PASCACK VALLEY—Editor’s note: Dick Bozzone, historian and past commander of Cpl. Jedh C. Barker American Legion Memorial Post 153, chairman of the post’s Centennial Committee, submitted the following reminiscences on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His question to fellow Legionnaires, Knights of Columbus, and others: Where were you on 9/11?
I WAS AT WORK at a part-time job when I heard someone yell from the hall that a plane had hit one of the towers. We had planned to go to the Catskills for lunch but instead stayed glued to our television. John, our son, worked in New York City and we were very anxious until we finally heard from him around 3 p.m. He had gone to our daughter’s apartment quite a distance away from the area that was hit.
When I look back I’m still saddened by the loss — my daughter lost a close friend in the towers — and how frightened we were.
Right now things are just tumultuous. We have so much going on and so many of us are dumbfounded by the pandemic, so we’re not thinking so much along the lines of 9/11 and 20 years but it’s something that we’ll carry with us forever, the sadness in our hearts.
And the sadness is still carrying on with illnesses that continue to grow with the people who were down there, who suffered from the exposure to whatever was down there [including toxins, which have been debilitating and fatal].
— Marye Petrofsky, Park Ridge
I WAS A VOLUNTEER WORKER for Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. I was in the sales shop when I heard what happened in New York City. To say the least I was shocked. I called my late husband, Fred, a past commander in Post 153, who was at a dentist appointment. He left the dentist and picked me up and we spent the rest of the day and night glued to our TV.
It’s something that should never be forgotten because it can always happen again. I’m hoping not but it’s always a possibility. The older you get the more you realize that anything is possible.
On thing I’ve got to say: Those terrorists were the luckiest people on Earth. There was never a more beautiful day than that Tuesday. It was clear, it was sunny, it was perfect for them, the damn terrorists. Really… But that’s how it goes.
— Barbara Musso, Park Ridge, past president, Cpl. Jedh C. Barker American Legion Auxiliary Unit 153
I WAS AN EXECUTIVE at Ford Motor Co. in Mahwah. That morning I was assigned to pick up my boss coming in from Detroit. As soon as officials in Washington, D.C. realized that America was under attack all planes in the air were ordered to land except Armed Forces planes. Consequently my boss’s plane was some three hours late arriving in Newark.
One of my jobs, in the event of a major catastrophe, was to work with such groups as fire and police units, providing them with equipment donated by Ford. For several days afterward I worked closely with New York City’s fire and police departments as well as FEMA, etc.
Afterward, New York City officials honored Ford among other businesses for their contributions. I was honored with a plaque for my efforts.
I think it’s important that we remember the day as if it happened yesterday and remember those whose lives were lost and the responders who worked there and in years since have had health problems and either are living with them or have passed on.
We remember those we lost but also those we lost after the fact from trying to help at that point. So it’s more than the 3,000 victims talked about.
— Robert Kelly, River Vale
AS SOON AS WE FOUND OUT about the attacks on our nation by jihadist terrorists, our department moved into our pre-assigned emergency duties. Thank God Woodcliff Lake suffered the loss of only one resident. For the next several days we assisted local families, helping them to find out about their loved ones working at Ground Zero locations and thus helped in trying to calm their anxieties and the stress they were undergoing.
— Lyle Garcia, Hillsdale, lieutenant, WLPD (ret.)
I LIVED IN WOODCLIFF LAKE at the time. I had left Park Ridge to go to the shore to sell my boat when I heard the news on the car radio. At first I thought they were talking about the [World Trade Center] bombing in 1993. I immediately turned around and went home and my wife assured me she was OK (but still in shock). I went to my store to talk with my workers, then left to go to my kids’ school.
By the time I got to Dorchester [Elementary School] there already were a bunch of parents there and the principal was outside telling us all not to worry — the kids are fine, leave them in school.
So I went back to my house, talked to my wife — we were freaking out — and then I went to Home Depot and bought like 10 American flags and put them up all over my store.
On this anniversary, it’s depressing that we just gave back to the Taliban everything that we took away 20 years ago. They’re stronger than ever. It’s very upsetting. … Al-Qaeda, whatever they want to call it. These terrorists were created in that part of the world and they have it back and they’re stronger and that bothers me.
— Robert Gervase, Park Ridge Tire and Auto
AT THAT TIME I WAS AN R.N. but off for the day. I immediately called Hackensack hospital to tell them I was ready for work if needed. Years later I was on duty and came down with Covid-19. I was hospitalized for over a month and have had to retire. My husband, Vinny, subsequently had to retire and take care of me.
— Sue Lemba, Park Ridge
I WAS LIVING IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS. The day was surreal, and brought to us, of course, by television and radio. I remember sitting in my car at one point in the day; I was listening to reports on the radio. I sat through a green light at an intersection. The driver in the oncoming lane did too. We just sat through the cycle. There was very little traffic.
Reports of planes being grounded; warnings the military would shoot them down if they didn’t land. We called friends and family. What was the scope of the attack? New York, the Pentagon, and then the crash in Shanksville, Pa. How many more? What was the significance of the date?
And the seemingly endless loop on the news: White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card leaning in to the president’s ear; the planes, flames, and bodies, the billowing dust.
Through it all: Where is the president? Who’s in charge? What’s our response? Finally: Rudy Giuliani, America’s Mayor. We hung on his every word.
That night I was supposed to attend an information session on global warming. Of course the session was cancelled, as most of public life soon would be.
I edited for a website on business and environmental sustainability. My boss, based in Oakland, Calif., was in a plane headed for D.C. but forced to land elsewhere. I checked in with him. Work didn’t matter. He was desperate to get home.
The next day, Sept. 12, my then-wife and I kept a prenatal care appointment. The television was on in the waiting room, of course, showing now familiar scenes, though certain moments, terribly morbid, were starting to be redacted.
Then we were seen, and we heard our first son’s heartbeat for the first time.
In front of homes and businesses, and on cars and trucks: American flags, makeshift signs.
That evening we joined our neighbors for a candlelight vigil. Everything had changed, we all knew. The nation finally understood what mattered: community, volunteerism, compassion, and the easing of suffering. Helping build a just world. There were rescuers from all over racing to Ground Zero, and good Samaritans feeding them, sheltering them. There was nothing we could not do together, we felt.
— John Snyder, Township of Washington, editor
I HAD A HIGH-LEVEL JOB with an international shipping transport company and usually worked a short distance from Ground Zero. However, that day I was visiting business associates in New Jersey so never got to New York City. I always wonder if I were at my office, a short distance from one of the towers, might I have been injured?
— Robert Oppelt, Park Ridge, Commander, Cpl. Jedh C. Barker American Legion Post 153