Thomas oral history interview conducted by Michael Vetrano, December 2, 2010

About

Thomas, an NYPD detective, had worked the evening of 9/10 and was home on the morning of 9/11 when he received a phone call from his aunt asking him to try to locate his uncle, a senior vice president at Marsh McLennan. Thomas raced to his precinct in Queens. He could see the smoke as he was driving into the city, and it was "eerily" quiet. When he arrived at the precinct, it was utter chaos. As he traveled to the site, he saw crowds walking out of Manhattan. Thomas had previously witnessed gruesome sights, but nothing compared to this disaster. Thomas went to the temporary morgue and unzipped the body bags to try to locate his uncle. He was at Ground Zero for about two or three days straight and spent time on the bucket brigade and at the landfill. The air was filled with the smell of burnt flesh, human hair, and plastic. He hung a picture of his uncle in the hospital, even though he knew it was fruitless since his uncle was on one of the higher floors of the World Trade Center. His eyes, nose, and mouth were constantly filled with dust. Thomas does not feel like a hero, he was just doing his job. One month after 9/11, his family had a memorial for his uncle. A year later, two state troopers and a priest knocked on his aunt's door with a one-centimeter piece of bone.

Archive

Library of Congress, in Library of Congress

Licence or status

Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.

Credit

Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed