I took Tuesday off and was supposed to go to the Toronto Film Festival this day, but instead John Gulas and I were headed to what was then, the unknown on September 11, 2001. Earlier that morning I sat in shock watching the TV like everyone else in the country, but not long after the towers fell, my phone was constantly ringing. It was the office and I knew what they wanted.
At about noon, I finally answered the phone and by 1pm I was headed East not sure if we were going to New York, the Pentagon or Shanksville, PA. John brought his portable TV that plugged into the cigarette lighter of the SUV we drove it. The picture came in and out through static when we were lucky enough to get a signal as we raced down the turnpike at high speeds. But then again, police weren't interested that day in speeders.
We were working for CBS News and were assigned to go to Shanksville, PA. It was a desolate area and the media was huddled in a farm field. There was nothing to see here of any physical damage, all we heard was how a reporter tried sneaking into the woods to find the crash site but security had chased her out.
September 12 we left Shanksville, PA early in the morning when we were reassigned to New York City. We arrived at the CBS Broadcast Center on 57th where we were relief for the crew doing live shots on the rooftop where reporters did their stand-ups with the skyline behind them as the remains of the World Trade Center were no present in the smoke that still billowed.
Later that night, we walked from 57th to Times Square. As we started walking down the street, we realized no one was around. We walked down the middle of the street the whole way to 42nd Street. New York was a ghost town. We continued walking further toward the Empire State building when sounds of sirens filled the air. Soon the area we stood was filled with police, fire trucks and ambulances. John Gulas was targeted as a terrrorist suspect and arrested. Just kidding, there was a threat on the Empire State building and we were being evacuated from the area
The next morning, September 13th, we were told to meet reporter Russ Mitchell at 23rd and Lexington. At this location, a center had been set up at The Armory for friends and family to report the whereabouts of people missing missing from the World Trade Center. Family members would come here to supply DNA samples of their loved ones and also a place to learn any information into victims whereabouts. This is where John and I worked for the next five days. The horror of the tragedy became real in an instant when we conducted our first interview.
At 1:27 on this video, we interview a younger woman who is looking for her cousin who was last seen going back into the trade center. She is holding a photo of a man wearing a cowboy hat, Hawaiian shirt and a lay. I still see her voice and hear her voice. She is the image of the 911 tragedy for me. I have no idea who she is or if her cousin was ever found, but I wish I did. I would see her again in Michael Moore's documentary Fahreheit 911 in which this clip was used.
These victims were people with faces and family who loved them. Like a switch, my emotions became calloused and numb for the guilt I felt for driving to NYC with John feeling a sense of excitement as adrenaline filled me with the unknown. We wanted to be assigned to Ground Zero, we wanted to be where the action was.
The action was sadly at The Armory where day in and day out family members would come up to us crying, BEGGING us to interview them and put their loved one's faces on TV as they clutched missing person fliers and photos. My heart sank every 30 seconds when I would have to tell them we couldn't help them. And we couldn't. CBS national news wasn't even on the air in NYC and the local NJ area because local CBS affiliates reported their own coverage so any survivors who were in hospitals wouldn't see our report like the rest of the nation.
I saw hundreds and hundreds of faces on the missing person fliers. They represented everyone from executives to food court workers from firefighters and police to port authority workers. The desperate family members who clung on to hope surrounded me and I could not help them. I turned them away like they were a never ending parade of homeless people pleading for help. There was just too many to help. This still saddens me to this day.
On the plus side, whether it was in Shanksville, PA or in NYC, the American Red Cross was always present doing all that they could to help.
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Dan Rather reports on possible number of casualties on 9/11/01by StevenBroome67333 views
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