9/11 Hour 2

Bob talks to Scott Owen and Nick Circe.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that. Good morning, Americans. Hello,
my friend. Like always, it is a delight to be
with you. We're looking back 25 years to a hateful
Muslim terrorist attack upon our country and the incredible reaction
of courage and compassion shown by the American people, some
in uniform, some in not. People from every walk of

(00:22):
life standing to be their brother's keeper. One of those
joins us now, a retired lieutenant, of the Rochester Fire Department,
Scotty Owen. Sir, good morning and welcome to the broadcast.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Good morning, Bob, to you and your listeners.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
25 years ago, how old were you? What were you
doing in life, please?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh my God, I don't know how old I am now.
I don't even know how to begin talking like this.
It's one of the most beautiful days we have right
now and it's one of the most somberest ones. You know,
sitting out here enjoying the sun when so many people
can't anymore. It's a So what would you want to
talk about again?

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Just set in context, 25 years ago, where were you
in life? What were you doing, please, sir?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I was in Livonia. I was just, I had two
small little children, you know, and it was my wife
at the time, no longer married to her, but it
was a while ago.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
How long had you been in the fire service, please?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I was a lieutenant at the time, so 2001, 90,
21 years.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
You'd been in 21 years.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Listen, I went to Jefferson High School. I'm not good
at math, my friend.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Were you over on Lyle Avenue back then?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, I was. With Engine 5? Yes, I started at
Engine 5 in 2000, thanks to Floyd Madison, who was
one of the best parties we ever had.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
100%.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
And, yeah, I started off my Engine 5 career there,
and I was there about a year when this day happened.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
And when the attack happened, in your heart, in your department,
what was the response, please?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, when it happened, we didn't know at first when
it all happened. It was an accident. And the second
plane hit, and then everything started to unfold. And I
was just walking around my pace around my living room
while my head was like, what's going on? We've got
to do something, don't we? You know, when you're a
fire department, you think you're the only fire department.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
In the world.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
It's like, we've got to do something. We've got to
do something. So I made a few phone calls, and
it turns out that, you know, Ray Palacios, you know Ray,
a good friend of ours and an Engine 5 alumni.
We had friends down there, and we used to belong
to a motorcycle club called the X-Men. We used to
go to New York City and hang out with these
guys all the time. We'd stay at their firehouse and

(02:43):
We got to develop over the years this special relationship
with these guys. They took care of us, and, you know,
we enjoyed their hospitality. We got to develop a friendship
with these guys. And when this happened, we went, Ray
and I, just the next day, we got permission from Floyd.
We called him up. You know, everything's going on. It's
hard to put in context. We asked, can we go

(03:04):
down there? What can we do? And I remember I
got chills when he said this. He said, young man,
I can't tell you what to do on your day off,
your days off. So it's kind of like he was
telling us, you know, yes, but no. So long story short,
we went down there. It took us about 20 minutes
to get down there, literally, because we flew. I mean,
we drove fast. And we got to the firehouse where

(03:26):
our friends were at. And Bob, literally within a half
hour of going to that firehouse, we brought all our goods,
our gear. We were on like a minivan going through
the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, going right to ground zero. It
was like, are you kidding me? It was like being
in a movie. I tell everybody it's the best, worst
thing I ever did. But we were on that pile

(03:49):
within an hour of showing up at that site, and
we were there for about a week doing it.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
And then the day that you and Firefighter Palacios arrived,
was that the 12th of September?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yes. We left in the morning, and we got... You know,
we've got to get work subs. We've got to take
care of the family. We've got to make sure they're
all set. But at the time, I mean, I could
speak for myself. I was trying to put this together
blindly and rationally. How can I– let's go. We've got
to go, you know. I don't know what we were
going to do when we get down there. I mean,

(04:25):
it's FDNY. We're like, you know, comparably small potatoes. But
every fire department in the country wanted to do something.
Everybody was down there, and everybody wanted to help. And we–
If you call it lucky to be in, I don't
know what you call it. I wish I didn't get
in there.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
You had friends.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
We went in.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
And you got in.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
We had friends.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
We got in. And so the task, speaking to retired
Rochester Fire Lieutenant Scott E. Owen, he with Larry Palacios,
another firefighter of the Rochester Department, they took time off,
permission of their chief. They headed down, and they volunteered
with the FDNY, helping at Ground Zero. You said you
went to the pile. What was your task, sir? What

(05:05):
were you doing there, please?

Speaker 2 (05:07):
The first couple days, it was like really nobody knew
what was going on. You jumped in like a bucket brigade.
You know, you've seen them. You've seen the pictures. I
didn't know where this bucket brigade started. I didn't know
where it was ending. But you were just in it
doing something. And then you're kind of mowed. They try
to have you work a 12, 14-hour shift because they
didn't want everybody there the whole time. Right. What we did,

(05:28):
when your shift, if you want to call it that,
was over, we went back to the firehouse where we
regrouped and did a lot. I hate to say it,
we did a lot of self-medication and not drinking out
of fun, just drinking to, like, desensitize with the whole situation.
There are people coming to the firehouse dropping off stuff.
You know, what can we do to help? And it's
like it was just a whirlwind, a constant whirlwind. So

(05:48):
the first couple days we did that. And then after
that they had crews go out and they started going
through the firetrucks trying to secure any equipment that was salvageable.
Can I ask you there for a second?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Speaking of Scotty Owen, so you go to these fire trucks.
What kind of shape were they in? What did you
think about the men and women who were staffing that
apparatus and your thoughts about them?

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Some of it was farther away. It was less damage.
But as you get closer and the damage was increased,
and they even had some back end, like front end loaders,
chaining them and pulling them out so you can go
through them. And I'd be sick to my stomach because,
you know, you could go working on a truck, but
you don't know if you're going to find anybody. You
don't know what's under the truck. And it's like, oh, man,
it's just like, it's like, I can't explain it. But

(06:37):
you're sick to your stomach the whole time, just not
wanting to find anything. And then after that, you would,
they put you on another, let's go look for victims,
stuff like that. You work this quadrant. And then you
had partners, and, like, you're filling up body bags with
pieces of organic material. Sometimes you can make out what
it was. Sometimes you didn't, and you just put it

(06:57):
in a bag, and when the bag got heavy enough,
if you will, because you had to carry it like
a block and a half away to like a temporary morgue,
and checked in, dropped off whatever it is, part of
your work, to drop it off, and they took your
name and where you were working, and they, all right,
and you just walk all the way back and start
all over again.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
These are the remains of human beings, as some fellow foresters.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
Some parts you could tell if it was, and some
parts that were organic material, you don't know what it was.
And as the days went on, they said, just look
for flies. If there's flies congregating on a piece of
something or something like that, you don't know what it is.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Just put it in the bag. It's probably organic. We
don't know what it is. It could be a person.
It could be somebody's lunchbox. We don't know. So we
weren't there to identify. We were just there to, like,
try to collect.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Did you and the others have reverence for the objects
you were collecting?

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh, my God, yeah, it was. You didn't know if
it was a person or, like, something else. But there
was times, this is the eeriest thing I can ever
tell you, when they thought they heard something, they had
everybody on this whole disaster zone. You could almost hear
a pin drop. Cause they were looking at listening for
sounds of people and something you'd hear all quiet, all quiet.

(08:20):
And then that would fade. That was nothing. And then
the noise would pick up again. But the eeriness of that,
the silence, the smell, all I could tell, I could
smell it right now, man. It's like, it smells like a,
like an electrical, like an electrical fire to me. That's
what it smelled like. Can you hold on a.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Moment, please, sir? I appreciate it. Retired Rochester fire Lieutenant
Scotty Owen, um, 24 hours or so after the attack
was on the pile searching, helping. We'll be back with
him in a moment on NewsRadio WHAM 1180.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
September 11, 25 years ago, will go down in our
history as a day.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
25 years ago, to remember. Never forget. Use radio.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Wham! 1180. The free iHeartRadio app has the NFL.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
It's been 25 years since the Muslim terrorist attack upon
our country. Americans responded with compassion and courage. We were
drawn together by our love of God, family, and country.
A lieutenant off Lyle Avenue, the Rochester Fire Department, Scott E. Owen,
over there with Engine 5, he and a fellow firefighter,
Ray Palacio, took time off. with the parishioner of the chief,

(09:33):
went down to New York City and volunteered, spent a
week there on the pile at Ground Zero. If you
were sitting there talking to your children, grandchildren, or a
class full of students, what would you tell them about
what you saw and experienced, please, sir? What should they,
what should we know?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Well, you could go both ways, and I try not
to go down the dark way. So we just... the
spirit of camaraderie and taking a bad situation and doing
the best you can with the materials and situation you
have at hand, that's the best you could tell. I really,
you know, kind of disappear around this time of year,

(10:13):
you know, mentally. I try to kind of check out.
you know, but I was honored that you would ask
me to call, you know, and talk about this because
other than you and this, I put this on the
back burner as best you can mentally, you know, I
know it's kind of, it sounds kind of weak, but
it's a survivability mentally.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I appreciate you bearing witness to what you saw, sir.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
And there's, and there's three different stories that I could
tell you the story from my brain. I could tell
you a story from my heart or my stomach, you know,
and each one will give you a different perspective. And
it's just, I, You know, I just want to keep
it upbeat as much as I can with this. I
can't believe 25 years it's going on right now, 25
years ago. I just hit my head around it.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, this retired fire lieutenant, Scotty Owen, your service endangered
your mind and your health. You carry emotionally this burden,
and you also were there for a week breathing stuff
that has killed thousands of people since. You ever think
about those things?

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, I'm a member of the World Trade Center, the
physical entity that they have that takes care of, you know.
I get a physical every year. Cut a couple CAT
scans and stuff. They just look for, you know, because
there's some weird cancers out there. And when we first
got there, it was the only respiration protection that the
members had was whatever you basically had in your pocket.

(11:38):
You can imagine the logistics down there. Everybody's flooding the zone.
So we didn't actually get respirators until like day four
or five. So whatever you used, you had in your
pocket or whatever you found being handed out at the time,
put this on. People just wanted to go down there
and work. They didn't want to deal with all this
extra stuff, if you will. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
They're playing music in the background. What's the last word
for you, please, sir?

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Thank you for your attention to this, and God bless
our troops, and thank you for bringing attention to this, Bob,
and giving me the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Thanks for the service you've rendered, a lifetime of it.
I'm sorry, I hear it poorly. That's Lieutenant Scotty Owen
of the Rochester Fire Department. He and Ray Palacios, another
Rochester firefighter, on their own time and their own dime,
went down there with many others. Ontario County Sheriff's deputies
went down, I know, and we're going to speak after
the news to a trooper who did the same. Many

(12:37):
from here were involved there. We'll talk about that. It's
news time now, though, on NewsRadio, WAM 1180.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
Hey friends, is your company looking for the future workforce
of advanced manufacturing?

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, you can find them in high school through the
Finger Lakes Youth Apprentice attack against our country. Many impacts.
There were folks from here who were lost that day
There were folks from here who immediately ran down to
serve in New York City in the Pentagon after the attacks.
I'm going to be joined by a former troopee commander

(13:27):
in New York State Police, a retired major, McSertse. Sir,
good morning. Welcome to the broadcast.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Good morning, Bob.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
I appreciate your time and, again, the career and the
life you've lived. Twenty-five years ago, where were you geographically
and in your career? What was your story at that point, please, sir?

Speaker 3 (13:46):
It's funny, as I'm looking out the window, it was
a day like today. I was a trooper assigned out
of SP Canandaigua, so working out of Canandaigua, and I
was off that day. I was getting ready for my
day to start, and I was actually watching the financial
news channels and saw the first plane had hit and
didn't think anything of it. I was on the phone
with my sister, and she told me about it, and

(14:07):
I looked and saw the second plane hit the second
tower live, and I said to my sister, I said, hey,
I'm going to work. I'll call you when I can,
and that was it, and out the door I went.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
How did the state police respond? What responsibilities were put
on you? What did you do, please, sir?

Speaker 3 (14:25):
I responded back to the barracks. We mustered there the zone,
the zone commander, the captain at the time, gathered as
many troopers as we could get, and we doubled up
in troop cars, and we started towards New York City
probably within an hour and a half to two hours.
Many of the troopers on the road didn't have any
toiletries or bags or extra clothes. We got those when

(14:47):
we got to New York City. Stopped in Middletown on
the way down to refuel. And I'll never forget going
over the George Washington Bridge, seeing the smoldering remnants of
where the towers were. Kind of surreal feeling.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Mick Sertze is a retired major of the New York
State Police. Went down that morning, September 11th. As you're
on the way, you first see the altered skyline. I
presume the cloud's still hanging, at least in part, over it.
What were your thoughts and feelings, please, sir?

Speaker 3 (15:20):
A whole bunch of thoughts and feelings. Nervous for the
young trooper, not knowing what we're getting into. Driving there, yes,
the plume was still pretty, had a lot of smoke
coming off of it. I wasn't familiar with New York City.
I've only been once. So driving over the George Washington
Bridge and getting to know the West Side Highway and
driving to the Javits Center, the state police mustered at

(15:42):
the Javits Center in Manhattan, because that is run by
the state of New York, and we got our assignments
from there.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Retired Troopy Commander Mick Cerce. Now we look back and say, oh,
there were four planes and this was the attack. As
you're driving down, you didn't know that. America didn't know that.
There could be more attacks. You were essentially... in an

(16:10):
undefined war zone as you headed down there.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah, it was a time of, you know, confusion, not knowing, again,
what you said, what we're getting into. You know, but
once we got there, I bring this up with a
lot of people in the posts I make on social media,
the people of New York City were resilient and And
when we got there, we saw the confidence from them,

(16:35):
and I think that built off of us and the
people in the NYPD and the FDNY and the Port
Authority that, hey, trooper, I need you here, and we
went and did it. So that kind of calmed the nerves,
and I think the training kicks in, and you don't
think about it until weeks after you leave there.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
What sort of responsibilities did you and the other troopers
have down there, please, sir?

Speaker 3 (16:56):
We had several. One time I was on a checkpoint
at the Fulton Street Fish Market, As a young trooper,
we had to go through every vehicle that had to
go to the fish market, and I saw fish of
exotic nature that I'd never seen and probably never will again.
There were some times we roamed around the pile itself,
making sure that it was secure for the people doing

(17:17):
the work on the pile, escorting dignitaries back and forth,
you know, driving people, and unfortunately the transport of remains
to the morgues, a lot of different tasks all within
the seven weeks that I spent there.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
As McSurt say, he retired as a major from the
state police. He was a troopee commander out there in Farmington,
and as a young trooper, he, on September 11th, went
to New York City. How did people treat you down there,
the residents of New York police, sir?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Oh, they were incredible.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
It was funny.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
I tell this story.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
I was walking the streets of Canal Street at a post,
and a young kid, probably less than eight years old,
comes up to me and wants to shake my hand.
And he asked me if I'm a cowboy because of
the Stetsons we were. And I just smiled ear to ear.
I said, I'm not a cowboy, but I'm here to help.
And he gave me the biggest hug. I mean, that
tells you a lot about New York City and the
residents there. Again, and then people from around the world

(18:15):
started showing up. And I heard the Lieutenant Pryor. We
had people dropping off because we needed batteries for our flashlights.
We had a room about the size of a parking
garage full of batteries, flashlights, necessities. Everybody came together. It
was just an incredible thing to look back at it
25 years later. Every year at this time.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah. As an American, as a person, your thoughts on
that attack and seeing what you saw. What were they then?
What are they now, please, sir?

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Then, again, as a young man, you know, angry. But, again,
had a job to do. So I tried to remain
neutral at that time. As I grow old and now
I'm retired a couple years, I'm angry with how the
world is treating.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
The attack.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
It was a terrorist attack. And now we're mincing words,
which I don't like. I feel social media has taken
advantage of those minced words, and I try to defend
the people that lost their lives there, the men and
women of New York City who lived through that. Again,
I've never lived in New York City myself, but today's

(19:22):
world is a lot different than it was 25 years ago.
America came together so fast and so tightly. We had
some incredible leadership. And I'm glad that I was a.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Part of that.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
McSurtsey's retired troopee commander left the state police as a
major after a full career. A question we've asked others,
have you tracked your health over the years to see
if any exposure problems there arose?

Speaker 2 (19:51):
I have.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
As Lieutenant mentioned, we get annual physicals. I'm part of
the World Trade Center program as well. They do a
very good job with that. I've had some scares here
and there. You know, you think about it. It all
turned out to be false. So, yeah, it's a concern.
And I'm You know, I have to make sure that
my family's taken care of. That's why I continue to
monitor my health, because if something does happen, I've got

(20:13):
to make sure that they know where they can go
for help.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
100%. It's to make sure it's a retired major of
the New York State Police. Anything else on this we
should know, sir?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
No, I think it's a day to remember, and we've
got to take care of the people that still are
getting 9-11-related diseases and, again, try to push the narrative
that this was a terrorist attack. It wasn't something that
just came fly by night. It was well planned, and
they pulled it off. But we responded as a country

(20:43):
strongly and did the right thing.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
100%. Mick Sertze, a major in New York State Police, retired. Sir,
thank you so much for talking to us today. I
appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Thanks, Bob.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
You bet. Back in a moment on NewsRadio WHAM 1180.
Never forget.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
American 11, Boston.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
He will not respond to me.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles was hijacked. September 11th, 2001.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
The plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. We
have a hijack. We have some problems. My goodness.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
A second plane now has crashed.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
The scene is horrific. One of the two towers literally collapsed.
The World Trade Center is no more.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all
of us soon.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
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585-235-RUST. Welcome back, my friends. Welcome back. 222-1180 is our number.
There were people, of course, from our region who were
lost on that day. Brandon Buchanan, a 1995 graduate of McQuaid,

(22:48):
was working at Cantor Fitzgerald. a young man who had
grown up in Honeoye Falls. A classmate of his, a
boatswain's mate, first-class Michael Pernicelli, would be killed in action
three years later in the Global War on Terror. A

(23:08):
gentleman by the name of William Donovan was working at
the Pentagon that day. He, a graduate of Keshiqua Central
School down in Nunday. And, of course, much attention appropriately
focused on a young man, a University of Rochester graduate,
Jeremy Glick, who was 31 years of age, living kind

(23:32):
of an ideal life. He and his childhood sweetheart had
a little cottage on a lake and a brand new
three-month-old daughter. They had been friends since they were seven.
They were high school sweethearts. They were together. the prom
king and the prom queen. He came to the U

(23:55):
of R, was captain of the rugby team, was the
national champion in judo, president of his fraternity. And the
last words heard from him were, quote, we're going to
rush the hijackers. And he, with three other brave passengers
on United Flight 93, did exactly that and saved the

(24:18):
Capitol building of the United States, and untold innocent lives
on the ground. We'll talk more about that. We'll talk
more about the particulars of that attack. But now we've
got news. Joe Lasky, the voice of the Finger Lakes,
will deliver that. Your calls are next on NewsRadio WHAM 1180.
Two quick questions.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Would you describe your current wireless service as five-star?

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Are you paying more than $ 34.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
99 a month?