September 11, 2025 • 38 mins
In 2001, Salem-native Ron Gaudette was working as a pharmacist at Mass General Hospital and had recently joined a group called the International Medical Surgical Response Team, which provides critical care to areas impacted by disasters. This specialized volunteer team was soon deployed to the World Trade Center, making it Gaudette’s inaugural mission. He spent 11 days at Ground Zero and shared his experiences 24 years later.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well twenty four years ago tonight, at this time, this
nation was in shock. The day of nine to eleven,
two thousand and one brought to our doorstep here in Boston,
and of course in New York, and at the Pentagon
in Washington, and in that field in Shanksville, Maryland, international
(00:31):
terrorism in the form of nineteen terrorists who commandeered four airplanes,
two of which flew out of Boston, and those two
airplanes flew into the World Trade Center. We had seen
the videos many times by this time, twenty years ago,
at this hour of the night, however, the recovery from
(00:58):
just a body blow to the nation was arguably the
worst body blow to this nation in our history. The
number of Americans who died here in New York and
in Washington and Shanksville, Maryland were greater that day than
died at Pearl Harbor. It was the first time that
the American homeland had been attacked by an enemy, in
(01:22):
this case on Islamis terrorists. And there were people who
already were beginning the recovery, beginning to get America back
on their feet. And we're delighted to be joined by
one of them tonight. He happens to be a friend
of mine, also a listener to this program of many years,
(01:43):
Ron Goddett of Newton, Massachusetts. Ron, Welcome, Welcome tonight's side.
Normally as a caller, but tonight you're a guest, and
you're a guest because what you have done for years
has been critical work, not only in this country, but
in at least one occasion that I'm aware of halfway
(02:06):
around the world in Iran. Just to set the stage,
just tell us a little bit about yourself. You are
a pharmacist by training. You've worked at the Massachusetts General
Hospital at other hospitals. UH, your career and your your livelihood.
Your profession is to make sure that the prescriptions that
(02:29):
a doctor writes for a patient, whether it's a patient
in a comfortable office in Newton or Boston, or whether
it was prescriptions for people who are recovering from Nina
from the horror of nine to eleven, your responsibility is
to make sure that that there's no inconsistencies, that they're
(02:50):
they're fulfilled proper They're filled properly. It's a it's a
we go to the to the to our drug stores,
and we go to our pharmacists pharmacies and we take
you folks for granted often, but you're an incredible deliver
in that that that stream of medicine that begins when
the doctor writes the prescription and does the analysis and says,
(03:11):
here's what you need.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Go right ahead, Ron, that's a terrific question answers to
start to start our discussion, you know, thank you very much.
That's our job basically is to make sure the patient
gets the right dose at the right time, in the
right form, for the right reason. And we do that.
(03:38):
We consider those whether we're in a cozy hospital environment
or whether we're out in the middle of the desert
in Iran with limited resource.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, so I want to so you started. There was
a group in nineteen ninety nine when that was founded
at was actually again organized that Mass General called the
International Medical Surgical Response Team, and that was in operation
(04:11):
in two thousand and one. It is now morphed into
another organization under the auspices of the National Disaster Medical System.
So this is your group is a cog in a wheel,
I should say, within a big machine that is activated
(04:34):
at times of crisis. I don't want to go through
the whole list here, but I know that you've told
me about dispatching to Iran in two thousand and three,
to New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina in two thousand and five,
for Hurricane Harvey in Texas in twenty seventeen, and a
couple of times following nine to eleven when anthrax scares occurred.
(04:58):
So to get activated and you have to be ready
to go at the drop of a hat.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm ready to go right now. Actually, in fact, I'm
on the September roster, so should should anything occur this month,
I'll we have a fully uh. We have a full
roster complementary UH including surgeons, UH, surgical nurses, anesthesiologists, biomedic
(05:30):
medical engineering, communications, safety and security, aeronautic uh, UH, flight
evacuation nurses, and specialists. I believe it or not, there's
a whole science into lifting somebody up to a higher
altitude if they've got an abdominal injury, if they've got
(05:51):
seizure UH problems because the you know, the the pressure, uh,
the ambient pressure changes as you go up, and of
course that changes how our body responds.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So, now, what was the International Medical Surgical Response Team
based at Mass General Hospital is now the Trauma Critical
Care Team TCCT International of the United States of America.
So I want to get right to it.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Where were you twenty four years ago? Tonight? At about
quarter after nine? You had already been activated, you had
been dispatched. Where were you and where were you? A headache?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
We were at this time? We were on the Mass Pike.
We're a convoy of ten SUVs. The SUVs had been
obtained from Vogan because there wasn't anybody flying in so
they didn't that rental companies didn't need those, so we had.
(06:58):
We were a convoy of ten SUVs heading to Fort
Stewart Airbase in Newburgh, New York, which is about sixty
miles north of New York City and Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I think it's fairly close to the US Military Academy.
I'm not sure that it is next to it, but
I think that's it's pretty close. So you spent the
night there and probably didn't get a lot of sleep.
You got there around what time.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh if we got there after midnight, I can't remember
whether it was called thirty or quarter.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
To one, And so you caught you caught a little
bit of sleep, because the next morning, the next morning, yeah,
were fitful sleep. You had no idea what you were
coming into, what you were going to do. You had
some idea, but you couldn't didn't.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
We didn't have any idea at that moment. Actually, you know,
we were checked into the airplane hangar. There were many
caught on the floor and they had If you've ever
been into an airplane hangar, it's very very bright lights.
(08:10):
You can never sleep, of course, and that and so
and I had you know, I was keeper of the
control substances, the boar, fhine, the oxycodone at the time,
because that's my job. So I had that pelican case
filled with control substances on the cot with me. I
(08:31):
didn't want I didn't want it to go out of
my sight, of.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Course, of course. But you also knew that that morning,
that next morning, which was Wednesday morning, the twelfth of
two thousand and one, because nine eleven was on a Tuesday,
you were heading to appear in New York City for
your last stop before you hit ground zero. You had
(08:55):
seen the planes. You had seen the planes crash into
those buildings. You knew that those buildings had collapsed at
that point, What were you thinking, Ron, in terms of
you were actually heading to what would be characterized as
hell on Earth, that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Well, yeah, in fact, I felt my biggest fear along
the way, actually before we even got to Fort Stewart Airbase.
Was was I adequately prepared? I've had many jobs at
M creation and a lot of covering of the intensive
(09:37):
key unit's cardiac care unit, medical intensive care unit, uh neurology,
uh neurological intensive care unit. So and actually there we
we run code cards as they call it, whenever they
have a code blue. So so that wasn't out of
(09:59):
my skill set. Where I was heading wasn't at least
as I thought. It wasn't too far with my skill set.
But I didn't know what we would be seeing. I
didn't know what we would need. And uh, here I
am on the way down. I brought a hard copy
(10:21):
of a standard reference that we use, and I had
my palm pilot. You know, that's what they had before
iPhones and.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, BlackBerry probably it was.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
It was a handspring palm pilot.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Okay, so let me let me get, let me get,
let me take a break here. What I want to
do is I want you to pull your thoughts together,
and I want to talk about getting to New York.
You were you you went to Chelsea Pierre, I think
you told me, and then from there you were you
were taken as a group in the same s u
(10:57):
vs to Ground zero. And when we get back, I
want to talk about what you faced, what you saw.
I'm assuming those memories are seared in your mind.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So oh yes, yes, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
We'll get to all of that. If folks would like
to talk to Ron and ask a question or share
a story, this is your opportunity. Six one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty six one, seven, nine, three, ten
thirty coming right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
My guest is Ron Gordette. He's a friend. He's also
a caller a listener to this program. Uh and he
has worked for thirty one years at mass General Hospital
and he's now involved with a couple of other medical facilities,
but he continues to be a member of the Trauma
(11:53):
Critical Care Team International of the United States of America.
There are a lot of these teams spread around the country.
But Ron is with one of the two teams here
in Massachusetts. As I say, he's been to many locales
nationally and also internationally. But we're focusing tonight on where
Ron was, believe it or not, just within hours of
(12:15):
what the tragedy that had happened. So we know you
were on the Master and Pike heading to New York.
But by tomorrow morning, by when dawn broke, you were
in New York City. What was it like leaving the
Chelsea per and knowing that you were going inside the
yellow police tape down to the tip of the you
(12:36):
know of Manhattan? Did you You must have known how
bad it was, But was it even worse when you
got there?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I was. I was paralyzed for a short time. When
they let us, they carried the transported us in the
sheriff stands and the trucks, and so we were en route.
First Doctor Briggs called us around in a circle, and
(13:16):
this was before we had started from Chelsea Pier into
the Corndoff area, and there was uncertainty whether we would
be going to LaGuardia to put tags on boddies. And
she asked if anyone is uncomfortable with this police step
outside of the circle, and nobody did can. In fact,
(13:39):
I remember vividly one of our unbelievable orthopedics and stepping
forward and saying doctor Briggs, we are with you for
whatever you need us to do and for as long
as you need us to do.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
So that was.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
That was very moving, and at that moment I really
began to feel the support and the leadership that we
had on that mission. When when we when they first
(14:18):
drove us in, we had to stop for a short
time because another section of the selfs how it had fallen,
so before we proceeded in further. Now we're now en
route from Chelsea Pier to the Kordandoff area, and it rained.
It started to rain a little then, so we're standing
(14:39):
outside of the vans and trucks and looking at what
we could see ahead, and of course the fires were
still burning. So once we got into the Kordanoff area,
our first stop was a Cyrus High School and we
marched up the staircases and Styrust High School. It didn't
(14:59):
look like high school at all. I mean, there were stretchers,
there were intravenous ivy polls, there were racks of guze,
all kinds of equipment. Somebody found actually a white tin
with about two thousand milligrams of morphine under one of
the stretches and handed it off to me. What do
(15:22):
you want us to do with this? Run? So I
signed it in as we would usually for control substance
in uh. We included that along along the way. But
after that, when we actually stepped outside, our first command
station was at the burg Manhattan Community College, diagonally across
the streets on Chambers Street.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And across the street from where are you are you
in view of the World Trade Center buildings at that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Point, Yes, we could see, and in fact we were.
We were right up. You could see the bucket for
day going on. There were hundreds of fire fires walking
to and fro, not really saying anything. So it was
it was really an eerie feeling you felt, even though
(16:14):
you were in the midst of so many individuals. For
a moment, I felt almost alone because I couldn't, I didn't,
I didn't you know, I was fearful. I didn't know
what I was doing there.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Did you ever wrong? Let me ask you this, Did
you ever have a sort of feeling that that you're
in some sort of a bad movie at that point.
I mean, I just can't imagine what it must have
been like to have been there essentially twenty four hours
after the planes had hit. You know, it took you
(16:56):
twenty four hours almost to the to the to the
hour to get there. But I'm just you know, the
the devastation has occurred, the buildings are down. Uh, clearly
there's there's a there's recovery efforts underway, but this this
there's uh, there's also rescue efforts. They don't know if
people are still alive. Uh. It had to be truly
(17:19):
an out of body experience to to go from you know,
your job in Boston on Monday, having seen what happened
on Tuesday, and then find yourself there on Wednesday morning.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yes, yeah, it wasn't out of as you said, that's
a good that's a good word. I really felt. If
I could paint just a little bit of a picture,
if you can imagine smoke and fog and a big
bright light looking up into the sky which was hazy
(17:56):
you couldn't really see, and you were in the midst
of this, this collapsed to collapse buildings as supposedly a
seventh story hole in the middle. I didn't feel like
(18:18):
I was in New York. Certainly I didn't feel like
I was on planet Earth. To be honest with you,
and well.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Let me do this. I got to take a break
here at the bottom of the hour for the news break.
When we get back, I want to talk about you
were there for eleven days. I just want people to
understand not only what you saw and what you went
through personally, but through your story, what all of these
folks did in the midst of this mayhem and destruction.
(18:52):
I just want to sort of relive it, and I
know it's difficult to talk about, but I think it's
important for us to for us weren't there, to understand
what it was like, and also to talk about. Look,
several members of your team in the last twenty four
years have now also passed on, and it is probably
(19:14):
very likely that the exposure that they that they dealt
with for these eleven days in September were, in some way,
if not the cause, at least a contributor to some
early deaths. I want to make sure we acknowledge them
as well. My guest is wrong a debt. He is
a member of a I guess we'd call it a
(19:37):
raptal Response Team. It's called the Trauma Critical Care Team
International of the United States of America TCCT. He's been
to many places, but we're talking tonight about where he
was the morning after the towers fell in New York City,
because he was there with other medical providers from Mass
General and other places here in the Greater Boston area
(20:00):
helping helping to deal with this Cataclysmith set of circumstances
that none of us ever could have anticipated. We're going
to take a quick break for news and we'll be
right back with Ron Godad. We had a couple of
callers in the line, so right now if you'd like
to jump on board, if you want to ask a question, mention,
a word of commendation for what Ron and his colleagues
(20:24):
went through. This is what we're trying to do tonight,
is to remember twenty four years ago. And certainly it's
not in any way, shape or form a celebration. It
is a commemoration just as it was today in New York,
as it was at the Pentagon, and I assume it
also was in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in anticipation by the way
(20:46):
of what will be happening a year from now, the
twenty fifth anniversary of nine to eleven. We're back on
Nightside right after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Night Side with Boston's news radio Broll.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Before we get some phone calls here, I want to
give you an opportunity to condense, if you will, the
eleven days. How much sleep did you get? How much
opportunity did you have to relax? You were there, it's
the morning after. Uh, you've you've come out of your
(21:26):
your your your moment in time that you've described as
some sort of a paralysis, almost a mental paralysis. But
you know it's it's game time and you've got to
do whatever you can do. Just what was it like
for eleven days? Tell us, tell us in your own words.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well, sure, Dan so setting up our first medical aid
station again, Doctor Briggs had called us run the circle.
And this was after we people came out of nowhere, firefighters,
police officers and wear the human chain to pass our
(22:03):
equipment from the street or the area the trucks could
pull into into the quad of the Bird Manhattan Community
College and experiencing that human chain with people you've never
met before. Here you are standing there and people are
handing the gear to you from left to right, and
(22:24):
then we were at the in the quad and we
were tasked with setting up our first medical aid station
by seven hundred the next morning. So it's now two
thirty in the morning, and we don't have much time.
There were no there was no electricity, no running water.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
So this again just to emphasize ron is the Wednesday
is the morning after the towers fell.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Correct, Yes, but it had it had then moved after
midnight into the thirteenth, so we got there on the twelfth.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But okay, fair enough, Okay, so now it's actually forty eight.
Well it's it's in effect a day and a half later.
Go ahead. I don't want to get tied. I don't
want to get bogged down into the moments in time,
So go ahead, please, I interrupted you for that. I apologize.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Go ahead, okay, no problem. So so we were was
setting up by seven in the morning. We didn't have
much time. I didn't know what I had with me
for drugs. So we ultimately we set up our first station.
I organized the guards along with my proeague, into four
cardrants within the tents of the personal access to Amazing
(23:42):
and we succeeded in setting up SAW then We saw
our first part fighter at ten after six in the morning,
so we beat our timeline by fifty minutes, which was
you felt really good about it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So what we what were you treating people for? We
have treated for exhaustion, for smoking, relation for injuries. Give
us a sense of that.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Sure I had found the irritation. I mean, if you
if you can imagine the particles that were in the air.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
For UH wounds, people who diabetics who had been on
their feet for for many hours, actually puts the boots
off of one of them and he had gleaming busters.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
We UH chronic constructed plomary disease players, which are basically
you know that they were having difficulty breathing. We had
rule out heart attacks which we triaged over to Cornell
Medical System. We had a roll out closed head injury
(24:51):
somebody had fallen off the girder. And we also have
a specialty burned team and that a part of our
team that specialized in buring. Points directly over to the
Cornell Burn Center and just jump right in with the
nurses there.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
All right, let me do this one. I want to
grab a phone call here or two, and during the
break I'm going to have Rob to try to clean
up the phone line because again we're getting some distortion.
I don't know if you're near a window or whatever.
But Rob will be able to get a clearer connection
for us, and the story is too good to not
have a good connection. Let me go. Diane from Bill
(25:31):
Ricca is calling Diane. Thanks for calling in. You're on
with Ron Godeck.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Go right ahead, Diane, Hey Ron, Hey Dan, Ron. I
first want to say thank you for the work you do.
I'm actually in New York right now. My brother in
law was a hallm police officer got suffered for cancer
for ten years because of nine to eleven who passed
away in twenty eighteen from it, and he was one
(25:56):
of the first police offices to be acknowledged as in
the line of duty deaths, which a lot of these
offices had a fight for years to be labeled that
so that their wife can get their pensions and you
know what would rightfully do to them.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Diane. We'll be right back to you after this break
as well, so if you can stay for a couple
of minutes, I would appreciate it if you'd like to
join the conversation. Six months, seven, two, four, ten, thirty
six seven nine, Rob, please work on this in whatever
way you can in the next couple of minutes. Back
on night Side right after this quick break.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Okay, I hope we have cleaned up the phone that
Ron Godet is on. Ron. Uh, let's hear how it
sounds now I'm here. Amazing, amazing, it's clear as a bell.
I don't know what you were able to do with it,
what Rob was able to do with the Thanks very
much again, I this is such an important interview. I
didn't want to lose it because of you know, problems,
(27:01):
electronic problems. Diane and Bill Rick. If we can bring
Diane back up, Rob, Diane, thanks again for calling in.
You said that you had a relative who was one
of the first firefighters to lose their life on nine
to eleven.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
No first police officer.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Police Okay, find police officer. I was a little distracted.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Go ahead, right that he was acknowledged that it was
in a line of duty death because well, at first
it was a disability, but they had a fight for
it because.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
What did what did he? Diane? What what did And
again I think you said this is a relative of yours.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Yeah, my bug in law.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Okay, what what did he die off?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It was it was some kind of liver cancer.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
They how how quickly after how quickly after nine to
eleven was that diagnosed? And how how long did he
live after that?
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Well, he died in May of twenty eighteen on Memorial Day.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Okay it was Okay, so it was Yeah, it was
seventeen years and I'm sure that is probably why they
fought him on it. It's unfortunate, Ron, you had some
of your colleagues who were in your team that went
with you to New York who died of at an
(28:28):
earlier age. Correct, And these are medical professionals.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah, the youngest was in her late forties actually, unfortunately,
a PA who had actually skipped her graduation on September
eleventh to be with us, and she also deployed to
Iron with us, but she developed an esophageal cancer where
(28:56):
they MGH and the Dana Farber did the best they could,
but she eventually.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Succumbed to Well, these are medical professionals who are associated
with some of the best teaching hospitals in the world.
And you would think that if anyone would have the
opportunity to have a diagnosis treated and treated successfully. It
would be those folks because they probably would have had
(29:26):
early detection. But it just shows the exposure that as
Diane's brother in law was exposed to toxins. God knows
what was in those those buildings. I'm Diane. I'm going
to let you go and I want to thank you.
I know that you're working in New York, so I will.
I will let you go and we'll talk soon. Thank
you very much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
And one thing real quick. One thing with my brother
in law. He watched over that site for six months
and that's he bleded that stuff in for six months
and seven years. After nine to eleven he got diagnosed
and then died and took They.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Never should have challenged that diagnosis and the relationship to
the one. Oh. I know that he won, but what
I'm saying it never should have been challenged when you
tell me that he was there for six months in
the immediate aftermath as all of that stuff was being
(30:23):
moved out. Thanks Diane, we'll talk soon. Thank you very much. Ron.
You were there for eleven days. Just give us a
description of the atmosphere. How did they get food? To
you folks, you often was sleeping on cots. It has
(30:45):
to have been the most difficult professional experience of your life.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
It was very difficult. The only the two deployments that
I have that were the most difficult were nine to
eleven and Iran. But the we had, you know, I
have to say, Dan, in all, in one moment, you
saw the worst of humanity and you and at the
(31:15):
same time you saw the best.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I understand what you mean. I understand what you mean
by that. Explain to us again. I'm trying to force
you to talk about the experience. What was the thing
that that that bothered you the most? In other words,
was it was it the the number of bodies that
(31:39):
were that I'm sure you witnessed being pulled out of
the rubble. What what was the most gut wrenching part
of the experience?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Uh, this smell, the the bodies that they were discovering
being evacuated in the middle of trying to uh, trying
to carry on what we were doing.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Uh. Why were you evacuated? There was you were there,
you were evacuated from from the location.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
And yeah, we were evacuated twice because whenever there was
a big boom, and it could be something following and
the fires were still going. They would evacuate us. And
one of the times, actually I was inside one of
the classrooms there organizing some things and they had been
(32:36):
evacuated and I was still there, so they had to
come back and look for me.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
But you had got the word how close were how
close were you geographically where you were situated to the
World Trade Center? Were you a block away, two blocks away,
one hundred yards? How would you describe it?
Speaker 3 (32:58):
So we had we had four sites at one on
each corner of the pile. The command site was about
a block away. The second site was at the x
MX building you could look right out and onto the pile.
The third site, and I was at all of them.
(33:19):
The third site was at a blown out deli we
converted into a medical aid station. And the fourth site
was a free standing tent. So they were right on
the periphery of the of the World Trade Center hole
the pile, because we had to make it easy for
access for everyone that was there, So it was right
(33:40):
up front, right in your face.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Were you there or were you in any way close
to the location. At one point then President George W.
Bush came by and at one point he was talking
and someone in the crowd said, we hear you. Uh,
and I guess then they gave him a megaphone or
(34:04):
he opened up his voice and said something to the
effect of, uh, you'll hear me and there, and they're
going to hear me as well. Will you? Were you
around when when he was speaking that day.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
I was around, but I wasn't up close. I was
at the first sight. He didn't drive by us after that,
but I wasn't there at that moment when he had
the megaphone.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I think that was the best moment of his presidency
because the the country at that point really was, you know,
heartbroken with everything that they saw. So eleven days and
then you folks came back to Massachusetts. Did you come
(34:52):
back uh? As as you went down this as a.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Group, Yeah, we did. We came back. It was uh,
you know, we in a way, we were inside, We
were constant. We were inside the entire time, inside the court,
mostly the Cordons area. After a couple of days, they
(35:19):
found us a place to stay at the w hotel,
but we were sharing five or six people in the rooms.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
It was it was.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
It wasn't luxurious, that is for sure.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
We sometimes you got the floor, sometimes you get the bed. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Let me ask you this, as you look back on
this experience. We only have a couple of minutes left.
As you look back on this experience, is there a
single overriding lesson or a couple of overriding lessons that
you took from this experience.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah. I think that there isn't anything that we can't
we couldn't accomplish as a team. We trusted each other,
we had each other's back, and the lesson was that
there is there's a great humanity in that moment where
(36:23):
we had a unanimity like I never saw before. Everybody
was kind to one another, Everyone was helping you where
you needed it. I guess the lesson is we should
(36:45):
strive each and every moment to to try and reach
that same moment that we had, however long we had it,
however a funeral it was, and I continue to hope
for that and I try each and every day to
(37:06):
push toward that with this experience always in my mind.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Well, Ron, thanks very much for being with us tonight.
Thanks for being a member of what is now called
the Trauma Critical Care Team International of the United States
of America. Again, you have had some amazing experiences that
up close and personal to disasters. You have seen the
(37:33):
worst of humanity, but you have also seen the best
of humanity. And I think everyone understands that that sometimes
out of these crises come our better selves, and you've
seen it up close and personal. Appreciate you taking the
time tonight. I know it's not an easy set of
memories to remember, but it's an experience of a lifetime,
(37:53):
and a year from now, you're going to be, as
I understand that keynote speaker at the twenty fifth Memorial
commemoration in Newton. So I look forward to talking to
you about that a year hence, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Okay, Thanks Ron Gardett, thank you dan Stein.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Absolutely, will we come back. We're going to talk a
little bit about the decision that the governor announced today
that she wants nine to eleven taught in Massachusetts public
school classrooms. Pretty much, it'd be a subject that would
be discussed when kids are in their junior year. It's
(38:31):
long overdue, long overdue. We'll be back. We'll be back
on Night's side right after the break in the ten
o'clock News
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well twenty four years ago tonight, at this time, this
nation was in shock. The day of nine to eleven,
two thousand and one brought to our doorstep here in Boston,
and of course in New York, and at the Pentagon
in Washington, and in that field in Shanksville, Maryland, international
(00:31):
terrorism in the form of nineteen terrorists who commandeered four airplanes,
two of which flew out of Boston, and those two
airplanes flew into the World Trade Center. We had seen
the videos many times by this time, twenty years ago,
at this hour of the night, however, the recovery from
(00:58):
just a body blow to the nation was arguably the
worst body blow to this nation in our history. The
number of Americans who died here in New York and
in Washington and Shanksville, Maryland were greater that day than
died at Pearl Harbor. It was the first time that
the American homeland had been attacked by an enemy, in
(01:22):
this case on Islamis terrorists. And there were people who
already were beginning the recovery, beginning to get America back
on their feet. And we're delighted to be joined by
one of them tonight. He happens to be a friend
of mine, also a listener to this program of many years,
(01:43):
Ron Goddett of Newton, Massachusetts. Ron, Welcome, Welcome tonight's side.
Normally as a caller, but tonight you're a guest, and
you're a guest because what you have done for years
has been critical work, not only in this country, but
in at least one occasion that I'm aware of halfway
(02:06):
around the world in Iran. Just to set the stage,
just tell us a little bit about yourself. You are
a pharmacist by training. You've worked at the Massachusetts General
Hospital at other hospitals. UH, your career and your your livelihood.
Your profession is to make sure that the prescriptions that
(02:29):
a doctor writes for a patient, whether it's a patient
in a comfortable office in Newton or Boston, or whether
it was prescriptions for people who are recovering from Nina
from the horror of nine to eleven, your responsibility is
to make sure that that there's no inconsistencies, that they're
(02:50):
they're fulfilled proper They're filled properly. It's a it's a
we go to the to the to our drug stores,
and we go to our pharmacists pharmacies and we take
you folks for granted often, but you're an incredible deliver
in that that that stream of medicine that begins when
the doctor writes the prescription and does the analysis and says,
(03:11):
here's what you need.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Go right ahead, Ron, that's a terrific question answers to
start to start our discussion, you know, thank you very much.
That's our job basically is to make sure the patient
gets the right dose at the right time, in the
right form, for the right reason. And we do that.
(03:38):
We consider those whether we're in a cozy hospital environment
or whether we're out in the middle of the desert
in Iran with limited resource.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, so I want to so you started. There was
a group in nineteen ninety nine when that was founded
at was actually again organized that Mass General called the
International Medical Surgical Response Team, and that was in operation
(04:11):
in two thousand and one. It is now morphed into
another organization under the auspices of the National Disaster Medical System.
So this is your group is a cog in a wheel,
I should say, within a big machine that is activated
(04:34):
at times of crisis. I don't want to go through
the whole list here, but I know that you've told
me about dispatching to Iran in two thousand and three,
to New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina in two thousand and five,
for Hurricane Harvey in Texas in twenty seventeen, and a
couple of times following nine to eleven when anthrax scares occurred.
(04:58):
So to get activated and you have to be ready
to go at the drop of a hat.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm ready to go right now. Actually, in fact, I'm
on the September roster, so should should anything occur this month,
I'll we have a fully uh. We have a full
roster complementary UH including surgeons, UH, surgical nurses, anesthesiologists, biomedic
(05:30):
medical engineering, communications, safety and security, aeronautic uh, UH, flight
evacuation nurses, and specialists. I believe it or not, there's
a whole science into lifting somebody up to a higher
altitude if they've got an abdominal injury, if they've got
(05:51):
seizure UH problems because the you know, the the pressure, uh,
the ambient pressure changes as you go up, and of
course that changes how our body responds.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So, now, what was the International Medical Surgical Response Team
based at Mass General Hospital is now the Trauma Critical
Care Team TCCT International of the United States of America.
So I want to get right to it.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Where were you twenty four years ago? Tonight? At about
quarter after nine? You had already been activated, you had
been dispatched. Where were you and where were you? A headache?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
We were at this time? We were on the Mass Pike.
We're a convoy of ten SUVs. The SUVs had been
obtained from Vogan because there wasn't anybody flying in so
they didn't that rental companies didn't need those, so we had.
(06:58):
We were a convoy of ten SUVs heading to Fort
Stewart Airbase in Newburgh, New York, which is about sixty
miles north of New York City and Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I think it's fairly close to the US Military Academy.
I'm not sure that it is next to it, but
I think that's it's pretty close. So you spent the
night there and probably didn't get a lot of sleep.
You got there around what time.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh if we got there after midnight, I can't remember
whether it was called thirty or quarter.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
To one, And so you caught you caught a little
bit of sleep, because the next morning, the next morning, yeah,
were fitful sleep. You had no idea what you were
coming into, what you were going to do. You had
some idea, but you couldn't didn't.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
We didn't have any idea at that moment. Actually, you know,
we were checked into the airplane hangar. There were many
caught on the floor and they had If you've ever
been into an airplane hangar, it's very very bright lights.
(08:10):
You can never sleep, of course, and that and so
and I had you know, I was keeper of the
control substances, the boar, fhine, the oxycodone at the time,
because that's my job. So I had that pelican case
filled with control substances on the cot with me. I
(08:31):
didn't want I didn't want it to go out of
my sight, of.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Course, of course. But you also knew that that morning,
that next morning, which was Wednesday morning, the twelfth of
two thousand and one, because nine eleven was on a Tuesday,
you were heading to appear in New York City for
your last stop before you hit ground zero. You had
(08:55):
seen the planes. You had seen the planes crash into
those buildings. You knew that those buildings had collapsed at
that point, What were you thinking, Ron, in terms of
you were actually heading to what would be characterized as
hell on Earth, that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Well, yeah, in fact, I felt my biggest fear along
the way, actually before we even got to Fort Stewart Airbase.
Was was I adequately prepared? I've had many jobs at
M creation and a lot of covering of the intensive
(09:37):
key unit's cardiac care unit, medical intensive care unit, uh neurology,
uh neurological intensive care unit. So and actually there we
we run code cards as they call it, whenever they
have a code blue. So so that wasn't out of
(09:59):
my skill set. Where I was heading wasn't at least
as I thought. It wasn't too far with my skill set.
But I didn't know what we would be seeing. I
didn't know what we would need. And uh, here I
am on the way down. I brought a hard copy
(10:21):
of a standard reference that we use, and I had
my palm pilot. You know, that's what they had before
iPhones and.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, BlackBerry probably it was.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
It was a handspring palm pilot.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Okay, so let me let me get, let me get,
let me take a break here. What I want to
do is I want you to pull your thoughts together,
and I want to talk about getting to New York.
You were you you went to Chelsea Pierre, I think
you told me, and then from there you were you
were taken as a group in the same s u
(10:57):
vs to Ground zero. And when we get back, I
want to talk about what you faced, what you saw.
I'm assuming those memories are seared in your mind.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So oh yes, yes, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
We'll get to all of that. If folks would like
to talk to Ron and ask a question or share
a story, this is your opportunity. Six one, seven, two, five,
four to ten thirty six one, seven, nine, three, ten
thirty coming right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
My guest is Ron Gordette. He's a friend. He's also
a caller a listener to this program. Uh and he
has worked for thirty one years at mass General Hospital
and he's now involved with a couple of other medical facilities,
but he continues to be a member of the Trauma
(11:53):
Critical Care Team International of the United States of America.
There are a lot of these teams spread around the country.
But Ron is with one of the two teams here
in Massachusetts. As I say, he's been to many locales
nationally and also internationally. But we're focusing tonight on where
Ron was, believe it or not, just within hours of
(12:15):
what the tragedy that had happened. So we know you
were on the Master and Pike heading to New York.
But by tomorrow morning, by when dawn broke, you were
in New York City. What was it like leaving the
Chelsea per and knowing that you were going inside the
yellow police tape down to the tip of the you
(12:36):
know of Manhattan? Did you You must have known how
bad it was, But was it even worse when you
got there?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I was. I was paralyzed for a short time. When
they let us, they carried the transported us in the
sheriff stands and the trucks, and so we were en route.
First Doctor Briggs called us around in a circle, and
(13:16):
this was before we had started from Chelsea Pier into
the Corndoff area, and there was uncertainty whether we would
be going to LaGuardia to put tags on boddies. And
she asked if anyone is uncomfortable with this police step
outside of the circle, and nobody did can. In fact,
(13:39):
I remember vividly one of our unbelievable orthopedics and stepping
forward and saying doctor Briggs, we are with you for
whatever you need us to do and for as long
as you need us to do.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
So that was.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
That was very moving, and at that moment I really
began to feel the support and the leadership that we
had on that mission. When when we when they first
(14:18):
drove us in, we had to stop for a short
time because another section of the selfs how it had fallen,
so before we proceeded in further. Now we're now en
route from Chelsea Pier to the Kordandoff area, and it rained.
It started to rain a little then, so we're standing
(14:39):
outside of the vans and trucks and looking at what
we could see ahead, and of course the fires were
still burning. So once we got into the Kordanoff area,
our first stop was a Cyrus High School and we
marched up the staircases and Styrust High School. It didn't
(14:59):
look like high school at all. I mean, there were stretchers,
there were intravenous ivy polls, there were racks of guze,
all kinds of equipment. Somebody found actually a white tin
with about two thousand milligrams of morphine under one of
the stretches and handed it off to me. What do
(15:22):
you want us to do with this? Run? So I
signed it in as we would usually for control substance
in uh. We included that along along the way. But
after that, when we actually stepped outside, our first command
station was at the burg Manhattan Community College, diagonally across
the streets on Chambers Street.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And across the street from where are you are you
in view of the World Trade Center buildings at that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Point, Yes, we could see, and in fact we were.
We were right up. You could see the bucket for
day going on. There were hundreds of fire fires walking
to and fro, not really saying anything. So it was
it was really an eerie feeling you felt, even though
(16:14):
you were in the midst of so many individuals. For
a moment, I felt almost alone because I couldn't, I didn't,
I didn't you know, I was fearful. I didn't know
what I was doing there.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Did you ever wrong? Let me ask you this, Did
you ever have a sort of feeling that that you're
in some sort of a bad movie at that point.
I mean, I just can't imagine what it must have
been like to have been there essentially twenty four hours
after the planes had hit. You know, it took you
(16:56):
twenty four hours almost to the to the to the
hour to get there. But I'm just you know, the
the devastation has occurred, the buildings are down. Uh, clearly
there's there's a there's recovery efforts underway, but this this
there's uh, there's also rescue efforts. They don't know if
people are still alive. Uh. It had to be truly
(17:19):
an out of body experience to to go from you know,
your job in Boston on Monday, having seen what happened
on Tuesday, and then find yourself there on Wednesday morning.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yes, yeah, it wasn't out of as you said, that's
a good that's a good word. I really felt. If
I could paint just a little bit of a picture,
if you can imagine smoke and fog and a big
bright light looking up into the sky which was hazy
(17:56):
you couldn't really see, and you were in the midst
of this, this collapsed to collapse buildings as supposedly a
seventh story hole in the middle. I didn't feel like
(18:18):
I was in New York. Certainly I didn't feel like
I was on planet Earth. To be honest with you,
and well.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Let me do this. I got to take a break
here at the bottom of the hour for the news break.
When we get back, I want to talk about you
were there for eleven days. I just want people to
understand not only what you saw and what you went
through personally, but through your story, what all of these
folks did in the midst of this mayhem and destruction.
(18:52):
I just want to sort of relive it, and I
know it's difficult to talk about, but I think it's
important for us to for us weren't there, to understand
what it was like, and also to talk about. Look,
several members of your team in the last twenty four
years have now also passed on, and it is probably
(19:14):
very likely that the exposure that they that they dealt
with for these eleven days in September were, in some way,
if not the cause, at least a contributor to some
early deaths. I want to make sure we acknowledge them
as well. My guest is wrong a debt. He is
a member of a I guess we'd call it a
(19:37):
raptal Response Team. It's called the Trauma Critical Care Team
International of the United States of America TCCT. He's been
to many places, but we're talking tonight about where he
was the morning after the towers fell in New York City,
because he was there with other medical providers from Mass
General and other places here in the Greater Boston area
(20:00):
helping helping to deal with this Cataclysmith set of circumstances
that none of us ever could have anticipated. We're going
to take a quick break for news and we'll be
right back with Ron Godad. We had a couple of
callers in the line, so right now if you'd like
to jump on board, if you want to ask a question, mention,
a word of commendation for what Ron and his colleagues
(20:24):
went through. This is what we're trying to do tonight,
is to remember twenty four years ago. And certainly it's
not in any way, shape or form a celebration. It
is a commemoration just as it was today in New York,
as it was at the Pentagon, and I assume it
also was in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in anticipation by the way
(20:46):
of what will be happening a year from now, the
twenty fifth anniversary of nine to eleven. We're back on
Nightside right after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Night Side with Boston's news radio Broll.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Before we get some phone calls here, I want to
give you an opportunity to condense, if you will, the
eleven days. How much sleep did you get? How much
opportunity did you have to relax? You were there, it's
the morning after. Uh, you've you've come out of your
(21:26):
your your your moment in time that you've described as
some sort of a paralysis, almost a mental paralysis. But
you know it's it's game time and you've got to
do whatever you can do. Just what was it like
for eleven days? Tell us, tell us in your own words.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well, sure, Dan so setting up our first medical aid
station again, Doctor Briggs had called us run the circle.
And this was after we people came out of nowhere, firefighters,
police officers and wear the human chain to pass our
(22:03):
equipment from the street or the area the trucks could
pull into into the quad of the Bird Manhattan Community
College and experiencing that human chain with people you've never
met before. Here you are standing there and people are
handing the gear to you from left to right, and
(22:24):
then we were at the in the quad and we
were tasked with setting up our first medical aid station
by seven hundred the next morning. So it's now two
thirty in the morning, and we don't have much time.
There were no there was no electricity, no running water.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
So this again just to emphasize ron is the Wednesday
is the morning after the towers fell.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Correct, Yes, but it had it had then moved after
midnight into the thirteenth, so we got there on the twelfth.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But okay, fair enough, Okay, so now it's actually forty eight.
Well it's it's in effect a day and a half later.
Go ahead. I don't want to get tied. I don't
want to get bogged down into the moments in time,
So go ahead, please, I interrupted you for that. I apologize.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Go ahead, okay, no problem. So so we were was
setting up by seven in the morning. We didn't have
much time. I didn't know what I had with me
for drugs. So we ultimately we set up our first station.
I organized the guards along with my proeague, into four
cardrants within the tents of the personal access to Amazing
(23:42):
and we succeeded in setting up SAW then We saw
our first part fighter at ten after six in the morning,
so we beat our timeline by fifty minutes, which was
you felt really good about it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So what we what were you treating people for? We
have treated for exhaustion, for smoking, relation for injuries. Give
us a sense of that.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Sure I had found the irritation. I mean, if you
if you can imagine the particles that were in the air.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
For UH wounds, people who diabetics who had been on
their feet for for many hours, actually puts the boots
off of one of them and he had gleaming busters.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
We UH chronic constructed plomary disease players, which are basically
you know that they were having difficulty breathing. We had
rule out heart attacks which we triaged over to Cornell
Medical System. We had a roll out closed head injury
(24:51):
somebody had fallen off the girder. And we also have
a specialty burned team and that a part of our
team that specialized in buring. Points directly over to the
Cornell Burn Center and just jump right in with the
nurses there.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
All right, let me do this one. I want to
grab a phone call here or two, and during the
break I'm going to have Rob to try to clean
up the phone line because again we're getting some distortion.
I don't know if you're near a window or whatever.
But Rob will be able to get a clearer connection
for us, and the story is too good to not
have a good connection. Let me go. Diane from Bill
(25:31):
Ricca is calling Diane. Thanks for calling in. You're on
with Ron Godeck.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Go right ahead, Diane, Hey Ron, Hey Dan, Ron. I
first want to say thank you for the work you do.
I'm actually in New York right now. My brother in
law was a hallm police officer got suffered for cancer
for ten years because of nine to eleven who passed
away in twenty eighteen from it, and he was one
(25:56):
of the first police offices to be acknowledged as in
the line of duty deaths, which a lot of these
offices had a fight for years to be labeled that
so that their wife can get their pensions and you
know what would rightfully do to them.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Diane. We'll be right back to you after this break
as well, so if you can stay for a couple
of minutes, I would appreciate it if you'd like to
join the conversation. Six months, seven, two, four, ten, thirty
six seven nine, Rob, please work on this in whatever
way you can in the next couple of minutes. Back
on night Side right after this quick break.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Okay, I hope we have cleaned up the phone that
Ron Godet is on. Ron. Uh, let's hear how it
sounds now I'm here. Amazing, amazing, it's clear as a bell.
I don't know what you were able to do with it,
what Rob was able to do with the Thanks very
much again, I this is such an important interview. I
didn't want to lose it because of you know, problems,
(27:01):
electronic problems. Diane and Bill Rick. If we can bring
Diane back up, Rob, Diane, thanks again for calling in.
You said that you had a relative who was one
of the first firefighters to lose their life on nine
to eleven.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
No first police officer.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Police Okay, find police officer. I was a little distracted.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Go ahead, right that he was acknowledged that it was
in a line of duty death because well, at first
it was a disability, but they had a fight for
it because.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
What did what did he? Diane? What what did And
again I think you said this is a relative of yours.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Yeah, my bug in law.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Okay, what what did he die off?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It was it was some kind of liver cancer.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
They how how quickly after how quickly after nine to
eleven was that diagnosed? And how how long did he
live after that?
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Well, he died in May of twenty eighteen on Memorial Day.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Okay it was Okay, so it was Yeah, it was
seventeen years and I'm sure that is probably why they
fought him on it. It's unfortunate, Ron, you had some
of your colleagues who were in your team that went
with you to New York who died of at an
(28:28):
earlier age. Correct, And these are medical professionals.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah, the youngest was in her late forties actually, unfortunately,
a PA who had actually skipped her graduation on September
eleventh to be with us, and she also deployed to
Iron with us, but she developed an esophageal cancer where
(28:56):
they MGH and the Dana Farber did the best they could,
but she eventually.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Succumbed to Well, these are medical professionals who are associated
with some of the best teaching hospitals in the world.
And you would think that if anyone would have the
opportunity to have a diagnosis treated and treated successfully. It
would be those folks because they probably would have had
(29:26):
early detection. But it just shows the exposure that as
Diane's brother in law was exposed to toxins. God knows
what was in those those buildings. I'm Diane. I'm going
to let you go and I want to thank you.
I know that you're working in New York, so I will.
I will let you go and we'll talk soon. Thank
you very much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
And one thing real quick. One thing with my brother
in law. He watched over that site for six months
and that's he bleded that stuff in for six months
and seven years. After nine to eleven he got diagnosed
and then died and took They.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Never should have challenged that diagnosis and the relationship to
the one. Oh. I know that he won, but what
I'm saying it never should have been challenged when you
tell me that he was there for six months in
the immediate aftermath as all of that stuff was being
(30:23):
moved out. Thanks Diane, we'll talk soon. Thank you very much. Ron.
You were there for eleven days. Just give us a
description of the atmosphere. How did they get food? To
you folks, you often was sleeping on cots. It has
(30:45):
to have been the most difficult professional experience of your life.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
It was very difficult. The only the two deployments that
I have that were the most difficult were nine to
eleven and Iran. But the we had, you know, I
have to say, Dan, in all, in one moment, you
saw the worst of humanity and you and at the
(31:15):
same time you saw the best.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I understand what you mean. I understand what you mean
by that. Explain to us again. I'm trying to force
you to talk about the experience. What was the thing
that that that bothered you the most? In other words,
was it was it the the number of bodies that
(31:39):
were that I'm sure you witnessed being pulled out of
the rubble. What what was the most gut wrenching part
of the experience?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Uh, this smell, the the bodies that they were discovering
being evacuated in the middle of trying to uh, trying
to carry on what we were doing.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Uh. Why were you evacuated? There was you were there,
you were evacuated from from the location.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
And yeah, we were evacuated twice because whenever there was
a big boom, and it could be something following and
the fires were still going. They would evacuate us. And
one of the times, actually I was inside one of
the classrooms there organizing some things and they had been
(32:36):
evacuated and I was still there, so they had to
come back and look for me.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
But you had got the word how close were how
close were you geographically where you were situated to the
World Trade Center? Were you a block away, two blocks away,
one hundred yards? How would you describe it?
Speaker 3 (32:58):
So we had we had four sites at one on
each corner of the pile. The command site was about
a block away. The second site was at the x
MX building you could look right out and onto the pile.
The third site, and I was at all of them.
(33:19):
The third site was at a blown out deli we
converted into a medical aid station. And the fourth site
was a free standing tent. So they were right on
the periphery of the of the World Trade Center hole
the pile, because we had to make it easy for
access for everyone that was there, So it was right
(33:40):
up front, right in your face.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Were you there or were you in any way close
to the location. At one point then President George W.
Bush came by and at one point he was talking
and someone in the crowd said, we hear you. Uh,
and I guess then they gave him a megaphone or
(34:04):
he opened up his voice and said something to the
effect of, uh, you'll hear me and there, and they're
going to hear me as well. Will you? Were you
around when when he was speaking that day.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
I was around, but I wasn't up close. I was
at the first sight. He didn't drive by us after that,
but I wasn't there at that moment when he had
the megaphone.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I think that was the best moment of his presidency
because the the country at that point really was, you know,
heartbroken with everything that they saw. So eleven days and
then you folks came back to Massachusetts. Did you come
(34:52):
back uh? As as you went down this as a.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Group, Yeah, we did. We came back. It was uh,
you know, we in a way, we were inside, We
were constant. We were inside the entire time, inside the court,
mostly the Cordons area. After a couple of days, they
(35:19):
found us a place to stay at the w hotel,
but we were sharing five or six people in the rooms.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
It was it was.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
It wasn't luxurious, that is for sure.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
We sometimes you got the floor, sometimes you get the bed. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Let me ask you this, as you look back on
this experience. We only have a couple of minutes left.
As you look back on this experience, is there a
single overriding lesson or a couple of overriding lessons that
you took from this experience.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah. I think that there isn't anything that we can't
we couldn't accomplish as a team. We trusted each other,
we had each other's back, and the lesson was that
there is there's a great humanity in that moment where
(36:23):
we had a unanimity like I never saw before. Everybody
was kind to one another, Everyone was helping you where
you needed it. I guess the lesson is we should
(36:45):
strive each and every moment to to try and reach
that same moment that we had, however long we had it,
however a funeral it was, and I continue to hope
for that and I try each and every day to
(37:06):
push toward that with this experience always in my mind.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Well, Ron, thanks very much for being with us tonight.
Thanks for being a member of what is now called
the Trauma Critical Care Team International of the United States
of America. Again, you have had some amazing experiences that
up close and personal to disasters. You have seen the
(37:33):
worst of humanity, but you have also seen the best
of humanity. And I think everyone understands that that sometimes
out of these crises come our better selves, and you've
seen it up close and personal. Appreciate you taking the
time tonight. I know it's not an easy set of
memories to remember, but it's an experience of a lifetime,
(37:53):
and a year from now, you're going to be, as
I understand that keynote speaker at the twenty fifth Memorial
commemoration in Newton. So I look forward to talking to
you about that a year hence, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Okay, Thanks Ron Gardett, thank you dan Stein.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Absolutely, will we come back. We're going to talk a
little bit about the decision that the governor announced today
that she wants nine to eleven taught in Massachusetts public
school classrooms. Pretty much, it'd be a subject that would
be discussed when kids are in their junior year. It's
(38:31):
long overdue, long overdue. We'll be back. We'll be back
on Night's side right after the break in the ten
o'clock News
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