Interview20201 h 11 min640×360

John oral history interview conducted by Laurel Gumpert, July 17, 2020

Gumpert, Laurel

History

At the Library of Congress

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About

John spent 35 years working for the NYPD. Before that, he went to an automotive technology school, and trade school and ended up in the construction industry. He decided to take the police test and was assigned to the Bronx working with the neighborhood stabilization unit. In 1991, he transferred to the EMS unit. Around the time of 9/11/2001, John was married with children, whom he would take care of during the day and then go to work at night. He is currently working in the EMS unit doing tactical rescue for the police department and plans to retire soon. On the morning of 9/11, John, an NYPD officer in the EMS unit, was finishing up his night shift when he heard about the attack on the World Trade Center on his radio. He went back to his station in the Bronx and found a ghost town. Everyone had gone to the WTC and John helped call in more people to respond. John was very familiar with the WTC, as he had responded to the 1993 bombing. He knew that the WTC was built using asbestos and that the air would not be safe to breathe. His team was given masks made for catastrophic events, even though they were misinformed that the air was safe to breathe. By the time he arrived, both towers had fallen, and it was a strange, cloudy scene with vaporized debris floating in the air. It was a chaotic situation with the responders in disarray and flooding due to damaged pipes.

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
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