September 5, 2023 • 46 mins
FDNY Retired firefighter Danny Manning recalls the minutes, hours and days after our country was attacked on September 11th, 2001. We will never forget the service and sacrifice of the heroes that gave their all on 9/11/2001.
More about Danny Manning :
Read about Danny saving his mother's life on Christmas Day HERE.
Read about El Barrio's Bravest and LT Michael Murphy HERE.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Good Stuff. I'm Jacob Shick and I'm
joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
gold Star granddaughter. And we work together to serve military veterans,
first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At
One Tribe Foundation, we.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Believe everyone has a story to tell, not only about
the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through to
get them to where they are today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,
to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
who they are and what they're doing to pay it
forward and give back.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Our mission with this show is to dig deep into
our guest's journey so that we can celebrate the hope
and inspiration their story has to offer.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We're thrilled you're joining us again.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Welcome to the Good Stuff. We are so honored to
share today's story with you, even though it's not an
easy one to share. Today's guest is Danny Manning, a
retired FDNY firefighter.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I originally met Danny years ago in Kinsale, Ireland for
the dedication of a plaque in honor of Lieutenant Michael
Murphy for an organization called Irish Veterans, and he's become
a very dear friend, more like family over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
He is an incredible man who served the New York
Fire Department for over twenty years and even saved his
mother's life on Christmas Day in two thousand and seven
after she suffered cardiac arrest and what has been coined
the Miracle of Christmas. This episode with Danny recording in
New York City was a spiritual experience.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely. He was living in New York serving as a
firefighter on September eleventh, two thousand and one. He's here
to tell us about his experience that day and the
days that followed at ground zero. How many years did
you serve in the fire department?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Twenty three years?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Twenty three years. That's incredible. And you met your beautiful wife,
a New York City girl, Mary Ellen from the Bronx,
and we've been so blessed to know you and the
entire Manning family, and today you're gracious enough to share
with us a story that changed your life and the
lives of countless other people forever on September eleventh, two
thousand and one, when terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew them
(02:20):
into New York City's Twin Towers. As a New York firefighter,
you and your fellow first responders were on the front
lines of this horrific day in history. And it would
just be an honor for Jake and I to hear
you tell your story of September eleventh, two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So beautiful morning.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
I was off duty that day and Mary Ellen was
watching TV and I was in the back bedroom and
I heard a screech from her and a scream, and
so I came running out and I said, what's the matter,
And she said, a plane just hit the World Trade Center. Now,
Mary Alln worked for United Airlines. One of her offices
when she worked was in that one of those towers.
(02:59):
She knows it well. So I looked at it and
I said, Gee, this doesn't make sense. I'm looking out
the window. It's a beautiful sunnay morning. And I said
to Marianna about this must be a small plane that
must have just lost its way. Because there's been incidents
in Manhattan. I think I might have told you it
was an incident years later. But it was New York
(03:20):
Yankee who was flying a plane and he made a
turn blown up in that East River, and he didn't
turn sharp enough and he crashed into one of the
high rise residential buildings. A small plane, you could understand
something could go wrong, never expecting this to be a
big jetliner.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So watching on a TV.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And then a short while after that, the news stories
are all breaking. It's live, and we see the second
plane hit the tower. And that's when I jumped up.
She goeshe are going I says, we're under attack. This
is no accident. I ran to the back bedroom. She goes,
what are you doing. I said, I'm going to get
dressed because they're going to need every hand they can
(04:00):
down there.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
What did you say to her before you left?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
It's going to be a terrible day. We'll do our best.
Because where we lived, you could see the smoke plume
going over the water there. I knew I was going
to something that was bigger than I have but been
at before.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
When you're getting dressed, when you're taking your quick shower,
what was going through your mind?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Get down there quick? Like I said to Mary Ellen,
that they're going to need every hand they can. You
were hugging and kiss and out the door.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What do you remember the very last thing you said
to her?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Honestly, it was a hug and embrace, and I said,
I'll see you later.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I'm not going to see you again.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So I remember hugging my family before we left to
go to Iraq and telling them you'll see you later,
God willing, I'll see you later, might not see you later.
It's one of those things that we almost take you
for granted because it's just second nature.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I could see what you were thinking in your head.
You were going into a different type of situation than me.
Your work would be a little bit more dangerous, and
to ours was more structured routining. There's a mythology, if
you might say, going into fires and fighting fires, but
there's always the danger, and sure enough, that danger started
(05:12):
early on in my career. Over the course of your career,
depending on what neighborhood you're assigned to, you learn how
to fight the fires. That the buildings are predominant your neighborhood,
say right, so that the old timers would tell you
when you come into the house, all right, everything you
learned in school is fine, but we're going to teach
you how we do it here.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
One of the guys was the old time, but he
was an old, salty, old Irish guy. He took me
out of his wing a little bit. He said, let
me tell you, Danny, me boy, you got to be
a little bit crazy to be doing this job. You
understand that, right, I said, why is that? Jack He goes,
you got to think about this. Everybody's running out and
we're running in. I said, there you go, Jackson, I
(05:51):
get it. Yeah, I'm a little crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I guess you hit the bill.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
So basically at that point we are is on the
FDR drive down there, and I had seen that the
emergency vehicles we soarting to roll down the highway. I
could look out the window and see that they had
shut it down full public transportation, and so I was
able to run down there and get myself up to
the highway. I flagged down some cars that were going by,
(06:16):
and one fellow pulled over and picked me up. He
was working with the Department of Homeland Security and they
pulled over. He grabbed me and I said thanks, and
we went down after I drive. Just after we got
by the seaport a little. He was on the radio
with his guys one of the towers. He lost communications
with them, and that's when I looked to the right
(06:37):
and I saw the first tower go down. He lost
communications with his guys. They were in one of those towers.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Even with all my life experiences, I can't imagine being
in communications with your brothers and watching the tower that
they're in crumble to the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What was the atmosphere like?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Dark plume of smoke. You didn't hear much.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
There's a part down at the end of the FDR
drive where you have to go under a tunnel. He
tried to go down into the tunnel with the car,
and the smoke was coming at us. So we got
a little ways into the tunnel and people were trying
to run through it. Some cars were on the other
side of the tunnel, and we could see the people
running towards us, covered in ash and things.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
And he went down and we couldn't go anymore.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
So brilliantly he did a three point turn in the tunnel,
banged off the walls, and came back out again. We
were there for a little while, and then some fire
trucks started coming by, and I said to him, good luck.
I hope I see you again, and I'm going to
jump on the back of one of these fire trucks.
I did that, and if I went with the men,
(07:44):
I jumped on the backstep to guys.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I didn't know who they were. They just jumped on
with them. And if we went.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So you come out of the tunnel, you get out
of the car because you see the fire trucks, you
go hop on with your brothers. What's the atmosphere at
this point.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Complete chaos. I've never seen the witness before.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
And because of the magnitude of the amount of people,
the fire, the smoke, all right, that's many times magnified
as well, but because the magnitude of people rushing towards us,
with the looks on their faces covered in dust, and
the horror on their face, and the screaming and you know.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Wailing and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
At that time, there was still bad things going on
in the other tower, so we're trying to get through
all that to just start helping it. There was nobody
in charge but the command center, I believe at that
time might have been wiped out, so the communication was
difficult at that time, and so everybody was just trying
to team up and try and help somewhere.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
The breathing was difficult.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
I didn't have a mask because I came obviously keep
them home, so I had know Scott Packer, right, so
that mattered. None of the women and children and men
running had it either, so they're going the other way.
And then I counted the one woman who was in
complete distress, and she was carrying a young baby, and
I said, oh, let.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Me help her.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
She was hysterical because she lost her mother and her
other daughter. I said, They asked what he looked like,
you know, give me a description. I'll try and see
if I me and so many guys keep try and
find them. But I said, in the meantime, I said,
we have to protect this baby here. Got her and
the baby into one of the fire department cars. I said, no,
(09:31):
you just sit here. I said, I'll go look for
your mother and your child. Never did find them. The
don't know to this day whatever happened with that. But
at least I know that woman and baby made it,
and hopefully so did her mother and her other child.
But then there's no way of knowing, right, that's the uncertainty.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Of that day, so many people, so much chaos, and
what did you do next?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
People that were injured, we were trying to help them
to like they were trying to set up triarge areas
and just get people comfort them, some of them, you know,
me and many other guys, police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Everybody was just doing the same thing.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Like I said earlier, there was no real structure to
any of it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So after you help this lady and you turn back
to go even further into the scene, what are you.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Seeing As a dust stars to settle, and you look
up and you can see pokes of sunshine that used
to be filling the whole sky earlier with blue sky,
and so there's a dust was settling, you could see,
and things started to clear up, but it was still
so dusty.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Everybody's eyes were practically shut.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
It's like almost being a little bit of a vacuum
where you see it going on in slow motion, but
it's not sol emotion going on for a long time,
people running and screaming, and the rubble was everywhere from
the first tower coming down. Eventually there was people teaming
up and you'd see police officers and other people are
(11:08):
squating people, trying to get them into other buildings to
shelter them because we didn't know what was coming next.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So at this point, after you've dived right into this
whole scenario and you're there, and like you said, it's
almost surreal. It sounds like it's going in slow motion,
but it's not. It just keeps going on and on,
and it's dusty. Breathing was difficult. Everything was difficult. And
do you have time to let any of the emotion
hit you.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
No, it wasn't a time to sit and reflected. You
just you couldn't.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
You were in work mode. Yeah, you had to go
full speed ahead. Time wise, I don't. It's all documented,
but to me, it just there's no time frame to
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
What happened. When the second tower fell.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Everybody knew it was time to start moving and stop running. Well,
the experiencing world didn't do much good that day. Does
this matter how lucky you were which way you ran?
I ran one way and I made it, and another
guys ran another way and didn't make it.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Dove under a truck.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
The debris came down on there, and I was down
there and I didn't have an air pack, and i
have my nose to the ground and I'm saying, no,
this isn't going to end like this. And people started
just moving some debris and one of his got us
out of there, dragged this out.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I remember looking up and you will see was like.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Papers floating through the sky, like feathers. I said, well,
it's eerily quiet. I'm looking around. I'm saying, we have
all the people, we has, all the equipment. Just towers
were filled with sinks, computers, things in the restaurant desks,
everything that would fill a building like we're sitting in now.
None of it was there. It was all pulverized. That's
(12:51):
one memory I'll never forget. Me and another guy I
teamed up with, a dear friend of mine, name was
Ray Phillips. He was in rescue three and we had
teamed up together and we heard a pass along going off.
Now that's what we's attached to our airpacks, and it's
the activates of a man's down, whether you get down
in a fire or whatever, the incident is a guy
(13:12):
if he stayed motionless for a while, it activates. So
what happened was we could hear it off in the
distance and very distinct piercing sound. So I said, it
must be a brother down somewhere or over here. So
we went looking from and I went around the building
expecting going to be there. He wasn't there, but the
airpack was, or he had dropped it and obviously ran
or whatever and made his way. So I grabbed and
(13:35):
I said, well, say, I'm going to use it now.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So I put it on because all this time you've
been breathing in the dust.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, I didn't have any airpack. It was good to
have that. I sat there for hot and.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Took a lot of ye got some fresh oxyge.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So he left it there for me.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That's like we say in the Marine Corps gear drift
as a gift.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
There you go. And it was one part of the
story there was that the guys from ma Fi House
from Barrios Bravers fifty three and forty three were involved
in a rescue where there was guys from another company
who had gotten this woman and they were able to
get her down.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
She was a trap to herself and up on the stairway.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
There and they were able to get her down and
when the collapse happened the way they were with the
core collapsing around them. They were in this little void,
and so there was transmission. They were able to locate
where they were, and I think it was called the
Miracle Latter six and the guys from my company formed
(14:33):
a chain line and were able to make it today
and get them out. I was part of that, and
that was that was a great survival story that these
guys heroically did to witness.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
That was something absolutely.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
There was an area where we had made our way
into a void and we were getting radio transmissions that
we were in a dangerous spot, and they kept saying,
you got to pull out, you got to pull out.
I was a little bit further back than some of
the other guys from the company were up ahead of me,
and they spotted a guy that was they could.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
See the helmet. It was a chief. He was pinned
in there. I couldn't tell whether he was alive or not.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
We had visual on him, and they kept trying to
pull us out and pull us out, and guys wouldn't leave,
and finally we had to go. We had to pull
out because of the imminent collapse and everything. And it
wasn't like he was laying there was screaming for help
or anything. He was unconscious. We didn't know if he
was alive or dead, but we were trying to just
get to him. At one point, I got my shoulders
(15:41):
this located. So they went up to the hospital and
all emergency people from around the city was just like
I did. We're volunteering going to the hospitals to help
Manhattan there because they figured they're.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Going to need all hands on deck.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
And I remember getting taken to the hospital and they
were all standing outside with the stretches out on the
sidewalks and how many people coming?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Where's everybody? Well, there's not enough people to come.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
A lot of them just didn't make it out anyway.
They got patched up and then went back down there,
went back to work, and at that point it was
total rescue mode. More and more reinforcements were showing up,
so we just went to work. I hooked up again
with forty three truck they were down there, so worked
with them. They were grabbing units them all over the
(16:30):
city at this point and relieving and rotating people that
were on duty active guys and shifting and people coming
in to help out. It was one night and they
were being relieved on their shift and I hopped on
the back of the truck with the guys. At that point,
Lower Manhattan was all just encapsulated. They had the military
out there, the National Guard, you had all the police
(16:52):
intelligence units. Everything was sealed off, so nobody was coming
into the as you would relate to into your perimeter.
This is a distinct memory that will always stay with me,
and I've often sold us to people. We leave and
we're just laying all over the top of the rig
on the hook and ladder, and guys are beat up
and exhausted. All along the West Side Highway there people
(17:16):
are lined up signs and they're cheering. We're just laying
around on the rig and taking it all in. And
it was just amazing the people that came out of
all the buildings to, you know, give us this boost
and we go down and we come down along that
and that went on for my olden and we come
(17:37):
down Union Square and there's a big almost rally going
on in Union Square. Hiabetes really emotional. And the way
equated to people when I tell the story is if
you watch the old movies of World War Two when
the tanks are rolling into the villages, in Italy and
(17:59):
France and all the women and coming out waving the
flags and handing battles of wine to the soldiers. And
that's how it felt to me, that crowd. It's like
you just liberated the city, but they knew we just
where we came from, just then, and they were giving that.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Back to us.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Significant trauma can either be a great divider or a
great uniter. And I remember nine to twelve very very well,
and I remember thinking, no one in the world, no
one in the world, would dare mess with us right now,
because we were all one. It didn't matter race, colored, creed, religion.
If you lived under that red, white, and blue, you
(18:44):
were untouchable.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It really was true. And you saw the whole city
put up like.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That, the whole country. Like I'm sitting here thinking, Jake
and I always talk about the America of nine to twelve.
You were still at ground zero on nine to twelve,
entire day, praying, hoping, searching for any signs of life,
digging through the dust and the decimation. And meanwhile, yes,
(19:09):
the rest of the country was uniting. So that's exactly
what should have happened. When you came out of the
perimeter and.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You know it's beautiful, Danny, is that you described that,
and like, it chokes me up thinking about it, even
though you were leaving ground zero with your brothers and
you got all that love. We felt that down in
Texas during a time of unbelievable trauma and tragedy. It
was one of the most beautiful, soul filling moments of
(19:39):
my life. And I remember thinking, this is why my
grandparents loved this country the way they do. And I
thought I had a pretty firm grip on love of country.
On nine to twelve, it was a big dose of
you get it or you don't. It was all inspiring
the watch.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
I appreciate that now coming from you guys, because I
know there's many of those stories around.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I saw the.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Gratitude and the caring, the genuine concern and condolences that
were coming from around the country and around the world.
Oh yeah, my family in Ireland, they couldn't contact us,
my brother Patrick as if I'm in the South Bronx,
and they didn't know where we were that day, if
we were there, if we were in those buildings. So
(20:24):
I remember that day being down there. I said, well, Jesus,
that old Patrick's not here, you know, and I was
worried for my brother.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
I think it's so important that the listeners understand too
that you're doing this job saving people who've never met,
all at the same time wondering it's your loved ones
rather it's your blood brothers or your brothers through work,
how they're doing while you're trying to save other people.
That's the epitome of selflessness and courage all at the
(20:51):
same time. And it was on display not only that day,
but for the days and weeks after. When you feel
like you don't have more to give, you always have
more to give.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
So the last thing you said to Mary Ellen, will
see you later. Yeah, tell me about that homecoming.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
My son and daughter they weren't home. They've been in school,
you know.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
At that time, some of the schools running into lockdown
road around the city, and so they didn't come home
for a while, and they didn't you know, they didn't
see me for two days. So it was one time
I was up on a pile and a guy was
leaving and he was going down and I said to
me a favor because it was no self service and
(21:34):
stuff like that. I said, I didn't know the guy
but I said, you can remember Cole my family let
them know I'm okay.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I came home.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I was still pretty covered in dust and everything, and
it was just not many words, a lot of hugs.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
You're having more than one, some more of the grim Reaper. Myself,
I believe in the in the will to live, and
I believe God willing if you're in a circumstance where
clearly the poor souls that were tried than those buildings
that couldn't get below a certain floor before they collapsed,
much different circumstance. And that's why I say, God willing
have provided the circumstance to say I'm not going out
(22:13):
like this, not today, not yet. I believe in that will.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
And I bet you that has fueled a lot of guys
over the years.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Guarantee you, because I know a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, that's what I was getting at.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah, in this particular day, there's guys who did heroic things.
I mean, I'm one that doesn't take that word hero
too easily. I don't feel comfortable with it a lot.
The way it's used in today's day and age.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I feel like the word has been overused. My gosh,
it has been diluted completely, and it's really pissed me off. Agreed,
because to me, most of the true heroes I know
are no longer will.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
That's where I was getting at on this day. There'll
be heroic things that would that these guys aren't here
to talk about. But knowing some of them personally myself,
I know what they were doing and tried to accomplish.
There was one guy who was a dear friend of mine,
Patty Brown. Patty was a legend on the job and
matt Facktown, where I lived, is a sign a walk
(23:18):
Patty Brown Walk, much decorated Vietnam veteran, much decorated New
York City firefighter. I wasn't there to tell it, so
I'm telling this story like second hand and third hand.
But I suppose Patty was taking his men up and
going up to the tower and somebody from the command says, so, Patty,
where you are going?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
What are you doing? Patty?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
He says, We're going up and he goes, you can't
go up there, turned him and says something like, what
are you nuts? This is what we do and know
if they went and reportedly Patty got to the highest
floor of the towers, than anybody. Found a woman but
didn't make it back down. But he had radio transmission
(23:55):
from him way up and he got the highest events
anybody up there, and he found people to help radio transmission.
I got somebody and him and this man never made
it back down. To me, that's heroic, and that's a
hero A dear friend of mine who came on the job.
But Bernie, his son, was in one of the wolfices
(24:16):
up there and working in Canifit Cheryl and called his
father and said, Dad.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I'm stuck come up here.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you know, Bernie's his home and rockaway watching on
TV and seeing the whole thing unfold, and he said,
what should I do?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
And he said to him go up to the roof.
He said, get to it. If you can't get you
and your people up to the roof, our guys will
get you up there.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
At that point, there was a unit that was trained
to go with the helicopters and repel down for highbrids rescues.
You know, he knew about that. He said, our guys
will get you there. Eventually, they'll put the fire out there.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Get up to you.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Shortly after that phone call with his son, watched the
tower go down in front of him on it TV
with his son, and I said, Bernie, you told your
son the same thing I would have told mine.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Don't kick yourself for this. That was the only option,
and it was the right option.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
And the best option. It was out of everybody's hands
in that situation.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
For sure. He did the right thing, tell them where
to go, and that was the only way to go.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
It was a few days later when I was back
there and Father Michael was I consider a close friend.
He was Patty Brown's very close friend, and both of
them died did that day. They were very close him
and Patty and I had often said to Father Michael,
is you know the Irish connection and everything. I said,
Father Mike, you know, anything happens to me, you'll be
(25:39):
the one to send me off, And he well, I'll
look after that handy, but I don't you have to
worry about that.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
We were at the top of one of the corps
and it was all through the night, and we found
some guys from Squad eighteen that were down buried in
one of the cars and the voids at the top.
Father Michael's uneral was coming up that morning. Many days later,
we had a thing where if we found somebody one
of our guys, everything stopped. You sent the word down
(26:11):
through the chain line of all the guys. And we
found some guys, some Squad eighteen. So you stop, you
get on the radio, you get word down. We get
them out and give the honor of the company to
come and get their own men and bring their own
men down, no matter where you were, whatever the company
(26:32):
from Brooklyn's that now in Brox didn't matter.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
So we got them out.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
We waited for Squid eighteen to come and get their men,
and it took them a long time they come up
and get us. So I couldn't get the father Michael's
schunerl because of that, because I wanted to say, with
the guys up there that morning, the heroes to me
of all the guys that didn't make it over the years.
And then I know personally my dear friend Larry, he
(26:55):
was a big powerful man. It was early, it was
only a year on the job, early in my career.
He dragged me into to a fire and we went
and rescued a woman on the second floor. I was
a proby in those days. We didn't have the mask
or anything, you know, And he grabbed me and we
went in without a hose line. We became a rescue
(27:16):
you know truck because the truck wasn't on the scene.
We rescued this woman. She found her unconscious on the
second floor, brought her out. He didn't bother putting us
in for any metals or anything like that. He said,
that's this is what we do, kid, you know, this
is welcome to the job. I was just happy to
make it in it out with her and rescue this woman.
And he became my dear friend, and I learned early
(27:37):
on from him that it's not about that, you know,
somebody's in help.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Nobody does it for any of that.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
And then his best friend was this fellow Larry Fitzpatrick,
who I knew working in one of the bars I
was involved with. It was nineteen eighty. One of the
guys was stuck up in the chef Way in Harlem.
They lowered Larry to go down and get you every frisbee.
So they were a bad jam and the guy was
stuck just like those pictures we showed you last night,
(28:03):
the fireouse and the guys stuck in the windows with
the flames. That was another scenario like that in the
chefway in the tenement, and they lowered Larry on a
rope to go get Jerry, and he got him, grabbed
Jerry and they started lowering him down and the rope
snapped and the two of them fell five stories to
their death.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Larry had eight.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Kids, whole little That was my early introduction to the
tragedy of the job. And it hit home because he
was a friend.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Right, What originally made you want to be a fighter?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Fighter?
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Oh, that's a good story. I never had any clue
about being a firefighter. And I was working in the
bars out in the Hamptons and some of the summer
clubs out there. This one bar was working in. These
guys came and were working there and it turned out
they were firemen, but they were laid off. And it
(28:56):
was this friend of mine, Danny Noonan and Tommy Corning.
So they we're picking up work wherever they can get it.
You know, the fire department had gone through layoffs.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
The city.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
I was in a bad time in those days, and
they gave a lot of firemen pink slips and they
didn't know whether the next paycheck was going to come from.
They're telling me, and we get to know each other
and working out there, and they go they said, Danny,
there's a test coming up.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
He said, you should think about taking the Finement's test.
I go, really, wow, there's something I didn't think about.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Then I thought to myself, I said, wait a second.
These guys just got laid off by the city. They
should be really pissed off. And here they are telling
me you got to take the test for this job.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
It's a great job.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
So I said, you know Jesus right, if they're telling
me that, this must be a really good job and
they must love it.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Sure enough, I took the test.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
And I trained for it with a bunch of my
buddies from the neighborhood, my brother Patrick. We all trained together,
and we all did well enough to get on the job.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I had a goal of it.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
I hope I can get into the top thousand because
the matter, boy, you work, how you did under written
did on the physical. I said, I'm going to work
really hard to get into I want to crack a thousand.
After all of a sudden, done my listening was a
thousand and three. I visited by three. But because of
those two guys Tommy and Danny speaking the way they
(30:15):
did of the job, the brotherhood, the times you know
that they had on the job before they were laid off.
I said, there has to be something to this, and
that's what I did it. It's a lifestyle being a firefighter.
I was fortunate to work in really, really great firehouses,
a lot of people that taught me so many good things,
(30:35):
and I looked up to a lot of guys on
the job. I was fortunate to have that kind of
leadership and friendship and brotherhood. It's more of a lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
You don't stop being a firefighter when you retire, and you.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Don't stop doing the things that you like to do,
the heroism, the survivors. While we also mourn and remember
the great loss, How did this day change you?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Do?
Speaker 4 (31:01):
You just appreciate things more being a firefighter or a
civilian or anything, no matter who you were that day,
it just gave you a different outlook how things are,
how things could be at any moment.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
There was always a danger.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I'm sure some of the wives of guys going off
to work were, you know, saying good bye in the morning,
and you know, some of the guys didn't come home.
For a lot of people, the appreciation of everyday life.
My god, if that didn't change your outlook, what the
heck would.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
One of the things.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
I'll always equate to that and you would appreciate this, Jake.
That's our job, you know, that's we sign up to
do the things we see. The things we do for people.
You don't bring them home to your family at night,
you don't really talk about them.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Yeah, but we signed up for that, just like you did.
The things that the women, the children, the men, the
everyday civilians that they witnessed that day. Only people I
say that go to war or do the kind of
work that we do should have seen this stuff like that.
Those are the people I feel to this day probably
(32:08):
carried out a little tougher the young kids what they witnessed.
Nobody should have seen that horrific stuff that went on
that day except people like us. That to me is
the untold sadness, maybe a little bit of it.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I believe too that that's why people like us
we have an unspoken connection. To me, it's very sad
that it is mainly because of very morbid reasons we
have to experience or have experienced, horrific things that most
people shouldn't have to experience when people say the brotherhood.
(32:46):
I can look at a guy like you and it's unspoken,
but I get it. I remember being in the hospital
my father telling me your marines are weird, and I
just remember looking at them and saying, there's no way
you could understand. And I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah, there's certain things you got to leave out.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
September eleventh, two thousand and one, the day the world
stopped turning, and you as one of fdn y's finest
and with Irish roots, who proudly served your country and
went in on that horrific day and came out and
did so much and have done so much since to
give back to humankind. We're just we do salute you,
(33:30):
and we love you and we thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, you're an exceptional human being. For guys like me,
it is all inspiring to be able to be like
when we went to the firehouse last night and we
got to meet those guys and just tell them thank you.
We mean it. It's not the service, trust.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Me, Jake. They know it. There's been a lot of
guys like you have come to the firehouse.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
A lot of the seals have come up from Michael
thing a lot of like the tenant was telling the
last night that the tune that came in role. They
know that what you do and what you done and
guys like you, the connection is there.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
That's what they felt it last night. It was powerful.
I called the firehouse this.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Morning to thank all the guys and they said, my God,
that was powerful meeting you guys last night.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
The connection is.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
There and it's our honor and our country is greater
because of men like you. In fact, I love hearing
you tell stories like you were just a true irishman
in such a good storyteller, and you've got stories for days,
and there might have to be like a Danny Manning
episode two.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Babe.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, I'm all about the Danny Minning part two.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
We could talk about the Michael Murphy and to Steven
Scilla Foundation.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
What you guys are in here for.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Absolutely. So. We actually met in a very small town
in Ireland and County Court called Kinsale, that you and
I both have very close relation to and Jake's been
a couple times and we just we love that village.
If you haven't been to Kinsale, you haven't been Ireland.
And the greatest people I mean the greatest people, from
the Frawleys at the White House to James Sikora and
(35:06):
Declan Hughes from Irish Veterans and flash of course you
Sharon Cross be the biggest personality in the world. You
got to mention them. And Danny and I were both
there about six years ago at an unveiling of the
Irish Veterans tribute to Lieutenant Michael Murphy who was the
Navy seal that gave his life. I mean, many of
you are familiar with the lone survivor story and that
(35:27):
was Lieutenant Michael Murphy. His family, the Murphys are actually
from that area of County Cork and Ireland as well,
and so we were all there together for a beautiful
day in Kinsale, Ireland to celebrate and honor the life
of Michael Murphy and establish the first Chapter of Irish Veterans,
which were both still a part of absolutely and an
incredible organization. So that is one of the chance meetings
(35:47):
of my life that I just I treasure every day
because you are a true gym and I'm just I'm
so thrilled to.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Remember when you walked up with me with the at
the end when I was. I spoke the ambassador with
the name tags and said, hey, cuz you have the
same name.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, so some of my Irish roots are actually from Manning.
And when I heard your last name was Manning and
you were from that same area, I walked up and
I told you that, and you started calling me cousin.
Now we've done it ever since, my long lost New
York cousin that I met in Ireland.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
And but an organization, the people of Cansale have embraced it,
along with the nine to eleven Garden.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
And that's one of the first places I took Jake
when we went to Kensale a couple of years ago.
I said, you have to come see this. And that's
why we say the world stopped turning that day, the
fact that in a tiny village in County Cork and Ireland,
there's actually a hall in the white House that's a
tribute to nine to eleven. And then not too far
from there, up on this beautiful hill overlooking the bay
the harbor, rather, there's a garden that has three hundred
(36:48):
and forty three trees planted in this garden with the
name of a firefighter that lost their life on September eleventh,
two thousand and one, on every tree, and then there's
a beautiful monument paying tribute to that as well. This
isn't can sale Ireland a world away.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
I remember the day we went, and it was it
was very moving because Flash it's the greatest. He's one
of the greatest humans in the world. And he put,
oh my gosh, I hadn't laughed that hard, I think
since I was in the Marine Corps and I remember
Flash dropping us. We got out and he explained, this
(37:26):
is what it is, and this goes to show you
how much and I love and affected the entire world.
Clearly flashed me my background from the Marine Corps, and
he knew just to let us, let us be, you know.
Nashley and I grabbed hands and we walked through this
whole thing. Never said a word.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
He had.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
A million things were said, but it was all in
silence and respect and honor. And it's just a beautiful
thing to see that they get it all over the world.
And if we could just get back to who we
were on nine to twelve.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
And it's because of nine to twelve. Fast forward, you know,
Father Michael was dear friends with Kathleen Murphy who started
the garden, whose property is on ohow and so that's
why it is a tribute. It's the father Michael, that's right,
Judge nine to eleven Garden remembrance and it is because
of generosity nine to twelve Kathleen Murphy, who was a
(38:23):
long time Lenox Hill Hospital emergency room nurse who treated
many of our guys over the years. It was because
of her compassion and sorrow and respect for all the
three hundred and forty three of us that the guys
had to make it that she came up to his
idea to plant a tree and everybody's name in the
garden of respect to them. This woman took care of
(38:46):
a lot of firemen over the years on her own property,
building this out of our own money and did everything
on our own with the help of the villagers there
and can sail and people from all around the world
come to visit this.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Garden now and it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
We were there that I'm one for the dedication for
Michael Murphy, a lot of the Navy personnel, of the Seals,
the ambassador, we had a brief laying ceremony there with
Ambassador Cammalley. What I thought about there was like, look
at this now in the small little spot of the world.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Here is this monument now, and it's a living monument.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
You know a lot of monuments he around the country,
steel concrete. This is a living, growing monument that's forever living.
I have it in that village where I used to
go as a young boy. When I found out that
that was there, and the connection of Michael Murphy. He
had a nickname, the Protector, and I think I might
have spoke about this at the dedication. How the irony
(39:39):
of it now that Michael Murphy, who won my company
patch on all those missions, being known amongst his men
as the Protector, and growing up as his family used
to say, that was this sort of moniker that there
he is now in the village that can sail with
the Irish Veterans memorial in the beautiful white house, and
(40:02):
they were the men the three forty three up on
the hill. It's like, it's just the irony of it
to me, poetic is about to be a better word
that to Protector in the village still being there for
the men whose patch he wore.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
That to me is really irony, right, poetic.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
But you know that iconic photograph actually that we know
the song about. My friend Dave mcgilton from County Cowalk
Island wrote about he's in Ireland and he sees his
photograph of father Michael being carried in a chair by
first responders to Biman and police, and he wrote a
song about it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
The Sky Belongs to the Dreamers.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
You know, it's one of the many, many tidbits to
the stories that a lot of them are untold still today.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Probably what do you do to relax or recharge?
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Being that I retired now, I kicked back at the
house and there's always something to do around the house,
fixing things up, going to the beach, and we like
to travel to Ireland.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Name a person or organization that you can think of
that has had a massive impact on your life.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I guess I can go back to that earlier story
where I told about Larry Fitzpatrick and Larry dying on
the rope trying to save another brother. I'd say that
impacted me because it was close.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
To home, you know what feeds your soul.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Family.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Blessed to have great parents, I sort of struggles. They
had come into this country as immigrants, from Ireland, not
much in their pocket, the life type hard to give
me and my brother Patrick put money together they could
to bring us home to Ireland every other summer and
live on the farm and milk the cows and had
(41:47):
my you know, have the horses and go to the
creamery with the milk, and I'd get an ice cream
as a reward from my uncle for doing that. And
so the struggles they had to give us that kind
of life early on, to show where they came from
the farms in Ireland and not having much to their life,
and my mother leaving the country as a young woman
(42:08):
in search of a better life, never seeing some of
a family again ever, same with my father. That gave
me a sense of family that my kids today have.
That's to me the best gift. And that doesn't feed you, sol,
I don't know what does, Amen.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
And that's the I think the most beautiful part about
that too is it's generational right.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
You've truly carried it on. You have a beautiful family,
truly blessed because thank you, thank you so much for
being here with us on the good stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
I can't put in the words so much I appreciate
you and your brothers and your sacrifices and what you've
done to make this not only this country, but this
world a better place. And it is truly I mean
it in ever since the word and honor.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
To do this with you, well, this has been totally
my pleasure. I just hope I have represented all my
guys the way they should have been represented, because it's
all about them, the true eros of nine to eleven,
the guys that we told some of the stories about.
And thank you so much for having me you guys
fabulous and Jake, the admiration I have for you and
your men.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Is heartfelt throughout the whole.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Fire department, and the brotherhood is there.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
We love you. Wow. What a gift to be able
to sit down with FDNY Firefighter retired Danny Manning and
hear his first hand account of being at ground zero
on nine to eleven, two thousand and one. Just unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
I mean, talk about perspective on enjoying life and how
precious it is and fragile.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
It is and can never take a single day for granted.
I mean, we are so truly blessed, not only to
live in this country, but just to be breathing and
to have our health and our family and our friends,
and how much does he treasure those things now after
having lived through that day.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, I think is fairly obvious to me, after having
the honor and privileges sitting here and listening to that,
that it's exactly why Danny is one of the happiest
people on the planet.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Right, He absolutely is. And you know, to know his
beginnings and where he came from. His parents were born
in Ireland, and then he talked about his summers in Ireland,
which is just so heartwarming, and then he comes over
here he decides to serve our country and this wasn't
you know, the first of his many escapades as a
New York firefighter. But in Jine fifty three Latter forty three,
(44:43):
l Barrio's Bravest. What an incredible group of men that
are just so selfless, and it just makes you so
proud to be an American to know that guys like
Danny and his brothers are willing to put it all
on the line for us.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
No doubt about it. They're all heroes, and they're all
mighty men and women, And to all the heroes that
died that day and in service to our Great Country,
Patty Brown, Father, Michael, Larry Fitzpatrick. I promise you we
will never forget.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Thank you so much for listening. If this episode touched
you today, please share it and be part of making
someone else's day better.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Put on your badass capes and be great today, and
remember you can't do epic stuff without epic people. Thank
you for listening to the good Stuff. The Good Stuff
is executive produced by Ashley Shick, Jacob Schick, Leah Pictures and.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Q Code Media.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Hosted by Ashley Shick and Jacob Shick, Produced by Nick
Cassilini and Ryan Countshouse. Post production supervisor Will Tindi. Music
by Will haywood Smith, edited by Mike Robinson, sound effects
by Eric Aaron
Welcome to the Good Stuff. I'm Jacob Shick and I'm
joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
gold Star granddaughter. And we work together to serve military veterans,
first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At
One Tribe Foundation, we.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Believe everyone has a story to tell, not only about
the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through to
get them to where they are today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,
to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
who they are and what they're doing to pay it
forward and give back.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Our mission with this show is to dig deep into
our guest's journey so that we can celebrate the hope
and inspiration their story has to offer.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We're thrilled you're joining us again.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Welcome to the Good Stuff. We are so honored to
share today's story with you, even though it's not an
easy one to share. Today's guest is Danny Manning, a
retired FDNY firefighter.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I originally met Danny years ago in Kinsale, Ireland for
the dedication of a plaque in honor of Lieutenant Michael
Murphy for an organization called Irish Veterans, and he's become
a very dear friend, more like family over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
He is an incredible man who served the New York
Fire Department for over twenty years and even saved his
mother's life on Christmas Day in two thousand and seven
after she suffered cardiac arrest and what has been coined
the Miracle of Christmas. This episode with Danny recording in
New York City was a spiritual experience.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely. He was living in New York serving as a
firefighter on September eleventh, two thousand and one. He's here
to tell us about his experience that day and the
days that followed at ground zero. How many years did
you serve in the fire department?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Twenty three years?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Twenty three years. That's incredible. And you met your beautiful wife,
a New York City girl, Mary Ellen from the Bronx,
and we've been so blessed to know you and the
entire Manning family, and today you're gracious enough to share
with us a story that changed your life and the
lives of countless other people forever on September eleventh, two
thousand and one, when terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew them
(02:20):
into New York City's Twin Towers. As a New York firefighter,
you and your fellow first responders were on the front
lines of this horrific day in history. And it would
just be an honor for Jake and I to hear
you tell your story of September eleventh, two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So beautiful morning.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
I was off duty that day and Mary Ellen was
watching TV and I was in the back bedroom and
I heard a screech from her and a scream, and
so I came running out and I said, what's the matter,
And she said, a plane just hit the World Trade Center. Now,
Mary Alln worked for United Airlines. One of her offices
when she worked was in that one of those towers.
(02:59):
She knows it well. So I looked at it and
I said, Gee, this doesn't make sense. I'm looking out
the window. It's a beautiful sunnay morning. And I said
to Marianna about this must be a small plane that
must have just lost its way. Because there's been incidents
in Manhattan. I think I might have told you it
was an incident years later. But it was New York
(03:20):
Yankee who was flying a plane and he made a
turn blown up in that East River, and he didn't
turn sharp enough and he crashed into one of the
high rise residential buildings. A small plane, you could understand
something could go wrong, never expecting this to be a
big jetliner.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So watching on a TV.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And then a short while after that, the news stories
are all breaking. It's live, and we see the second
plane hit the tower. And that's when I jumped up.
She goeshe are going I says, we're under attack. This
is no accident. I ran to the back bedroom. She goes,
what are you doing. I said, I'm going to get
dressed because they're going to need every hand they can
(04:00):
down there.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
What did you say to her before you left?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
It's going to be a terrible day. We'll do our best.
Because where we lived, you could see the smoke plume
going over the water there. I knew I was going
to something that was bigger than I have but been
at before.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
When you're getting dressed, when you're taking your quick shower,
what was going through your mind?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Get down there quick? Like I said to Mary Ellen,
that they're going to need every hand they can. You
were hugging and kiss and out the door.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What do you remember the very last thing you said
to her?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Honestly, it was a hug and embrace, and I said,
I'll see you later.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I'm not going to see you again.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So I remember hugging my family before we left to
go to Iraq and telling them you'll see you later,
God willing, I'll see you later, might not see you later.
It's one of those things that we almost take you
for granted because it's just second nature.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
I could see what you were thinking in your head.
You were going into a different type of situation than me.
Your work would be a little bit more dangerous, and
to ours was more structured routining. There's a mythology, if
you might say, going into fires and fighting fires, but
there's always the danger, and sure enough, that danger started
(05:12):
early on in my career. Over the course of your career,
depending on what neighborhood you're assigned to, you learn how
to fight the fires. That the buildings are predominant your neighborhood,
say right, so that the old timers would tell you
when you come into the house, all right, everything you
learned in school is fine, but we're going to teach
you how we do it here.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
One of the guys was the old time, but he
was an old, salty, old Irish guy. He took me
out of his wing a little bit. He said, let
me tell you, Danny, me boy, you got to be
a little bit crazy to be doing this job. You
understand that, right, I said, why is that? Jack He goes,
you got to think about this. Everybody's running out and
we're running in. I said, there you go, Jackson, I
(05:51):
get it. Yeah, I'm a little crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I guess you hit the bill.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
So basically at that point we are is on the
FDR drive down there, and I had seen that the
emergency vehicles we soarting to roll down the highway. I
could look out the window and see that they had
shut it down full public transportation, and so I was
able to run down there and get myself up to
the highway. I flagged down some cars that were going by,
(06:16):
and one fellow pulled over and picked me up. He
was working with the Department of Homeland Security and they
pulled over. He grabbed me and I said thanks, and
we went down after I drive. Just after we got
by the seaport a little. He was on the radio
with his guys one of the towers. He lost communications
with them, and that's when I looked to the right
(06:37):
and I saw the first tower go down. He lost
communications with his guys. They were in one of those towers.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Even with all my life experiences, I can't imagine being
in communications with your brothers and watching the tower that
they're in crumble to the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What was the atmosphere like?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Dark plume of smoke. You didn't hear much.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
There's a part down at the end of the FDR
drive where you have to go under a tunnel. He
tried to go down into the tunnel with the car,
and the smoke was coming at us. So we got
a little ways into the tunnel and people were trying
to run through it. Some cars were on the other
side of the tunnel, and we could see the people
running towards us, covered in ash and things.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
And he went down and we couldn't go anymore.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
So brilliantly he did a three point turn in the tunnel,
banged off the walls, and came back out again. We
were there for a little while, and then some fire
trucks started coming by, and I said to him, good luck.
I hope I see you again, and I'm going to
jump on the back of one of these fire trucks.
I did that, and if I went with the men,
(07:44):
I jumped on the backstep to guys.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I didn't know who they were. They just jumped on
with them. And if we went.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So you come out of the tunnel, you get out
of the car because you see the fire trucks, you
go hop on with your brothers. What's the atmosphere at
this point.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Complete chaos. I've never seen the witness before.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
And because of the magnitude of the amount of people,
the fire, the smoke, all right, that's many times magnified
as well, but because the magnitude of people rushing towards us,
with the looks on their faces covered in dust, and
the horror on their face, and the screaming and you know.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Wailing and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
At that time, there was still bad things going on
in the other tower, so we're trying to get through
all that to just start helping it. There was nobody
in charge but the command center, I believe at that
time might have been wiped out, so the communication was
difficult at that time, and so everybody was just trying
to team up and try and help somewhere.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
The breathing was difficult.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
I didn't have a mask because I came obviously keep
them home, so I had know Scott Packer, right, so
that mattered. None of the women and children and men
running had it either, so they're going the other way.
And then I counted the one woman who was in
complete distress, and she was carrying a young baby, and
I said, oh, let.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Me help her.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
She was hysterical because she lost her mother and her
other daughter. I said, They asked what he looked like,
you know, give me a description. I'll try and see
if I me and so many guys keep try and
find them. But I said, in the meantime, I said,
we have to protect this baby here. Got her and
the baby into one of the fire department cars. I said, no,
(09:31):
you just sit here. I said, I'll go look for
your mother and your child. Never did find them. The
don't know to this day whatever happened with that. But
at least I know that woman and baby made it,
and hopefully so did her mother and her other child.
But then there's no way of knowing, right, that's the uncertainty.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Of that day, so many people, so much chaos, and
what did you do next?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
People that were injured, we were trying to help them
to like they were trying to set up triarge areas
and just get people comfort them, some of them, you know,
me and many other guys, police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Everybody was just doing the same thing.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Like I said earlier, there was no real structure to
any of it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So after you help this lady and you turn back
to go even further into the scene, what are you.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Seeing As a dust stars to settle, and you look
up and you can see pokes of sunshine that used
to be filling the whole sky earlier with blue sky,
and so there's a dust was settling, you could see,
and things started to clear up, but it was still
so dusty.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Everybody's eyes were practically shut.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
It's like almost being a little bit of a vacuum
where you see it going on in slow motion, but
it's not sol emotion going on for a long time,
people running and screaming, and the rubble was everywhere from
the first tower coming down. Eventually there was people teaming
up and you'd see police officers and other people are
(11:08):
squating people, trying to get them into other buildings to
shelter them because we didn't know what was coming next.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So at this point, after you've dived right into this
whole scenario and you're there, and like you said, it's
almost surreal. It sounds like it's going in slow motion,
but it's not. It just keeps going on and on,
and it's dusty. Breathing was difficult. Everything was difficult. And
do you have time to let any of the emotion
hit you.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
No, it wasn't a time to sit and reflected. You
just you couldn't.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
You were in work mode. Yeah, you had to go
full speed ahead. Time wise, I don't. It's all documented,
but to me, it just there's no time frame to
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
What happened. When the second tower fell.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Everybody knew it was time to start moving and stop running. Well,
the experiencing world didn't do much good that day. Does
this matter how lucky you were which way you ran?
I ran one way and I made it, and another
guys ran another way and didn't make it.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Dove under a truck.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
The debris came down on there, and I was down
there and I didn't have an air pack, and i
have my nose to the ground and I'm saying, no,
this isn't going to end like this. And people started
just moving some debris and one of his got us
out of there, dragged this out.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I remember looking up and you will see was like.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Papers floating through the sky, like feathers. I said, well,
it's eerily quiet. I'm looking around. I'm saying, we have
all the people, we has, all the equipment. Just towers
were filled with sinks, computers, things in the restaurant desks,
everything that would fill a building like we're sitting in now.
None of it was there. It was all pulverized. That's
(12:51):
one memory I'll never forget. Me and another guy I
teamed up with, a dear friend of mine, name was
Ray Phillips. He was in rescue three and we had
teamed up together and we heard a pass along going off.
Now that's what we's attached to our airpacks, and it's
the activates of a man's down, whether you get down
in a fire or whatever, the incident is a guy
(13:12):
if he stayed motionless for a while, it activates. So
what happened was we could hear it off in the
distance and very distinct piercing sound. So I said, it
must be a brother down somewhere or over here. So
we went looking from and I went around the building
expecting going to be there. He wasn't there, but the
airpack was, or he had dropped it and obviously ran
or whatever and made his way. So I grabbed and
(13:35):
I said, well, say, I'm going to use it now.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So I put it on because all this time you've
been breathing in the dust.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, I didn't have any airpack. It was good to
have that. I sat there for hot and.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Took a lot of ye got some fresh oxyge.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So he left it there for me.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That's like we say in the Marine Corps gear drift
as a gift.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
There you go. And it was one part of the
story there was that the guys from ma Fi House
from Barrios Bravers fifty three and forty three were involved
in a rescue where there was guys from another company
who had gotten this woman and they were able to
get her down.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
She was a trap to herself and up on the stairway.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
There and they were able to get her down and
when the collapse happened the way they were with the
core collapsing around them. They were in this little void,
and so there was transmission. They were able to locate
where they were, and I think it was called the
Miracle Latter six and the guys from my company formed
(14:33):
a chain line and were able to make it today
and get them out. I was part of that, and
that was that was a great survival story that these
guys heroically did to witness.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
That was something absolutely.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
There was an area where we had made our way
into a void and we were getting radio transmissions that
we were in a dangerous spot, and they kept saying,
you got to pull out, you got to pull out.
I was a little bit further back than some of
the other guys from the company were up ahead of me,
and they spotted a guy that was they could.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
See the helmet. It was a chief. He was pinned
in there. I couldn't tell whether he was alive or not.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
We had visual on him, and they kept trying to
pull us out and pull us out, and guys wouldn't leave,
and finally we had to go. We had to pull
out because of the imminent collapse and everything. And it
wasn't like he was laying there was screaming for help
or anything. He was unconscious. We didn't know if he
was alive or dead, but we were trying to just
get to him. At one point, I got my shoulders
(15:41):
this located. So they went up to the hospital and
all emergency people from around the city was just like
I did. We're volunteering going to the hospitals to help
Manhattan there because they figured they're.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Going to need all hands on deck.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
And I remember getting taken to the hospital and they
were all standing outside with the stretches out on the
sidewalks and how many people coming?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Where's everybody? Well, there's not enough people to come.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
A lot of them just didn't make it out anyway.
They got patched up and then went back down there,
went back to work, and at that point it was
total rescue mode. More and more reinforcements were showing up,
so we just went to work. I hooked up again
with forty three truck they were down there, so worked
with them. They were grabbing units them all over the
(16:30):
city at this point and relieving and rotating people that
were on duty active guys and shifting and people coming
in to help out. It was one night and they
were being relieved on their shift and I hopped on
the back of the truck with the guys. At that point,
Lower Manhattan was all just encapsulated. They had the military
out there, the National Guard, you had all the police
(16:52):
intelligence units. Everything was sealed off, so nobody was coming
into the as you would relate to into your perimeter.
This is a distinct memory that will always stay with me,
and I've often sold us to people. We leave and
we're just laying all over the top of the rig
on the hook and ladder, and guys are beat up
and exhausted. All along the West Side Highway there people
(17:16):
are lined up signs and they're cheering. We're just laying
around on the rig and taking it all in. And
it was just amazing the people that came out of
all the buildings to, you know, give us this boost
and we go down and we come down along that
and that went on for my olden and we come
(17:37):
down Union Square and there's a big almost rally going
on in Union Square. Hiabetes really emotional. And the way
equated to people when I tell the story is if
you watch the old movies of World War Two when
the tanks are rolling into the villages, in Italy and
(17:59):
France and all the women and coming out waving the
flags and handing battles of wine to the soldiers. And
that's how it felt to me, that crowd. It's like
you just liberated the city, but they knew we just
where we came from, just then, and they were giving that.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Back to us.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Significant trauma can either be a great divider or a
great uniter. And I remember nine to twelve very very well,
and I remember thinking, no one in the world, no
one in the world, would dare mess with us right now,
because we were all one. It didn't matter race, colored, creed, religion.
If you lived under that red, white, and blue, you
(18:44):
were untouchable.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It really was true. And you saw the whole city
put up like.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That, the whole country. Like I'm sitting here thinking, Jake
and I always talk about the America of nine to twelve.
You were still at ground zero on nine to twelve,
entire day, praying, hoping, searching for any signs of life,
digging through the dust and the decimation. And meanwhile, yes,
(19:09):
the rest of the country was uniting. So that's exactly
what should have happened. When you came out of the
perimeter and.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You know it's beautiful, Danny, is that you described that,
and like, it chokes me up thinking about it, even
though you were leaving ground zero with your brothers and
you got all that love. We felt that down in
Texas during a time of unbelievable trauma and tragedy. It
was one of the most beautiful, soul filling moments of
(19:39):
my life. And I remember thinking, this is why my
grandparents loved this country the way they do. And I
thought I had a pretty firm grip on love of country.
On nine to twelve, it was a big dose of
you get it or you don't. It was all inspiring
the watch.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
I appreciate that now coming from you guys, because I
know there's many of those stories around.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I saw the.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Gratitude and the caring, the genuine concern and condolences that
were coming from around the country and around the world.
Oh yeah, my family in Ireland, they couldn't contact us,
my brother Patrick as if I'm in the South Bronx,
and they didn't know where we were that day, if
we were there, if we were in those buildings. So
(20:24):
I remember that day being down there. I said, well, Jesus,
that old Patrick's not here, you know, and I was
worried for my brother.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
I think it's so important that the listeners understand too
that you're doing this job saving people who've never met,
all at the same time wondering it's your loved ones
rather it's your blood brothers or your brothers through work,
how they're doing while you're trying to save other people.
That's the epitome of selflessness and courage all at the
(20:51):
same time. And it was on display not only that day,
but for the days and weeks after. When you feel
like you don't have more to give, you always have
more to give.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
So the last thing you said to Mary Ellen, will
see you later. Yeah, tell me about that homecoming.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
My son and daughter they weren't home. They've been in school,
you know.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
At that time, some of the schools running into lockdown
road around the city, and so they didn't come home
for a while, and they didn't you know, they didn't
see me for two days. So it was one time
I was up on a pile and a guy was
leaving and he was going down and I said to
me a favor because it was no self service and
(21:34):
stuff like that. I said, I didn't know the guy
but I said, you can remember Cole my family let
them know I'm okay.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I came home.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
I was still pretty covered in dust and everything, and
it was just not many words, a lot of hugs.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
You're having more than one, some more of the grim Reaper. Myself,
I believe in the in the will to live, and
I believe God willing if you're in a circumstance where
clearly the poor souls that were tried than those buildings
that couldn't get below a certain floor before they collapsed,
much different circumstance. And that's why I say, God willing
have provided the circumstance to say I'm not going out
(22:13):
like this, not today, not yet. I believe in that will.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
And I bet you that has fueled a lot of guys
over the years.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Guarantee you, because I know a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, that's what I was getting at.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah, in this particular day, there's guys who did heroic things.
I mean, I'm one that doesn't take that word hero
too easily. I don't feel comfortable with it a lot.
The way it's used in today's day and age.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I feel like the word has been overused. My gosh,
it has been diluted completely, and it's really pissed me off. Agreed,
because to me, most of the true heroes I know
are no longer will.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
That's where I was getting at on this day. There'll
be heroic things that would that these guys aren't here
to talk about. But knowing some of them personally myself,
I know what they were doing and tried to accomplish.
There was one guy who was a dear friend of mine,
Patty Brown. Patty was a legend on the job and
matt Facktown, where I lived, is a sign a walk
(23:18):
Patty Brown Walk, much decorated Vietnam veteran, much decorated New
York City firefighter. I wasn't there to tell it, so
I'm telling this story like second hand and third hand.
But I suppose Patty was taking his men up and
going up to the tower and somebody from the command says, so, Patty,
where you are going?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
What are you doing? Patty?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
He says, We're going up and he goes, you can't
go up there, turned him and says something like, what
are you nuts? This is what we do and know
if they went and reportedly Patty got to the highest
floor of the towers, than anybody. Found a woman but
didn't make it back down. But he had radio transmission
(23:55):
from him way up and he got the highest events
anybody up there, and he found people to help radio transmission.
I got somebody and him and this man never made
it back down. To me, that's heroic, and that's a
hero A dear friend of mine who came on the job.
But Bernie, his son, was in one of the wolfices
(24:16):
up there and working in Canifit Cheryl and called his
father and said, Dad.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I'm stuck come up here.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you know, Bernie's his home and rockaway watching on
TV and seeing the whole thing unfold, and he said,
what should I do?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
And he said to him go up to the roof.
He said, get to it. If you can't get you
and your people up to the roof, our guys will
get you up there.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
At that point, there was a unit that was trained
to go with the helicopters and repel down for highbrids rescues.
You know, he knew about that. He said, our guys
will get you there. Eventually, they'll put the fire out there.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Get up to you.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Shortly after that phone call with his son, watched the
tower go down in front of him on it TV
with his son, and I said, Bernie, you told your
son the same thing I would have told mine.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Don't kick yourself for this. That was the only option,
and it was the right option.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
And the best option. It was out of everybody's hands
in that situation.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
For sure. He did the right thing, tell them where
to go, and that was the only way to go.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
It was a few days later when I was back
there and Father Michael was I consider a close friend.
He was Patty Brown's very close friend, and both of
them died did that day. They were very close him
and Patty and I had often said to Father Michael,
is you know the Irish connection and everything. I said,
Father Mike, you know, anything happens to me, you'll be
(25:39):
the one to send me off, And he well, I'll
look after that handy, but I don't you have to
worry about that.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
We were at the top of one of the corps
and it was all through the night, and we found
some guys from Squad eighteen that were down buried in
one of the cars and the voids at the top.
Father Michael's uneral was coming up that morning. Many days later,
we had a thing where if we found somebody one
of our guys, everything stopped. You sent the word down
(26:11):
through the chain line of all the guys. And we
found some guys, some Squad eighteen. So you stop, you
get on the radio, you get word down. We get
them out and give the honor of the company to
come and get their own men and bring their own
men down, no matter where you were, whatever the company
(26:32):
from Brooklyn's that now in Brox didn't matter.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
So we got them out.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
We waited for Squid eighteen to come and get their men,
and it took them a long time they come up
and get us. So I couldn't get the father Michael's
schunerl because of that, because I wanted to say, with
the guys up there that morning, the heroes to me
of all the guys that didn't make it over the years.
And then I know personally my dear friend Larry, he
(26:55):
was a big powerful man. It was early, it was
only a year on the job, early in my career.
He dragged me into to a fire and we went
and rescued a woman on the second floor. I was
a proby in those days. We didn't have the mask
or anything, you know, And he grabbed me and we
went in without a hose line. We became a rescue
(27:16):
you know truck because the truck wasn't on the scene.
We rescued this woman. She found her unconscious on the
second floor, brought her out. He didn't bother putting us
in for any metals or anything like that. He said,
that's this is what we do, kid, you know, this
is welcome to the job. I was just happy to
make it in it out with her and rescue this woman.
And he became my dear friend, and I learned early
(27:37):
on from him that it's not about that, you know,
somebody's in help.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Nobody does it for any of that.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
And then his best friend was this fellow Larry Fitzpatrick,
who I knew working in one of the bars I
was involved with. It was nineteen eighty. One of the
guys was stuck up in the chef Way in Harlem.
They lowered Larry to go down and get you every frisbee.
So they were a bad jam and the guy was
stuck just like those pictures we showed you last night,
(28:03):
the fireouse and the guys stuck in the windows with
the flames. That was another scenario like that in the
chefway in the tenement, and they lowered Larry on a
rope to go get Jerry, and he got him, grabbed
Jerry and they started lowering him down and the rope
snapped and the two of them fell five stories to
their death.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Larry had eight.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Kids, whole little That was my early introduction to the
tragedy of the job. And it hit home because he
was a friend.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Right, What originally made you want to be a fighter?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Fighter?
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Oh, that's a good story. I never had any clue
about being a firefighter. And I was working in the
bars out in the Hamptons and some of the summer
clubs out there. This one bar was working in. These
guys came and were working there and it turned out
they were firemen, but they were laid off. And it
(28:56):
was this friend of mine, Danny Noonan and Tommy Corning.
So they we're picking up work wherever they can get it.
You know, the fire department had gone through layoffs.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
The city.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
I was in a bad time in those days, and
they gave a lot of firemen pink slips and they
didn't know whether the next paycheck was going to come from.
They're telling me, and we get to know each other
and working out there, and they go they said, Danny,
there's a test coming up.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
He said, you should think about taking the Finement's test.
I go, really, wow, there's something I didn't think about.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Then I thought to myself, I said, wait a second.
These guys just got laid off by the city. They
should be really pissed off. And here they are telling
me you got to take the test for this job.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
It's a great job.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
So I said, you know Jesus right, if they're telling
me that, this must be a really good job and
they must love it.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Sure enough, I took the test.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
And I trained for it with a bunch of my
buddies from the neighborhood, my brother Patrick. We all trained together,
and we all did well enough to get on the job.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I had a goal of it.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
I hope I can get into the top thousand because
the matter, boy, you work, how you did under written
did on the physical. I said, I'm going to work
really hard to get into I want to crack a thousand.
After all of a sudden, done my listening was a
thousand and three. I visited by three. But because of
those two guys Tommy and Danny speaking the way they
(30:15):
did of the job, the brotherhood, the times you know
that they had on the job before they were laid off.
I said, there has to be something to this, and
that's what I did it. It's a lifestyle being a firefighter.
I was fortunate to work in really, really great firehouses,
a lot of people that taught me so many good things,
(30:35):
and I looked up to a lot of guys on
the job. I was fortunate to have that kind of
leadership and friendship and brotherhood. It's more of a lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
You don't stop being a firefighter when you retire, and you.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Don't stop doing the things that you like to do,
the heroism, the survivors. While we also mourn and remember
the great loss, How did this day change you?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Do?
Speaker 4 (31:01):
You just appreciate things more being a firefighter or a
civilian or anything, no matter who you were that day,
it just gave you a different outlook how things are,
how things could be at any moment.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
There was always a danger.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I'm sure some of the wives of guys going off
to work were, you know, saying good bye in the morning,
and you know, some of the guys didn't come home.
For a lot of people, the appreciation of everyday life.
My god, if that didn't change your outlook, what the
heck would.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
One of the things.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
I'll always equate to that and you would appreciate this, Jake.
That's our job, you know, that's we sign up to
do the things we see. The things we do for people.
You don't bring them home to your family at night,
you don't really talk about them.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Yeah, but we signed up for that, just like you did.
The things that the women, the children, the men, the
everyday civilians that they witnessed that day. Only people I
say that go to war or do the kind of
work that we do should have seen this stuff like that.
Those are the people I feel to this day probably
(32:08):
carried out a little tougher the young kids what they witnessed.
Nobody should have seen that horrific stuff that went on
that day except people like us. That to me is
the untold sadness, maybe a little bit of it.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I believe too that that's why people like us
we have an unspoken connection. To me, it's very sad
that it is mainly because of very morbid reasons we
have to experience or have experienced, horrific things that most
people shouldn't have to experience when people say the brotherhood.
(32:46):
I can look at a guy like you and it's unspoken,
but I get it. I remember being in the hospital
my father telling me your marines are weird, and I
just remember looking at them and saying, there's no way
you could understand. And I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah, there's certain things you got to leave out.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
September eleventh, two thousand and one, the day the world
stopped turning, and you as one of fdn y's finest
and with Irish roots, who proudly served your country and
went in on that horrific day and came out and
did so much and have done so much since to
give back to humankind. We're just we do salute you,
(33:30):
and we love you and we thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, you're an exceptional human being. For guys like me,
it is all inspiring to be able to be like
when we went to the firehouse last night and we
got to meet those guys and just tell them thank you.
We mean it. It's not the service, trust.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Me, Jake. They know it. There's been a lot of
guys like you have come to the firehouse.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
A lot of the seals have come up from Michael
thing a lot of like the tenant was telling the
last night that the tune that came in role. They
know that what you do and what you done and
guys like you, the connection is there.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
That's what they felt it last night. It was powerful.
I called the firehouse this.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Morning to thank all the guys and they said, my God,
that was powerful meeting you guys last night.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
The connection is.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
There and it's our honor and our country is greater
because of men like you. In fact, I love hearing
you tell stories like you were just a true irishman
in such a good storyteller, and you've got stories for days,
and there might have to be like a Danny Manning
episode two.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Babe.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, I'm all about the Danny Minning part two.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
We could talk about the Michael Murphy and to Steven
Scilla Foundation.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
What you guys are in here for.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Absolutely. So. We actually met in a very small town
in Ireland and County Court called Kinsale, that you and
I both have very close relation to and Jake's been
a couple times and we just we love that village.
If you haven't been to Kinsale, you haven't been Ireland.
And the greatest people I mean the greatest people, from
the Frawleys at the White House to James Sikora and
(35:06):
Declan Hughes from Irish Veterans and flash of course you
Sharon Cross be the biggest personality in the world. You
got to mention them. And Danny and I were both
there about six years ago at an unveiling of the
Irish Veterans tribute to Lieutenant Michael Murphy who was the
Navy seal that gave his life. I mean, many of
you are familiar with the lone survivor story and that
(35:27):
was Lieutenant Michael Murphy. His family, the Murphys are actually
from that area of County Cork and Ireland as well,
and so we were all there together for a beautiful
day in Kinsale, Ireland to celebrate and honor the life
of Michael Murphy and establish the first Chapter of Irish Veterans,
which were both still a part of absolutely and an
incredible organization. So that is one of the chance meetings
(35:47):
of my life that I just I treasure every day
because you are a true gym and I'm just I'm
so thrilled to.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Remember when you walked up with me with the at
the end when I was. I spoke the ambassador with
the name tags and said, hey, cuz you have the
same name.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, so some of my Irish roots are actually from Manning.
And when I heard your last name was Manning and
you were from that same area, I walked up and
I told you that, and you started calling me cousin.
Now we've done it ever since, my long lost New
York cousin that I met in Ireland.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
And but an organization, the people of Cansale have embraced it,
along with the nine to eleven Garden.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
And that's one of the first places I took Jake
when we went to Kensale a couple of years ago.
I said, you have to come see this. And that's
why we say the world stopped turning that day, the
fact that in a tiny village in County Cork and Ireland,
there's actually a hall in the white House that's a
tribute to nine to eleven. And then not too far
from there, up on this beautiful hill overlooking the bay
the harbor, rather, there's a garden that has three hundred
(36:48):
and forty three trees planted in this garden with the
name of a firefighter that lost their life on September eleventh,
two thousand and one, on every tree, and then there's
a beautiful monument paying tribute to that as well. This
isn't can sale Ireland a world away.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
I remember the day we went, and it was it
was very moving because Flash it's the greatest. He's one
of the greatest humans in the world. And he put,
oh my gosh, I hadn't laughed that hard, I think
since I was in the Marine Corps and I remember
Flash dropping us. We got out and he explained, this
(37:26):
is what it is, and this goes to show you
how much and I love and affected the entire world.
Clearly flashed me my background from the Marine Corps, and
he knew just to let us, let us be, you know.
Nashley and I grabbed hands and we walked through this
whole thing. Never said a word.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
He had.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
A million things were said, but it was all in
silence and respect and honor. And it's just a beautiful
thing to see that they get it all over the world.
And if we could just get back to who we
were on nine to twelve.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
And it's because of nine to twelve. Fast forward, you know,
Father Michael was dear friends with Kathleen Murphy who started
the garden, whose property is on ohow and so that's
why it is a tribute. It's the father Michael, that's right,
Judge nine to eleven Garden remembrance and it is because
of generosity nine to twelve Kathleen Murphy, who was a
(38:23):
long time Lenox Hill Hospital emergency room nurse who treated
many of our guys over the years. It was because
of her compassion and sorrow and respect for all the
three hundred and forty three of us that the guys
had to make it that she came up to his
idea to plant a tree and everybody's name in the
garden of respect to them. This woman took care of
(38:46):
a lot of firemen over the years on her own property,
building this out of our own money and did everything
on our own with the help of the villagers there
and can sail and people from all around the world
come to visit this.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Garden now and it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
We were there that I'm one for the dedication for
Michael Murphy, a lot of the Navy personnel, of the Seals,
the ambassador, we had a brief laying ceremony there with
Ambassador Cammalley. What I thought about there was like, look
at this now in the small little spot of the world.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Here is this monument now, and it's a living monument.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
You know a lot of monuments he around the country,
steel concrete. This is a living, growing monument that's forever living.
I have it in that village where I used to
go as a young boy. When I found out that
that was there, and the connection of Michael Murphy. He
had a nickname, the Protector, and I think I might
have spoke about this at the dedication. How the irony
(39:39):
of it now that Michael Murphy, who won my company
patch on all those missions, being known amongst his men
as the Protector, and growing up as his family used
to say, that was this sort of moniker that there
he is now in the village that can sail with
the Irish Veterans memorial in the beautiful white house, and
(40:02):
they were the men the three forty three up on
the hill. It's like, it's just the irony of it
to me, poetic is about to be a better word
that to Protector in the village still being there for
the men whose patch he wore.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
That to me is really irony, right, poetic.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
But you know that iconic photograph actually that we know
the song about. My friend Dave mcgilton from County Cowalk
Island wrote about he's in Ireland and he sees his
photograph of father Michael being carried in a chair by
first responders to Biman and police, and he wrote a
song about it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
The Sky Belongs to the Dreamers.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
You know, it's one of the many, many tidbits to
the stories that a lot of them are untold still today.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Probably what do you do to relax or recharge?
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Being that I retired now, I kicked back at the
house and there's always something to do around the house,
fixing things up, going to the beach, and we like
to travel to Ireland.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Name a person or organization that you can think of
that has had a massive impact on your life.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I guess I can go back to that earlier story
where I told about Larry Fitzpatrick and Larry dying on
the rope trying to save another brother. I'd say that
impacted me because it was close.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
To home, you know what feeds your soul.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Family.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Blessed to have great parents, I sort of struggles. They
had come into this country as immigrants, from Ireland, not
much in their pocket, the life type hard to give
me and my brother Patrick put money together they could
to bring us home to Ireland every other summer and
live on the farm and milk the cows and had
(41:47):
my you know, have the horses and go to the
creamery with the milk, and I'd get an ice cream
as a reward from my uncle for doing that. And
so the struggles they had to give us that kind
of life early on, to show where they came from
the farms in Ireland and not having much to their life,
and my mother leaving the country as a young woman
(42:08):
in search of a better life, never seeing some of
a family again ever, same with my father. That gave
me a sense of family that my kids today have.
That's to me the best gift. And that doesn't feed you, sol,
I don't know what does, Amen.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
And that's the I think the most beautiful part about
that too is it's generational right.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
You've truly carried it on. You have a beautiful family,
truly blessed because thank you, thank you so much for
being here with us on the good stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
I can't put in the words so much I appreciate
you and your brothers and your sacrifices and what you've
done to make this not only this country, but this
world a better place. And it is truly I mean
it in ever since the word and honor.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
To do this with you, well, this has been totally
my pleasure. I just hope I have represented all my
guys the way they should have been represented, because it's
all about them, the true eros of nine to eleven,
the guys that we told some of the stories about.
And thank you so much for having me you guys
fabulous and Jake, the admiration I have for you and
your men.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Is heartfelt throughout the whole.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Fire department, and the brotherhood is there.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
We love you. Wow. What a gift to be able
to sit down with FDNY Firefighter retired Danny Manning and
hear his first hand account of being at ground zero
on nine to eleven, two thousand and one. Just unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
I mean, talk about perspective on enjoying life and how
precious it is and fragile.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
It is and can never take a single day for granted.
I mean, we are so truly blessed, not only to
live in this country, but just to be breathing and
to have our health and our family and our friends,
and how much does he treasure those things now after
having lived through that day.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, I think is fairly obvious to me, after having
the honor and privileges sitting here and listening to that,
that it's exactly why Danny is one of the happiest
people on the planet.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Right, He absolutely is. And you know, to know his
beginnings and where he came from. His parents were born
in Ireland, and then he talked about his summers in Ireland,
which is just so heartwarming, and then he comes over
here he decides to serve our country and this wasn't
you know, the first of his many escapades as a
New York firefighter. But in Jine fifty three Latter forty three,
(44:43):
l Barrio's Bravest. What an incredible group of men that
are just so selfless, and it just makes you so
proud to be an American to know that guys like
Danny and his brothers are willing to put it all
on the line for us.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
No doubt about it. They're all heroes, and they're all
mighty men and women, And to all the heroes that
died that day and in service to our Great Country,
Patty Brown, Father, Michael, Larry Fitzpatrick. I promise you we
will never forget.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Thank you so much for listening. If this episode touched
you today, please share it and be part of making
someone else's day better.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Put on your badass capes and be great today, and
remember you can't do epic stuff without epic people. Thank
you for listening to the good Stuff. The Good Stuff
is executive produced by Ashley Shick, Jacob Schick, Leah Pictures and.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Q Code Media.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Hosted by Ashley Shick and Jacob Shick, Produced by Nick
Cassilini and Ryan Countshouse. Post production supervisor Will Tindi. Music
by Will haywood Smith, edited by Mike Robinson, sound effects
by Eric Aaron
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