Drive Fast. Take Chances.

On the golf course, friends of FDNY Firefighter Kevin Bracken of Engine Company 40 in Manhattan believed in his luck from the moment they watched a ball he hit into the trees be-bop its way onto the fairway.  

His wife, Jennifer Liang, said that her husband's luck stemmed in significant part from his positive mental attitude.  He was, according to her, the most optimistic person she had ever met. A man who, irrespective of his present situation, always had a smile on his face. 

FF Bracken, 37 years young, was an eight-year veteran of the FDNY, having worked with Engine Company 23 prior to moving to Engine Company 40, which shares its house on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 66th Street in Manhattan with Ladder Company 35.  They refer to themselves as "The Cavemen":

"The Cavemen" 

E-40/L-35 FDNY

Tuesday, September 11, 2001 was primary election day in New York City.  That morning, after he and Jennifer voted, they said goodbye and he headed to the firehouse to begin his tour.  Shortly after he arrived, the Cavemen were dispatched to the World Trade Center.  Eleven of them died there, including Kevin Bracken.  

FF Kevin Bracken 

FDNY Engine 40 

-AK 

Father Judge

Is there so much love in the world

That we can afford to discriminate 

Against any kind of love? 

-The Rev. Mychal Fallon Judge

Three weeks from today is September 11, 2020.  Nineteen years ago, September 11 fell on a Tuesday.  It was a beautiful, blue-sky morning.  

The Rev. Mychal Fallon Judge, O.F.M. 

Chaplain, FDNY

Father Mychal Judge was ordained in 1961, twenty-eight years after being in Brooklyn as the older of a set of fraternal twins. He, his twin sister Dympna, and his older sister Erin grew up as children of the Great Depression.  

In 1992, Father Judge joined the FDNY as a Chaplain.  He relished his work.  He was often among the first on the scene of a tragedy, ministering to its victims and to their families.  He loved the FDNY and the FDNY loved him - as did the addicts, the homeless, and the dispossessed to whom he ministered.  

Shortly after American Airlines Flight 11 tore into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at approximately 8:45 am on that terrible Tuesday morning, Father Judge arrived on the scene. Mayor Giuliani asked him to pray for the victims and to pray for New York City.  In the street outside the Twin Towers, Father Judge prayed over the bodies lying there.  When a command post was set up in the lobby of the North Tower, Father Judge moved inside and, there, continued to minister to the dead, the injured, and the men and women pouring into the building to rescue those trapped inside. 

At 9:59 am, the South Tower collapsed.  It collapse sent debris flying into and through the North Tower lobby, killing a number of people.  Father Judge was struck in the head by a piece of debris, which killed him.  His body was discovered by NYPD Lieutenant William Cosgrove who, along with FF Christian Waugh, FF Zachary Vause, EMT Kevin Allen (all three of whom were FDNY), and former Major John P. Maguire, United States Army (a civilian who was at the scene), carried Father Judge from the building.   

Photo Credit - Shannon Stapleton (Reuters)

It remains an iconic image of that day.  Five men, some of whom were likely strangers to one another and strangers to Father Judge, coming together to assist one who had devoted his life to coming to assisting others.  

-AK

Forever Young

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 left Dulles International Airport with five children on board.  Three of the kids were sixth-graders from the Washington, D.C. public school system who were flying to California, accompanied by their respective teachers, on a trip sponsored by National Geographic. Flight 77 never made it to California.  It was hijacked shortly after takeoff and then flown by its hijackers into the Pentagon, killing everyone on board and one hundred and twenty-five people on the ground. 

Bernard Curtis Brown II, eleven years young, loved school but was afraid of flying. So much so in fact that before his big trip, his dad made sure he had a heart-to-heart with his young son - reassuring him that everything would be just fine.   His mother, Sinita, spoke glowingly of her little boy's love of school, "He lived to go to school.  If he was sick, he would always say he was feeling better so he could get to school." He was a sixth-grader at Leckie Elementary. His dad, Chief Petty Officer Bernard Brown, United States Navy, worked at the Pentagon in 2001.  On that terrible Tuesday morning, fortunately, he was not at the Pentagon.  He was out of the office participating in a previously-scheduled golf outing.  

Rodney Dickens, also eleven years young and also a sixth-grader, represented Ketcham Elementary on the trip to California.  His obituary in The Washington Post described him as a honor student who never failed to make the honor roll. He loved to read, to play computer games, and to play with his two sisters (one a year older and one a year younger than Rodney) and his two little brothers.  He adored his mom, LaShawn.  According to his aunt, Cynthia Dickens, Rodney's favorite thing to do was to watch professional wrestling.  I seem to recall a lifetime or so ago, when my own son was eleven years old, he spent a fair amount of time watching pro wrestling.  When I read that about this youngster, it made me smile.  

Asia Cottom, age eleven, was a sixth-grader at Backus Middle School.  She loved science, math, and Tweety Bird from the Looney Tunes cartoons.  She boarded Flight 77 that morning for her cross-country trip to California wearing her "Tweety gear".  She enjoyed and excelled at science and math. Her goal was to be a pediatrician.  Asia was one of two Cottom children.  She and her big brother, Isiah, were the younger members of a close-knit quartet headed by their mother and father, Michelle and Clifton Cottom.  In the aftermath of losing their youngest child - and their only daughter - Michelle and Clifton Cottom did something I consider extraordinary.  They started the Asia SiVon Cottom Memorial Scholarship Fund.  The Fund provides financial assistance to "deserving students who have excelled academically and are pursuing undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)."   To date it has provided more than $265,000 in scholarships to close to one hundred students.  

Each of these three families, in the all-too-brief time they shared with their child, did their job.  There is so much that time and memory fade away.  It is the job of all of us to make sure that their work remains untouched by either. 

-AK 

Daughters and Dads

FF Josephine Smith FDNY Division 39 &

FF Kevin Smith FDNY HAZMAT 1

(End of Watch:  September 11, 2001)

Photo Credit: 

Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Josephine Smith was thirty-four in November 2014, when she graduated from the FDNY Academy and joined the department where her father had worked for roughly half of his life.  She was the first female FDNY legacy. 

She was also the first daughter of one of the FDNY's 343 heroes who died on September 11, 2001 to follow in her father's footsteps.  FF Kevin Smith was a charter member of one of the FDNY's elite units, HAZMAT 1, in Maspeth, Queens, having served there since its inception in 1984. Following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he was detailed to the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management. His wife, Jerri, said that it was by conscious choice and deliberate design that he took on the most dangerous aspect of a dangerous occupation.  

At the time of his death on September 11, 2001, Kevin Smith was forty-seven.  He had served and protected the people of New York City as a member of the FDNY for twenty-three years.  Prior to joining the FDNY, he served this nation as a United States Marine. He and Jerri were the proud parents of eight:  Brian, Tommy, Christopher, Josephine, Jennifer, Vincent, Tony, and Nicole.  

On September 11, 2001, FF Smith and his brothers from HAZMAT 1 were rescuing people from the South Tower of the World Trade Center when it collapsed at 9:59 a.m.  Eleven members of HAZMAT 1 died that morning in the South Tower.  

In a perfect world, the Smiths, father and daughter, might have had the opportunity to work together in their dream job, serving and protecting New York City.  Tragically, it was an opportunity that the fates would not allow.  The fates could not keep Josephine Smith from following her dream. The fates could not keep Josephine Smith from blazing her own path while following in her father's footsteps. 

And the world is a better place because of her resilience...

Image Credit: 

betterangels911.com

...as it was because of her father's.   

-AK 

That Somebody

Although we share the same Alma mater, I did not know Thomas Glasser either while he was at Wardlaw or, for his senior year, at the newly-merged Wardlaw-Hartridge. He was a member of the class of '78, which was the first year of the merger.  Kara, Jill, and I did not matriculate on over to W-H until the 1978-79 school year.  I knew who he was merely from having read about him in W-H's school paper, The Beacon, in which tales of his distance-running prowess during cross-country season in the fall and during track season in the spring were well-reported.  

Tom Glasser was not simply an excellent high school runner as he proved when he won a gold medal at the 1981 Maccabiah Games in Israel and as he proved repeatedly during his collegiate running career at Haverford College.  His career was extraordinary enough at Haverford College that its athletic hall-of-fame is named for him:  The Thomas Glasser '82 Hall of Achievement.   

After graduating from Haverford, Tom attained his MBA from NYU and became a titan of Wall Street.  He was a partner at Sandler,O'Neill & Partners, which had its offices on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower.  There were eighty-three people in the offices that morning, including Tom Glasser.  Sixty-six of them were killed, including Tom Glasser.  

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Tom Glasser was just forty years old.  He lived with his wife, Meg, and the couple's two sons, Dylan and Luke, in Summit, New Jersey, not too terribly far from his hometown of Westfield.  

Because our time at W-H did not overlap, my knowledge of Tom Glasser for a very long time was limited solely to his athletic prowess.  It was not until after he died that I realized just how much I had to learn about him; including that he was even a better man than he was an athlete.  In 2001, Tom came to Summit PBA Local #55 with an idea for helping the children of Summit police officers (and by extension their moms and dads).  His idea?  Creation of a scholarship fund to assist those children who wanted to go to college to earn a degree in Criminal Justice or a related field of study.  The first scheduled meeting of the Fund was mid-September, 2001.  Tom Glasser was killed one week earlier.  In honor of it having been Tom's brainchild and in order to honor his memory, the scholarship was named for him and the Thomas I. Glasser Memorial Scholarship Fund, Inc. was born.  Nineteen years later, it is still going strong and still providing a helping hand. 

In 2019, Overlook Medical Center in Summit (a great hospital at which 60% of Pop Pop's grandchildren were born!) opened the Thomas Glasser Caregivers Center, a space created for those who are caring for a hospitalized loved one, be it a family member or a friend.  The lead gift for the Caregivers Center, which was $700,000, came from the Thomas I. Glasser Memorial Foundation.

As I was doing on-line research for this piece, I came across this beautiful essay written by Tom Glasser's niece, Becca Glasser-Baker.  Simply extraordinary stuff.  

About a man who was just that - simply extraordinary. 

-AK 

A Genuine Article

Middlesex Boro, New Jersey September 11 Memorial

Photo Credit:  Adam Kenny 

Middlesex Boro, New Jersey, which is where I have lived for (good grief) almost thirty years, suffered a single loss on September 11, 2001. We honor his memory in a beautiful memorial that has been erected in Victor Crowell Park.  Whenever I go for a run in Middlesex, I make sure my route includes the Memorial where I stop momentarily and pay my respects. Officer Thomas E. Gorman, a member of the Emergency Services Unit of the Port Authority New York / New Jersey Police Department, was one of thirty-seven members of his department who died in the line of duty at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.  He was among the first members of his department on the scene.  

Tom Gorman was forty-one years young.  He and his wife, Barbara, were the proud parents of three kids, Patrick, Laura, and Bridget.  He loved coaching his kids' baseball and basketball teams.  He loved cooking for his family.  Barbara described him as "a very genuine person."  Is there any higher compliment? 

Perhaps.  At least there is one of equal magnitude.  

In 2014, Patrick Gorman, Tom and Barbara's only son, joined the Port Authority Police Department as an officer.  He wears his father's shield.  He is not simply carrying on his father's legacy.  He has created his own.  

A child can pay his parent no greater compliment. 

-AK 

 

The Sound of Footsteps

I am slowly, inexorably coming to grips with the fact that Margaret and I are not likely to spend September's final weekend in lower Manhattan, as we have done every year for the past decade.  Although it has not yet been officially cancelled, it certainly appears unlikely to me that the annual Tunnel to Towers New York City 5K, which begins on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and ends in lower Manhattan shall take place this year.  Given that it is our participation in it that has brought us into the city at September's end all these years, if it is cancelled then so shall our annual pilgrimage be.  

There is no greater example of which I am aware of a family turning an unspeakable tragedy into something extraordinary than what the family of FDNY FF Stephen G. Siller, Squad 1 (Brooklyn) has done since he died while saving others at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  Stephen Siller was the youngest of the seven Siller children.  He was orphaned by age ten after losing first his father and then, eighteen months later, his mother.  His older siblings raised him.  

FDNY FF Stephen G. Siller - Squad 1 (Brooklyn)

On the morning of September 11, 2001, FF Siller was heading to a golf game with his brothers, having just completed a twenty-four-hour shift, when he heard the call on the scanner of the North Tower being struck by a plane.  He telephoned his wife, Sally, and asked her to call his brothers to tell them he could not join them and why.  Off-duty, and with five children at home, the idea of being anywhere but at the World Trade Center was an anathema to him.  He hung up with his wife, headed back to his firehouse to grab his gear, and then headed to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel so he could get to lower Manhattan. 

The tunnel had already been closed to vehicle traffic.  FF Siller grabbed his gear out of his truck, dressed, and started running to Manhattan through the tunnel.  As someone who has made that journey wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and running shoes I can attest firsthand to just how hot and uncomfortable an experience it is to run through that tunnel.  Discomfort did not stop Stephen Siller.  It likely did not even slow him down very much, if at all. 

He made it to the World Trade Center. There, working shoulder to shoulder with his brothers from the FDNY as well as members of the NYPD and the PA NY/NJ PD, he died.  

He was just thirty-four years young. 

Sand Sculpture Tunnel to Towers NYC 5K

Photo Credit:  Adam Kenny 

-AK