For 22 hours that day, then a thousand more over the course of
the recovery effort capped by the ceremonial removal of the Last
Column, Nunziato worked the pile in 12-hour shifts.
Right alongside him, hundreds of PBA members fought for
their opportunity to respond.
“Everyone was tripping over each other to sign up to help at
the PBA office,” recalls Hulse. “That’s how bad people wanted to
help. I was proud of the union and of our men and women in our
organization. Just proud to be a part of it.”
As information flooded in, Madonna and Wieners deployed
the first PBA trailer to Ground Zero to serve as a mobile HQ and
refueling station for their members working the pile around the
clock. What started with coffee and donuts soon turned into food
and drinks and finally prepared hot meals. Local restaurants offered their kitchens, residents opened their homes and offered
their goods, and Belleville Honda donated two ATVs to help
members deliver food to workers on the pile.
“Everybody came together and everybody pitched in and went
without sleep,” Wieners emphasizes. “Whether you were trying to
ID those who perished or feeding the guys working the line or
actually working the line, everybody did their part. And it wasn’t
only the cops; the firemen and construction workers were all
there, too. It was the time we became united. I remember leaving
the site seeing people who couldn’t do anything and felt helpless
so they lined the street and were there to cheer on the first responders.”
Fifteen years later…
These days, Nunziato (now the Local 116 President) honors the memory of the 37 Port Authority officers in a day
of tributes and family gatherings. Every Sept. 11, he
starts the day going back to the PATH precinct where
he worked in 2001 – the precinct that lost 13 officers
that day – for a Mass. Then he crosses the Hudson
into Manhattan for another Mass for all the families
of those lost, before taking them all to dinner.
“I think the families feel solace being with the other families this time of year,” he assesses. “As cops, it’s
hard enough to get through the week of 9/11. For the
families it’s hard to watch. Especially since now the kids
15 YEARS
are starting to be spitting images of their fathers.”
In fact, the Local 116 roster currently includes two 9/11-casualty legacies. One, 26-year-old Pat Gorman – son of fallen PANYNJ Officer Thomas Edward Gorman – followed in his father’s
footsteps when he joined the department in March 2014.
“I was in school when it happened – about sixth grade,” he
notes. “I remember the reports and not knowing the extent of
what was happening. In t