Gaddy E. González oral history interview conducted by Sonia Fore, July 16, 2010

About

Gaddy, a central office technician for Verizon, worked night shifts in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. In the early morning hours of 9/11, the next shift did not show up and Gaddy was asked to stay on for several extra hours. Not long after he left the building to catch the train home, the first plane hit the North Tower. Gaddy was called back to the site that weekend to assist in the monumental and vital task of re-establishing the communications system in lower Manhattan. It was like entering "the gates of hell." The air was filled with smoke and the stench of burning flesh. Gaddy had special expertise in various technologies required to repair the systems. The 911 system was not repairable and had to be re-routed through Brooklyn. He worked in the dark, in 101-degree heat, under dangerous conditions. When there was a danger of collapse, an alarm would sound and he would have to run down eleven flights of stairs to evacuate, and then go back up when the danger was over. Fortunately, Verizon provided its workers with proper protective equipment. When Gaddy was outside, he saw the firemen and others on the bucket brigade removing body parts -- arms, legs, heads, torsos. When he arrived home, he had to strip off his contaminated clothes, and then shower before he could give his wife, who suffers from asthma, a hug. He worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week for about seven months. Gaddy recalls his grandfather's last words, "Never forget Pearl Harbor," a…

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Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

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