A ‘special day’ smolders in memory of Atlantic Beach Rescue member

There are few days on which I wake up thinking that today is very special. When I woke on the morning of 9/11 in 2001 it had all the feeling of just another late summer day. I showered, dressed, had breakfast and kissed the wife and kids on the way out the door and drove off to work.

Nothing unusual at work until the frightened voice of my secretary pleading with me to rush into the main office. “Look at the TV,” all the office staff shouted, “An airliner has crashed into the World Trade Center.”

I looked and the upper portion of TowerOne was on fire belching an enormous cloud of black smoke. I don’t know why, but I immediately thought of that long passed day when two airliners crashed over Manhattan showering bodies and plane parts down on to the neighborhoods of the city.

The office phones have stopped ringing as if this ongoing tragedy had stopped all of our business, local, national and international to stop so as to allow everyone to bear witness.

As we all watched, a second airliner crashed into Tower Two causing an immense red fireball. “We are under attack,” I shouted. What were the odds of two airliners accidentally crashing into these two towers in broad daylight? “This is no crazy accident” I again shouted, “We are under attack.”

I lived in the small village of Atlantic Beach and was an emergency medical technician in Atlantic Beach Fire Rescue. “I have to get to my rescue squad,” I said as I ran out of the building. I didn’t thing that the towers would collapse, but I had no doubt that the number of dead and injured would be very high.

I also knew that the New York City Fire department response system would kick in resulting in every Manhattan fire company called to the scene. Fire department battalions in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn would now be called into Manhattan to cover the units now at the scene.

But I now learned that the towers had collapsed resulting in some of these out of borough units also being called to the scene. This, I thought, could result in Nassau County fire and rescue departments being called into the city to fill now vacant fire stations.

I found a dozen members of my rescue squad at our headquarters. Everyone was anxious to be doing something, but to do what, because our training instructed us to wait for orders. David Wolfe could not wait and impulsively got into his car and took off for the city.

My head was filled with thoughts of all the times I had visited Tower One. I raised money for our local hospital, South Nassau Communities Hospital, (now Mount Sinai South Nassau) by auctioning off my guided tour of New York City, which tour always included a trip to the observation deck of that beautiful building.

We checked our equipment over and over and did the same with our rescue vehicle and its equipment. We waited for the call to be of service, but the call never came. In my head I could hear Winston Churchill during a speech to his nation during World War II saying, “Those who wait also serve.”

Many hours later we were all sent home. We were disappointed and frustrated, but yet, we were proud of the fact that we were ready and prepared to serve those in need had we been called to act.

As it turned out, 9/11 proved to be a very special day that both I and this nation as a whole can ever forget.

Goldstein is a 50-year member of Atlantic Beach Fire Rescue.