
America for these markets. Then they were going to do
their damn just to get it opened.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
And they did, and it.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
I I voted against it.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I said, why, I don't want you to work.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
I want you to go home and kiss your kids
and hug your families. And but they it's them, they wanted.
They wanted to do it, maybe for themselves, maybe for
the their friends who they lost. But to write the
second it are electronics systems are running around the world,
and it's I don't know, maybe it's a miracle. Maybe
it's because these people are just they do unbelievable. I
(18:08):
think you can only be a good pause if you
have the right people. And I'm glad they chose to
be with me. But I'm the saddest person in the
world that they chose to be with me. Chose to
be with me. Too many people, so many names, so many.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
People I loved, so many people we all loved. Again,
that's Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Canter Fitzgerald. They lost
so much, but they did go back to work. And
here's why. After nine to eleven, the Canter Fitzgerald Relief
Fund was established. All those people went back to work
(18:47):
for a cause, a big cause. They have distributed more
than one hundred and eighty million dollars to the family
of Canter Fitzgerald, one quarter of the firm's profits. What
a great American story, What a sad American story, Canter
Fitzgerald's story, Howard Lutnick story. Here on our American stories,
(19:11):
nine to eleven remembered, and we continue with our American
(19:40):
stories and with a story about nine to eleven. Doctor
Mike McGhee is the author of All Available Boats, which
is about Manhattan's trains and bridges shutting down on nine
to eleven and the heroic evacuation of three hundred thousand
people off of the island by boats that happened to
be the area. It was a larger evacuation than Dunkirk,
(20:04):
and it was executed by a wide variety of boats
that answered the call for help, from pleasure boats to tugboats. Today,
Mike tells us about the Fire Department of New York's
fireboats that bravely served that day.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
One of them was the John J. Harvey, which had
been decommissioned. It was, in nineteen thirty one, the fastest
most powerful fireboat in the world. It could pump eighteen
thousand gallons a minute, which was just unheard of at
the time. It was named after John J. Harvey, who
had died in a fire on a boat. But the
(20:43):
interesting thing about it is that at the time of
nine to eleven it was completely decommissioned, but it was functional.
And the guy who actually was in charge of the
John J. Harvey was a architectural preservationist who had gotten
(21:07):
interested in saving.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
The John J. Harvey.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
So this boat, which is about one hundred and thirty
feet long, was formally preserved and saved beginning in nineteen
ninety nine, and Huntley Gill was the guy who raised
the funds and coordinated it, and then he.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Became the captain.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
He was aided by a former truck mechanic whose name
was Tim Ivory, who became the chief engineer for the boat.
And he just got a kick out of, you know,
keeping this thing functioning. It's a mechanical wonder. And then
there was a third person named Jessica DeLong who happened
to be from Massachusetts and was a maritime historian who
(21:49):
had gotten interested in the boat became one of the
crew members for it. So at the time of the attack,
Huntley Gill was asleep in his Manhattan apartment. Tim Ivory,
who lived on a houseboat in a marina in New
Jersey on the New Jersey side, was having breakfast at
a diner, and Jessica DeLong was writing a freelance article.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
In her Brooklyn flat.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Within hours, the three of them were on the boat,
and the boat was on the Hudson heading south to
the disaster. And the first thing they did when they
arrived there was to over a loudspeaker address the crowd
that hadn't gathered to be evacuated, you know, the most
(22:39):
panicky people and those who were injured in the falling
of the towers immediately obviously tried to get off the south.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Side of the island and they were all gathered there.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
So at Pier sixty three on the Hudson River, where
the boat originated, it headed south and the first thing
it did was use a loudspeaker to tell people anybody
want to go uptown, And one hundred and fifty people
boarded the fireboat and they took them uptown. Then they
got a call by the time they reached uptown to
(23:11):
discharge these one hundred and fifty people that got a
call to rush back because the fire trucks had already
run out of water and they needed this retired John J.
Harvey to pump eighteen thousand gallons of water a minute
to fill.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
The trucks that were all out of water. So that's what.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
They did, and they stayed in action down there for
four days.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Now. One of the boats that was there as well
was the John D. McKean fireboat.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
That fireboat was actually in service at the time, and
it was a newer boat. It wasn't that brand new.
It had been commissioned in nineteen fifty two, again named
after a firefighter in nineteen fifty three actually who had
lost his life in a steam explosion on a boat.
(24:07):
The captain, though, Ed Metcalf, this was only his second
day as captain of that boat, so he had just
arrived and the second day of his command, he gets
this call to come down immediately to.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
The seawall at Liberty Street.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
In fact, this was right after the first plane had
hit and the second plane had not yet hit. They
were down there within about five minutes and Metcalf got
off the boat to go to the command center to
see what the fire department wanted him to do next.
He subsequently was lost in the turmoil and the collapse
(24:50):
of the second building after the second plane hit, which
they all saw, you know, and that's another part of
this story. You know, who witnessed those attacks, or anyone
who witnessed all of the citizens covered in inches of
dust and debris slowly walking either north out of Manhattan
(25:17):
or south to try to be evacuated by boat. Anyone
who witnessed those images has never really forgotten those images.
And when Ed Metcalf didn't come back immediately, one of
his crew members, Tom Sullivan, went to trying to find
out where he was, and Tom ended up in some
(25:39):
of the wreckage of the second building collapsing and nearly
lost his life as well. But in any case, what
happened was that this boat, the John D. McKeen, which
is one hundred and thirty feet long, it played a
major role in the evacuation, and it was not designed
(26:00):
obviously to transport people. In fact, these boats, the way
they're designed, they need a gangplank of about twelve feet
to reach the shoreline, and the shorelines down there were
never designed for multiple purposes at either. I mean, one
of the things that we learned from this event is
(26:23):
that that New York Harbor area was not well designed
for a disaster. You know, the people who run these boats,
they talk about the commercial uses and bringing in liners
and shipping containers over on the New Jersey side, but
in general, it isn't a very good edge between the
(26:46):
water and the land for boarding human beings, not designed
for that at all. So the fact that they were
able to move safely somewhere between three hundred and fifty
thousand and five hundred thousand people off that island in
a short period of time is nothing short of a miracle.
(27:08):
And when they moved the John D McKeen fireboat and
started using it, people were panicked.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
The towers had just collapsed.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
People thought that the entire southern tip of Manhattan was
going to blow up.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
They didn't know what was coming next, and they were panicked.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
And you had not simply wall streeters covered in dust,
but you had babies and nannies and civilians who lived
in the buildings around this area all trying to get
off the island, and the John D McKean fireboat really
ran into a lot of challenges in terms of children.
(27:50):
Their deck was about eight foot down from the loading shores,
and they were literally throwing some of the babies to
the open arms arms of these firefighters on the boat,
and then the babies were taken down and four babies
to a cot were placed.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
In the firemen.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
We're taking care of the babies as they were loading
the nannies. In one case, a lady who was panicked
actually jumped in the water and got trapped between the
boat and the shore, and the firefighters had to actually
jump into the water and save them by throwing a
(28:32):
plank ladder down and boosting them up. One firefighter had
to dive under the water to push an exhausted lady
onto the ladder. So this is a very chaotic situation,
and so for the boat captains, who were not used
to doing this kind of work to remain calm and
(28:54):
to as much as possible protect the safety of people
who were inclined to do anything at that moment to
get off the island.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
One of the common features.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Of almost everyone that we interviewed was that when the
boats were moving away from the island and looking back
you could see initially the twin towers on fire, and
then they all witnessed their collapse, and then they were
(29:28):
just gone. The thing that was most in common in
every story was the extreme quietness on the boat itself
that was nothing like they had ever experienced, the solemnness.
Everyone was deep inside themselves.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
And he is right about the silence. And that's the
silence in New York and also in Washington, DC. And
I bet it was the quietest time in American history.
People would just shocked. A special thanks to Monte Montgomery
and Alex Cortes for the work. Doctor Mike McGee, author
of All Available Boats Are nine to eleven. Special here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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