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

Thomas, a retired 37-year-old disabled NYPD detective, recalls how he learned of the attacks at his Long Island home on the morning of 9/11 and immediately drove to his Queens precinct. He describes the smoke and the eerie quiet as he joined other officers on a commandeered city bus headed to WTC. Uncertain what to do, he waited with other officers at Deutsche Bank, checking body bags in the temporary morgue unsuccessfully trying to locate his uncle, before joining bucket brigades for 2 or 3 days. “We were all like zombies,” he says. Unclear safety directions and little protection eventually led to a “9/11 cough" and COPD, asthma, and rhinitis forced his early retirement from the career he loved.

- Kind: Interview
- Year: 2010
- Runtime: 13 min
- By: Vetrano, Michael
- Genres: History
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2015048_076_Vignette/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/afc2015048_076_Vignette?play=1)