September 13, 2024 • 26 mins
S1E2 - VVC student and mom, Reggie Cervantes sits down on the podcast to talk about working as an Emergency Medical Technician in New York during September 11, 2001. Reggie recollects the moment she got the call to head to Ground Zero. She arrived as the South Tower fell.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Good morning BBC.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Right, seriously, Okay, So Reggie, you're a student and you
have a history. You came from New York, right, I
am a Brooklyn girl, born and raised, born on the
Lower East.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Side of New York in what they term Alphabet City
or alphabet Land Avenue C and Twelfth.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Street, Avenue C in Twelfth Street. Okay, so you're you're
like a straight shooter. You just tell it like it is,
very blunt, very direct with people. Right, that's a New York.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Absolutely, we just we get it off our mind. Let's
cut to the chase.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I love that, absolutely love that. I try that with
my boss sometimes and he pushes back a little.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So it's not very effective in business because people want
to just circumvent all all the stuff first and be
polite and chat and no, no, let's get it out
of the way. Time is money, time is I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
That's great. So you you were an EMT right, emergency
medical technician when you lived in New York. Yes, So
what got you interested in doing that that line of work?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, I worked on Wall Street, Okay. I worked in
private banking where you couldn't open an account with less
than five million dollars and I ended up there because
of my bilingual skills, and that wasn't gratifying. So I
ended up being a investigator for the City of New
(01:44):
York for Local three seventy one OP at Metropolitan Hospital,
again using my bilingual skills, but using other other analytical
skills as well. And then there were budget cuts and
union cuts, and I took a job working for the
heart surgeons at Cornell New York Hospital. But I found
(02:09):
that while I liked healthcare, which my New York City
investigator skills at Metropolitan Hospital were used for, and I
liked working with the heart surgeons at Cornell, the financial
aspect wasn't gratifying. But healthcare was dealing with people providing
(02:29):
somebody with any type of assistance when they needed it.
And I read an article about a woman in the
New York Daily News that had assisted during the earthquakes
in Monaqua, Nicaragua, and it stayed in the back of
(02:49):
my head, and for years she had this service Knine.
She did search and rescue. She started later on in life,
and she was happy, and I wanted that joy to
be able to do something for my community that felt
self satisfying.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
That's great, you have you're a VVC student, but you
have you have two children also, right, yes.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And they both attended BVC. My oldest, Aurelia, was in
ASB here. Oh, she was in Model United Nations. She
was a student of Jackie Augustine and Jennifer Fowler in
the communications department. She loved it. She graduated here with
(03:33):
the associates and communications and she went to cal State
San Marcos. And my son attended here for a year
and he felt the call to service enrolled in the
army and he's been in the military for six years
and he's.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Currently on deployment.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Where's he at.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
He's in South Korea?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
South Korea. Okay, you know, I wanted to start the
podcast with your background. You know, you're from New York,
You're you're an EMT and uh, you know, a VVC
student and uh, you know, for everyone listening to the
podcast or watching, you know, sounds like a typical story. Right,
you're a little older and you're going back to school,
(04:15):
which is really awesome. You know, it shows that you're
never too you're never too old to or rather too
young to learn something new. Right. Uh, but you know,
when when we when we take a little deeper dive
and we find out that you were there on September
eleventh as an EMT in New York when the South
Tower was falling down. That adds a little different tone
(04:38):
to your story, and I think it's really important that
people really understand what happened that day, whether they were,
you know, born too young, or they weren't born yet.
It's it's one of those things like when we talk
about like the Challenger or the Kennedy assassination. You know,
nine to eleven was a very tragic time in our lives,
(05:01):
and to really do a deep dive into what that
time was like for yourself, there's value with that. So
when we come back, we're going to talk to Reggie
a little more about that faithful day, that day of
darkness in our country and see what she has to say.
So we'll be right back. You corrected me when we
(05:33):
stopped recording, and I said, you know, change the country,
but you say change the world as a whole nine
to eleven.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
It true, did.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
We We had known terrorism and attacks at different levels,
domestic terrorism with the Oklahoma City bombing, but it changed
the world as a whole. Everything is different. The way
we fly the way we think, how we look at
each other. It changed the way that we perceive anyone
(06:03):
that's different from us. And for quite a long time
it's people have perceived somebody different as a threat. And
what we need to return to thinking is that just
because you're different that me doesn't mean that you're a danger.
It just means that you might worship different, that you
(06:24):
might eat different, that you might live different. But when
it comes down to the nitty gritty, when we get
to know our neighbors, sometimes they're just like us. They
love their children the same way, they have the same aspirations,
they look at history the same way. They don't want
things to repeat.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Can you walk us through that day how it started
for you? Sure?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But giving you some background. Nine to eleven wasn't my
first brush with terrorism. Maeteen seventy two, My parents were
scheduled to be on a pilgrimage arriving in Tel Aviv
in Israel, and three Japanese mercenaries were hired by Palestinians
(07:15):
to perpetrate an attack at the airport and unsuspecting tourists
just arriving in Tel Aviv. And it's called the lad
Airport massacre. And we lost about four members of my family. Luckily,
my mother freaked out before boarding the plane and decided
(07:36):
she wasn't going on this pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
and my parents never boarded, so they are alive. But
my father's cousins perished. One was a pastor of a church,
and a lot of the people who were doing a
(07:57):
trip to the Holy Land. I have some exposure to
traumatic grief before then, even though my parents tried to
shield us. But on nine to eleven I had taken
the week off to take my little girl to kindergarten.
My daughter, Aurelia, that attended BBC and was in a
(08:19):
ASB and was in mally Yuenn and who loved this college.
So it was her first week of kindergarten. So I
took time off so we could do the whole Mommy
takes you to the school, do the pictures and it's
funny her first day at BBC. I insisted she duplicate
(08:39):
that picture and those are really fun memories for us.
So on nine to eleven, my pager went off. It
was a communication device we carried back then.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yes, for all you young people. It was a little
box that you put on your belt. Loop that would beat.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Bat you and messages would come across, like in text form,
and it would give you either the name of somebody
maybe a phone number, and then you would call that
person and communicate with them. So my cell phone went
off and beeper went off, and basically it was alerting
(09:18):
me that there was a mass casualty incident in Manhattan
and that all uniform services were to respond to the scene.
And my neighbor kept calling me, so finally, like on
the third phone call, I answered, and she was hysterical
and she said an airplane hit the Empire State Building.
(09:42):
And I'm thinking, oh, that's a big deal, and I
ran home to get into uniforms so I could respond.
When I got home, I turned on my TV and
media coverage had already started. And it wasn't the Empire
State Building. It was the Twin Towers. And I had
grown up watching them build a twin towers.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
In that moment where you like, oh, this was a
really bad accident, I got to, you know, I gotta
get ready, or were you like, this is something else.
Because I was younger, I was in high school, and
I just thought it was an accident until maybe an
hour into it we started to understand this someone was
attacking our country. We didn't really know at first.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We those of us in service knew automatically that if
something struck the World Trade Center or any of the
significant high buildings in New York City, that it was deliberate,
because if you did any training, you would understand that
those were always considered major targets, and they were big
(10:48):
and obvious. I mean you could see them for fifty
miles in any direction from the sky if you had
a clear day and it was just clearly visible that
if you hit those towers, clearly in your mind, you
immediately understood that it was not an accident.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We're going to take another quick break, and then when
we come back, we'll talk a little more about what
happened on that day. Uh, we're here with Reggie. Servants.
Don't go away.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I'm just a mom.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I'm just a mom.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
By the way, I have an ear piercing New York
City whistle. You want to hear it?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, actually I kind of do. Hold on, let's let's record.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Because that's kind of how I call a cab in
New York. That was a little weak.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That's good, that's how you know you're from New York, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, that's really good taxi.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So this is this was like a badge that was
given to you as like an award.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
That was a badge that was given to me, replacing
my badge that I had donated to somebody who had
done a lot for the sick responders. So I gave
them my original gold shield. And then at an event,
(12:27):
other responders who were appearing at an event in San
Diego were being given memorial shield and they issued this
one form to me.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Wow, let's go back to nine to eleven, so you
get there, and from what I gathered, it was when
the South Tower had fallen. What was going through your
mind at that moment when the seriousness got even more serious.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, the dust hadn't settled, so we were trying to
get our bearings. We arrived and we entered through the
corner of where Saint Peter's churches, which is two blocks
north of the World Trade Center, and the heat was
(13:18):
still intense. They were multiple fires still burning. One of
the hardest memories for me to deal with were the
sounds of Building seven engulfed in flames. Because when steel
is burning and it's losing its integrity and buckling. The
(13:41):
sound that it makes sounded to me like maybe they
were people screaming because they were burning, and so I
associated that sound maybe people needed help, and the constant
e f of the firefighter down alarms. So there are
(14:03):
certain sounds and images that here we are twenty three
years later, are still embedded vividly in my brain.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You you suffered from PTSD right after nine to eleven,
and you wrote a book, Actually my mommy has PTSD,
you know, based on your experience on September eleven. Tell
me tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Well, first of all, you can say you suffered because
PTSD is an ongoing thing. I don't think you ever
get out of it. It's a condition that's lifelong affecting.
Whatever cause your PTSD might always come back to trigger it.
(14:48):
So Aurelia, when we moved to Oklahoma City, wanted to
explain to other kids what PTSD was, and she had
some conversations with kids her age why we don't do
certain things, like we weren't going to go to the
(15:09):
state Fair because they were big crowds and I still
was just learning to cope with mass crowds and the
whole possibility of not feeling safe in a crowd because
something could happen. But what I didn't know is that
Aurelia was attending class with a couple of survivors from
(15:34):
the Oklahoma City Bomby. And I'm very grateful.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
To that mom for helping me in the journey to
grow and be resilient. Saunder Grubman in dealing with learning
how to cope with teaching a child about PTSD. And
I think it was in conversations that Aurelia had with
NICKI that brought about, mom, how do we explain it
(16:02):
to other kids? How do we talk to other kids
about why we're different? So that that was a big education.
In the book is called my Mommy has PTSD because
that that's how she explained it to other kids.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
When we come back, we'll we'll talk a little more
with Reggie Savonte's Richter Valley College student and someone who
went through nine to eleven will be right back. All right,
(16:41):
We are back here with Reggie Survante's VVC student who
actually lived through nine to eleven in New York. So
we got a little emotional there. You almost had me
crying in here for a second. I really, really felt
you know what you're going through. I did use a
past tense suffered from PTSD, and yeah, I guess like
(17:01):
you said, it's something that is ongoing and stuff. I've
always been a believer that any type of trauma to
talk about or to you know, have those conversations kind
of helps in the therapeutic process. So I'm really I'm
really thankful that you're taking the time to be so
intimate with us and open up your life with well
(17:24):
not just me, but everyone that's watching this right now,
you know, to really hopefully inspire or get the younger
generation to reflect on where we were as a country
and for one person's experience during that day.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Well, I believe that you should never stop learning and
talking about nine to eleven is education in a lot
of ways, because there's so many people who never heard
of it or who don't understand the ramifications I have.
I'm in the Public Service Academy, I'm in the EMT
(17:59):
class here at BBC. I am grateful for the institution,
for the college itself, but for the Public Service Academy,
for what the director Olsen accomplishes with the lives that
go through there. So one of the youngest squad members
(18:20):
in my squad, I'm my squad's leader is a young
man that just turned eighteen years old. He graduated from
high school in May, and I'm old enough to be
his grandmother. And I don't think they don't know my
participation yet, but I don't think they understand what it entails.
(18:43):
I don't think they understand everything that happened. And his
life is going to be different because he's not only
learning to be of service to our community, but because
nine to eleven impacted how ems, police and fire do
(19:06):
their job. And one of the things that I hope
to share at some point is not just friendship and mentorship,
but I'm hoping to learn from them as much as
they can learn from me.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Something that I want to ask you is I'd mentioned
it earlier, like the Kennedy assassination and Challenger blowing up,
Titanic seeking, even Hurricane Katrina, Like all of these really dramatic,
tragic events have happened in different generations over time. You know,
how do you get I guess what I'm asking Reggie is,
(19:45):
how do you get a younger generation to learn more
about nine to eleven, to really understand what happened? That day,
like moving forward, how do we get generations not to
forget and understand how significant this was in the history
of the world.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Wow. Well, first of all, you touched on some events
that I've lived through, Kennedy assassination, the Challenger nine to eleven.
I also worked Katrina, And like all these events, you
(20:23):
talk about them, You talk about them, and you keep
them part of the curriculum. You educate your kids at home,
but as well as in learning institutions about historical events
that happen. And I know that Pearl Harbor wasn't something
(20:44):
that was discussed a great deal, so a lot of
the importance of the historical events of that day were
lost because you know, the term they use was battle fatigue,
So to prevent recurrences of flashbacks and battle fatigue, it
was not acceptable to discuss it and to share those
(21:08):
historical views. But I think it's important now. I do
it every year. I speak at Oak Hill's High School,
which I'm not this year sadly, and.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Actually my son's teachers teach.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
There now and they always ask me to come back
because they feel it impactful. I've spoken at the Lewis
Academy and other local local schools Serrano High School in
some of the rops. So it's important. It's important that
we share our stories. But they made nine to eleven
(21:44):
something called Patriots Day, and it's important that on Patriots
Day we observe it the right way. And in the
last two years a term was thrown around celebration. Excuse me,
it's not a celebration. Patriots Day is not a celebration.
(22:07):
It's a day to honor those who were lost. It's
a day to honor those who live in our communities
and are committed to public service, fire police, ems and
all the small volunteers too, whether they're Salvation Army or
(22:27):
Red Cross, the nurses who stop when they see an
accident to see if they need to render aid. And
I mean, there are so many people who go unrecognized
in our community and do public service. The people who
are out there helping the homeless, who many of them
(22:49):
are veterans who got into this because they wanted to
be committed to service to our communities and our country,
and many of them come here.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Reggie, I want to thank you so much for being
on the podcast today. You're a very special person. Whether
you want to take that with a grain of salt
or what. You have a very unique story, and it's
a very special story. And who would know twenty seven
one hundred and twenty eight hundred miles away from New
(23:22):
York and Washington, d C. And Pennsylvania that somebody that
lived through that horrible day is now a student here
at Victor Valley College and continuing their education and living life.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And let's not forget the Pentagon. Oh, there were three sides.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
It was DC, It's in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Now the Pentagon's in sort of DC Maryland.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Virginia was yeah, I was talking about the plane in Pennsylvania, DC,
meaning the Pentagon, and then New York.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So yeah, it's it's strange that I
find myself here and that I became. I'm aware of
VBC because they held a nine to eleven event called
the Stair Climb, and I read about it and I
showed up and they let me do it.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
They let me lead.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Wow. I'm probably going to talk your head off after
the podcasts and stuff, because you are a plethora of knowledge.
So thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Thank you for having me ramplify.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
The podcast is filmed. They're recorded in Victorville, California. This
podcast is made possible with the support of the Associated
Student Body of Victor Valley College. The views and opinions
expressed in this production are those of the speakers and
do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Victor
Valley College or its affiliates. Ramplify is hosted by Andrew Caravella,
produced by Robert A.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Sewell.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Production crew includes officers of the Associated student Body of
twenty twenty four through twenty twenty five. Like more information
about this podcast, please reach out by email info at
DVC dot E d U
Good morning BBC.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Right, seriously, Okay, So Reggie, you're a student and you
have a history. You came from New York, right, I
am a Brooklyn girl, born and raised, born on the
Lower East.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Side of New York in what they term Alphabet City
or alphabet Land Avenue C and Twelfth.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Street, Avenue C in Twelfth Street. Okay, so you're you're
like a straight shooter. You just tell it like it is,
very blunt, very direct with people. Right, that's a New York.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Absolutely, we just we get it off our mind. Let's
cut to the chase.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I love that, absolutely love that. I try that with
my boss sometimes and he pushes back a little.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So it's not very effective in business because people want
to just circumvent all all the stuff first and be
polite and chat and no, no, let's get it out
of the way. Time is money, time is I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
That's great. So you you were an EMT right, emergency
medical technician when you lived in New York. Yes, So
what got you interested in doing that that line of work?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, I worked on Wall Street, Okay. I worked in
private banking where you couldn't open an account with less
than five million dollars and I ended up there because
of my bilingual skills, and that wasn't gratifying. So I
ended up being a investigator for the City of New
(01:44):
York for Local three seventy one OP at Metropolitan Hospital,
again using my bilingual skills, but using other other analytical
skills as well. And then there were budget cuts and
union cuts, and I took a job working for the
heart surgeons at Cornell New York Hospital. But I found
(02:09):
that while I liked healthcare, which my New York City
investigator skills at Metropolitan Hospital were used for, and I
liked working with the heart surgeons at Cornell, the financial
aspect wasn't gratifying. But healthcare was dealing with people providing
(02:29):
somebody with any type of assistance when they needed it.
And I read an article about a woman in the
New York Daily News that had assisted during the earthquakes
in Monaqua, Nicaragua, and it stayed in the back of
(02:49):
my head, and for years she had this service Knine.
She did search and rescue. She started later on in life,
and she was happy, and I wanted that joy to
be able to do something for my community that felt
self satisfying.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
That's great, you have you're a VVC student, but you
have you have two children also, right, yes.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And they both attended BVC. My oldest, Aurelia, was in
ASB here. Oh, she was in Model United Nations. She
was a student of Jackie Augustine and Jennifer Fowler in
the communications department. She loved it. She graduated here with
(03:33):
the associates and communications and she went to cal State
San Marcos. And my son attended here for a year
and he felt the call to service enrolled in the
army and he's been in the military for six years
and he's.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Currently on deployment.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Where's he at.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
He's in South Korea?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
South Korea. Okay, you know, I wanted to start the
podcast with your background. You know, you're from New York,
You're you're an EMT and uh, you know, a VVC
student and uh, you know, for everyone listening to the
podcast or watching, you know, sounds like a typical story. Right,
you're a little older and you're going back to school,
(04:15):
which is really awesome. You know, it shows that you're
never too you're never too old to or rather too
young to learn something new. Right. Uh, but you know,
when when we when we take a little deeper dive
and we find out that you were there on September
eleventh as an EMT in New York when the South
Tower was falling down. That adds a little different tone
(04:38):
to your story, and I think it's really important that
people really understand what happened that day, whether they were,
you know, born too young, or they weren't born yet.
It's it's one of those things like when we talk
about like the Challenger or the Kennedy assassination. You know,
nine to eleven was a very tragic time in our lives,
(05:01):
and to really do a deep dive into what that
time was like for yourself, there's value with that. So
when we come back, we're going to talk to Reggie
a little more about that faithful day, that day of
darkness in our country and see what she has to say.
So we'll be right back. You corrected me when we
(05:33):
stopped recording, and I said, you know, change the country,
but you say change the world as a whole nine
to eleven.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
It true, did.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
We We had known terrorism and attacks at different levels,
domestic terrorism with the Oklahoma City bombing, but it changed
the world as a whole. Everything is different. The way
we fly the way we think, how we look at
each other. It changed the way that we perceive anyone
(06:03):
that's different from us. And for quite a long time
it's people have perceived somebody different as a threat. And
what we need to return to thinking is that just
because you're different that me doesn't mean that you're a danger.
It just means that you might worship different, that you
(06:24):
might eat different, that you might live different. But when
it comes down to the nitty gritty, when we get
to know our neighbors, sometimes they're just like us. They
love their children the same way, they have the same aspirations,
they look at history the same way. They don't want
things to repeat.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Can you walk us through that day how it started
for you? Sure?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But giving you some background. Nine to eleven wasn't my
first brush with terrorism. Maeteen seventy two, My parents were
scheduled to be on a pilgrimage arriving in Tel Aviv
in Israel, and three Japanese mercenaries were hired by Palestinians
(07:15):
to perpetrate an attack at the airport and unsuspecting tourists
just arriving in Tel Aviv. And it's called the lad
Airport massacre. And we lost about four members of my family. Luckily,
my mother freaked out before boarding the plane and decided
(07:36):
she wasn't going on this pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
and my parents never boarded, so they are alive. But
my father's cousins perished. One was a pastor of a church,
and a lot of the people who were doing a
(07:57):
trip to the Holy Land. I have some exposure to
traumatic grief before then, even though my parents tried to
shield us. But on nine to eleven I had taken
the week off to take my little girl to kindergarten.
My daughter, Aurelia, that attended BBC and was in a
(08:19):
ASB and was in mally Yuenn and who loved this college.
So it was her first week of kindergarten. So I
took time off so we could do the whole Mommy
takes you to the school, do the pictures and it's
funny her first day at BBC. I insisted she duplicate
(08:39):
that picture and those are really fun memories for us.
So on nine to eleven, my pager went off. It
was a communication device we carried back then.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yes, for all you young people. It was a little
box that you put on your belt. Loop that would beat.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Bat you and messages would come across, like in text form,
and it would give you either the name of somebody
maybe a phone number, and then you would call that
person and communicate with them. So my cell phone went
off and beeper went off, and basically it was alerting
(09:18):
me that there was a mass casualty incident in Manhattan
and that all uniform services were to respond to the scene.
And my neighbor kept calling me, so finally, like on
the third phone call, I answered, and she was hysterical
and she said an airplane hit the Empire State Building.
(09:42):
And I'm thinking, oh, that's a big deal, and I
ran home to get into uniforms so I could respond.
When I got home, I turned on my TV and
media coverage had already started. And it wasn't the Empire
State Building. It was the Twin Towers. And I had
grown up watching them build a twin towers.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
In that moment where you like, oh, this was a
really bad accident, I got to, you know, I gotta
get ready, or were you like, this is something else.
Because I was younger, I was in high school, and
I just thought it was an accident until maybe an
hour into it we started to understand this someone was
attacking our country. We didn't really know at first.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We those of us in service knew automatically that if
something struck the World Trade Center or any of the
significant high buildings in New York City, that it was deliberate,
because if you did any training, you would understand that
those were always considered major targets, and they were big
(10:48):
and obvious. I mean you could see them for fifty
miles in any direction from the sky if you had
a clear day and it was just clearly visible that
if you hit those towers, clearly in your mind, you
immediately understood that it was not an accident.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We're going to take another quick break, and then when
we come back, we'll talk a little more about what
happened on that day. Uh, we're here with Reggie. Servants.
Don't go away.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I'm just a mom.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I'm just a mom.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
By the way, I have an ear piercing New York
City whistle. You want to hear it?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, actually I kind of do. Hold on, let's let's record.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Because that's kind of how I call a cab in
New York. That was a little weak.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That's good, that's how you know you're from New York, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, that's really good taxi.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So this is this was like a badge that was
given to you as like an award.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
That was a badge that was given to me, replacing
my badge that I had donated to somebody who had
done a lot for the sick responders. So I gave
them my original gold shield. And then at an event,
(12:27):
other responders who were appearing at an event in San
Diego were being given memorial shield and they issued this
one form to me.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Wow, let's go back to nine to eleven, so you
get there, and from what I gathered, it was when
the South Tower had fallen. What was going through your
mind at that moment when the seriousness got even more serious.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, the dust hadn't settled, so we were trying to
get our bearings. We arrived and we entered through the
corner of where Saint Peter's churches, which is two blocks
north of the World Trade Center, and the heat was
(13:18):
still intense. They were multiple fires still burning. One of
the hardest memories for me to deal with were the
sounds of Building seven engulfed in flames. Because when steel
is burning and it's losing its integrity and buckling. The
(13:41):
sound that it makes sounded to me like maybe they
were people screaming because they were burning, and so I
associated that sound maybe people needed help, and the constant
e f of the firefighter down alarms. So there are
(14:03):
certain sounds and images that here we are twenty three
years later, are still embedded vividly in my brain.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You you suffered from PTSD right after nine to eleven,
and you wrote a book, Actually my mommy has PTSD,
you know, based on your experience on September eleven. Tell
me tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Well, first of all, you can say you suffered because
PTSD is an ongoing thing. I don't think you ever
get out of it. It's a condition that's lifelong affecting.
Whatever cause your PTSD might always come back to trigger it.
(14:48):
So Aurelia, when we moved to Oklahoma City, wanted to
explain to other kids what PTSD was, and she had
some conversations with kids her age why we don't do
certain things, like we weren't going to go to the
(15:09):
state Fair because they were big crowds and I still
was just learning to cope with mass crowds and the
whole possibility of not feeling safe in a crowd because
something could happen. But what I didn't know is that
Aurelia was attending class with a couple of survivors from
(15:34):
the Oklahoma City Bomby. And I'm very grateful.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
To that mom for helping me in the journey to
grow and be resilient. Saunder Grubman in dealing with learning
how to cope with teaching a child about PTSD. And
I think it was in conversations that Aurelia had with
NICKI that brought about, mom, how do we explain it
(16:02):
to other kids? How do we talk to other kids
about why we're different? So that that was a big education.
In the book is called my Mommy has PTSD because
that that's how she explained it to other kids.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
When we come back, we'll we'll talk a little more
with Reggie Savonte's Richter Valley College student and someone who
went through nine to eleven will be right back. All right,
(16:41):
We are back here with Reggie Survante's VVC student who
actually lived through nine to eleven in New York. So
we got a little emotional there. You almost had me
crying in here for a second. I really, really felt
you know what you're going through. I did use a
past tense suffered from PTSD, and yeah, I guess like
(17:01):
you said, it's something that is ongoing and stuff. I've
always been a believer that any type of trauma to
talk about or to you know, have those conversations kind
of helps in the therapeutic process. So I'm really I'm
really thankful that you're taking the time to be so
intimate with us and open up your life with well
(17:24):
not just me, but everyone that's watching this right now,
you know, to really hopefully inspire or get the younger
generation to reflect on where we were as a country
and for one person's experience during that day.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Well, I believe that you should never stop learning and
talking about nine to eleven is education in a lot
of ways, because there's so many people who never heard
of it or who don't understand the ramifications I have.
I'm in the Public Service Academy, I'm in the EMT
(17:59):
class here at BBC. I am grateful for the institution,
for the college itself, but for the Public Service Academy,
for what the director Olsen accomplishes with the lives that
go through there. So one of the youngest squad members
(18:20):
in my squad, I'm my squad's leader is a young
man that just turned eighteen years old. He graduated from
high school in May, and I'm old enough to be
his grandmother. And I don't think they don't know my
participation yet, but I don't think they understand what it entails.
(18:43):
I don't think they understand everything that happened. And his
life is going to be different because he's not only
learning to be of service to our community, but because
nine to eleven impacted how ems, police and fire do
(19:06):
their job. And one of the things that I hope
to share at some point is not just friendship and mentorship,
but I'm hoping to learn from them as much as
they can learn from me.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Something that I want to ask you is I'd mentioned
it earlier, like the Kennedy assassination and Challenger blowing up,
Titanic seeking, even Hurricane Katrina, Like all of these really dramatic,
tragic events have happened in different generations over time. You know,
how do you get I guess what I'm asking Reggie is,
(19:45):
how do you get a younger generation to learn more
about nine to eleven, to really understand what happened? That day,
like moving forward, how do we get generations not to
forget and understand how significant this was in the history
of the world.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Wow. Well, first of all, you touched on some events
that I've lived through, Kennedy assassination, the Challenger nine to eleven.
I also worked Katrina, And like all these events, you
(20:23):
talk about them, You talk about them, and you keep
them part of the curriculum. You educate your kids at home,
but as well as in learning institutions about historical events
that happen. And I know that Pearl Harbor wasn't something
(20:44):
that was discussed a great deal, so a lot of
the importance of the historical events of that day were
lost because you know, the term they use was battle fatigue,
So to prevent recurrences of flashbacks and battle fatigue, it
was not acceptable to discuss it and to share those
(21:08):
historical views. But I think it's important now. I do
it every year. I speak at Oak Hill's High School,
which I'm not this year sadly, and.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Actually my son's teachers teach.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
There now and they always ask me to come back
because they feel it impactful. I've spoken at the Lewis
Academy and other local local schools Serrano High School in
some of the rops. So it's important. It's important that
we share our stories. But they made nine to eleven
(21:44):
something called Patriots Day, and it's important that on Patriots
Day we observe it the right way. And in the
last two years a term was thrown around celebration. Excuse me,
it's not a celebration. Patriots Day is not a celebration.
(22:07):
It's a day to honor those who were lost. It's
a day to honor those who live in our communities
and are committed to public service, fire police, ems and
all the small volunteers too, whether they're Salvation Army or
(22:27):
Red Cross, the nurses who stop when they see an
accident to see if they need to render aid. And
I mean, there are so many people who go unrecognized
in our community and do public service. The people who
are out there helping the homeless, who many of them
(22:49):
are veterans who got into this because they wanted to
be committed to service to our communities and our country,
and many of them come here.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Reggie, I want to thank you so much for being
on the podcast today. You're a very special person. Whether
you want to take that with a grain of salt
or what. You have a very unique story, and it's
a very special story. And who would know twenty seven
one hundred and twenty eight hundred miles away from New
(23:22):
York and Washington, d C. And Pennsylvania that somebody that
lived through that horrible day is now a student here
at Victor Valley College and continuing their education and living life.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And let's not forget the Pentagon. Oh, there were three sides.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
It was DC, It's in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Now the Pentagon's in sort of DC Maryland.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Virginia was yeah, I was talking about the plane in Pennsylvania, DC,
meaning the Pentagon, and then New York.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So yeah, it's it's strange that I
find myself here and that I became. I'm aware of
VBC because they held a nine to eleven event called
the Stair Climb, and I read about it and I
showed up and they let me do it.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
They let me lead.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Wow. I'm probably going to talk your head off after
the podcasts and stuff, because you are a plethora of knowledge.
So thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Thank you for having me ramplify.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
The podcast is filmed. They're recorded in Victorville, California. This
podcast is made possible with the support of the Associated
Student Body of Victor Valley College. The views and opinions
expressed in this production are those of the speakers and
do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Victor
Valley College or its affiliates. Ramplify is hosted by Andrew Caravella,
produced by Robert A.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Sewell.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Production crew includes officers of the Associated student Body of
twenty twenty four through twenty twenty five. Like more information
about this podcast, please reach out by email info at
DVC dot E d U
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