Families welcome rescue team home
09/21/01
By LARRY HANOVER
Staff Writer
LAKEHURST -- Tears welled in Jill Brink's eyes and relief turned to a smile as she spotted husband Kevin from the distance. Holding a bouquet of lush red roses in her hand, she bolted into his arms as he held her tight.
Outside a hangar at Lakehurst Naval Air Warfare Center yesterday, 135 such scenes were played out. Members of New Jersey Task Force 1, the state's urban search and rescue team, had spent nine days at ground zero of the World Trade Center disaster, but they received a welcome home from loved ones as if they had been away at war for years.
"It seems like forever," said Brink, a Washington Township firefighter. "It feels good to be home."
The cheering warmed task force members' hearts. But color drained from their faces as they recalled 12-hour days peeling away concrete and stabilizing steel that had buckled like children's toys after hijacked jets struck the twin towers on Sept. 11.
The ultimate goal eluded their grasp. Team members say they failed to find a single survivor amid the rubble, although they did recover numerous bodies from a place where New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani yesterday said more than 6,300 are believed missing.
Despite the disappointment, said Brink, an East Windsor resident, the hours of training were all worth it.
"Just to know that we would bring closure to somebody's life," Brink said, "at least we were finding their loved one."
Urban search and rescue teams, or USAR teams for short, have become part of the American lexicon as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
The team, which trained at Lakehurst over the past year and a half but is overseen by New Jersey State Police, includes firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement personnel from state, county and municipal agencies, along with private medical professionals.
Capt. Dwight Cousins, Lakehurst's base commander, said these individuals were trained expecting to deal with floods and tornadoes. Nothing could prepare them for what they encountered.
In a ceremony inside the hangar, State Attorney General John J. Farmer Jr. summed it up this way:
"I want to present to you this war's first heroes -- Task Force 1," Farmer said, drawing loud cheers from the hundreds of family and friends.
Washington Township firefighters were represented strongly on the task force. Lenny Dotson, a logistics manager, and Jason Palmer were among the team.
Lawrence police officer Michael Yeh served, too. Trenton was represented by firefighters Dave Smolka and Chris Smith, who are brothers-in-law, as well as Capt. Walter Fell and William Tharp.
Task force members, wearing blue uniforms and caps saying "NJTF-1," were greeted by plaintive choruses of "Amazing Grace" played by the New Jersey State Police Pipe Band. Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Carson Dunbar had intended to appear but were held up in Jersey City by weather.
As the ceremony ended, a teary-eyed Smolka walked over to wife LuAnne, then cuddled baby son Anthony's cheek to his.
Anthony's birthday was Sept. 11. Tomorrow, the party finally can be held.
Homecoming is a welcome relief for Dave Smolka. Unlike the men who could be seen on TV at the surface, he was working beneath the piles of rubble, trying to dig beneath the concrete and steel to find bodies. He was among those who broke through to the PATH subway station.
"We tunneled up to the `crater' and where the mall used to be," he said. "We all had hope. But you looked at it and you don't know how anybody could survive."
A sense of duty and determination carried task force members during their nine days, Smolka said.
"You don't think about it," he said. "You want to do it. You know somebody's in trouble and they need your help."
Washington Township firefighter Palmer, also of East Windsor, applied more than a year ago for a chance at his dream -- to become a New York firefighter. He passed the exams and was hoping for a call.
After nine days in a gruesome place where more than 300 city firefighters were lost, Palmer, 24, says he still wants the job.
"It was just like a war zone, unbelievable," said Palmer, who is first assistant in Pemberton, where father William is fire chief and brother Keith is captain. "It hasn't set in yet."
Fiancee Amy King worried as if Jason were away at war. Still, she said, she would never deny him his dream to do such work.
"Of course you worry no matter what," King said. "This is what he loves. This is what he does."
Fortunately, said state police spokesman Jim Hagerty, their services probably will not be required again. There are 13 such teams nationally. With each rotating in for nine-day shifts, the job should get done.
The ceremony, although involving mainly civilians, portended the military involvement to come.
"The Navy is ready to respond to action against aggressors who would have us live in fear on our own soil," base commander Cousins said.
The ceremony ended with a spirited singing of "God Bless America" to send the task force members on their way, but not before team leader Jim Reilly told family and friends the sentiments of his men.
"Most of all," Reilly said, "I want to thank God for bringing us safely to hell and back."