For the latest news visit qchron.com 42 ND ANNIVERSARY EDITION • 2020
QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 12, 2020 Page 6
C M ANN page 6 Y K 2001
TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY
The day that changed a city and the world Nearly 20 years later, those who remember look back at 9/11 by Michael Gannon Editor
eptember will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Like many people who will commemorate the anniversary, the 9-11 Candlelight Vigil Committee of Queens is planning a few special features for its annual ceremony in Juniper Valley Park. Frank De Biase of Middle Village, now president of the group, remembers visiting the first observance as if it was yesterday. “It was a few days after the attack,” he told the Chronicle. “Someone hired a DJ. We listened to music and said prayers. Then at some point we all turned — you could still see smoke coming from the site.” The world changed drastically in the aftermath. Passenger jets to and from JFK, LaGuardia The annual 9/11 memorial ceremony in Juniper and all other airports have been modified to largest one in the city outside of Manhattan. make their cockpits unassailable. It is not uncommon to see heavily armed police and they’re going,” Concannon said. His own tour of all the schools, churches, National Guard troops at large gatherings or transportation hubs. Training and equipment for libraries and other polling sites began in the middle of the command and worked outward in first responders have evolved. The Juniper Park gathering became the larg- small circles. He hadn’t gotten far before he was coming to est in the city outside of Manhattan. And New York City now has its first genera- back up officers being confronted by an elected tion of adults who were not alive to have memo- official who was practically wallpapering the school and even its flag pole with ries of the two mammoth towers posters in blatant violation of electhat for decades commanded the tion laws. New York City skyline. “I was telling him, ‘You know Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz better than that,’” ordering his men (D-Forest Hills) is just over a year to tear down every single one — away from being term-limited out and waving off the officer who had of office for the second time. On been assigned as his driver that day Sept. 11, 2001, she had 16 weeks and who had been trying to get his remaining in her first tour. attention for a several minutes. “I was standing outside of Rus“Suddenly he shouted out ‘Joe! sell Sage [JHS 190],” she said. FF Jonathan Ielpi Get over here!’” Concannon said. “Someone came out and said, ‘They bombed the World Trade FILE PHOTO COURTESY FDNY “We never use first names on the street. I knew if he was doing that, Center.’ I said, ‘No, no, that can’t be!’ Sure enough, it was true. I went home and it was something serious.” Back at the borough command, police tried to I don’t think we shut our television off for days. sort out what was coming from Downtown. The I just watched in disbelief.” Kozlowitz believes city government has taken impression was that a Piper Cub with an inexpethe proper steps. Returning to the Council again rienced or unfortunate pilot had struck the North in January 2014, she said she did not feel that Tower. “When they slowed it down on television, we there was anything it had left out of its response; nothing that required to her to introduce legisla- started saying, ‘That’s no Piper.’ Then the section to address anything she thought might have ond plane hit ... ” The towers had fallen by the time Concannon been neglected. was ordered to fill buses and secure the northern She still does have some general concerns. “As time goes on, I don’t think we’re as perimeter, allowing no one south of Canal guarded as we were the first five or six years,” Street. It was when his officers disembarked at she said. “We need to strive to not forget, to the Javits Center that he noticed it. “There were people standing 20 or 30 deep, keep what happened in people’s minds. It has to be passed on to future generations by those who cheering us, holding posters, waving flags,” he said. “And remember, we’re not exactly the witnessed it.” Queens resident Joe Concannon had reported beloved NYPD. It was overwhelming.” And since then? Concannon said he has no to work early on Sept. 11 — really early. It was an election primary day, and the now retired firsthand knowledge of the ever-evolving NYPD police captain was in charge of poll secu- training methods now being taught at the Police Academy, but he said the changes withrity for Manhattan North. “The polls open at 6 a.m., so I’m there at 4, in the NYPD after 9/11 have made a great making sure all the cops are there, that they department even better. “The training is intelligence-based and techknow their assignments, that they know where
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Valley Park in Middle Village is traditionally the FILE PHOTO BY STEVE FISHER
few bone fragments or remnants of her brother’s turnout gear. “We were lucky,” Brengel told the Chronicle in an interview. “We held a memorial service. And then when they found him we were able to have a funeral.” Her oldest brother is more than just a photograph or old news clippings to Brengel’s children. “They never met their uncle, but they all know him,” she said. “Ask them and they’ll talk about him like they saw him last week.” Brengel said the FDNY still takes care of the families. “It’s easier for us because my brother is serving,” she said. “Firefighting is in your blood ... My father and brothers never felt like they’re going to work. You’re just leaving one family for your other family.” And she was never surprised that even in the immediate aftermath of losing 343 members, the FDNY has never had a problem finding people who want to pick up the mantle and serve. “I work at an ice rink, and the other day I heard a boy, a hockey player, talking about how he couldn’t wait until he was eligible to take the [FDNY] test,” she said. She gave him the same advice she would offer any young man or woman whose heart is set on becoming one of New York’s Bravest. “Take the test!” she said. “And if you don’t make it the first time, take it again.” De Biase was in his final year as a captain with the Department of Correction, and he like others was stationed at Ground Zero for five months. He lost friends. But upon retirement he took up teaching at Christ the King High School, where he made sure to teach about that day that changed the world. And he still does, having already passed the baton to new generations. “Now some of the kids I taught are teachers,” he said. “They call me up and ask if I’ll speak at Q their schools ...”
nology-based,” he said. Intelligence, he said, could be precinct commanders comparing notes to find patterns, technological wizardry or even a foot-patrol officer contributing a casual observation that turned out to be a huge missing piece in something. “Intelligence-based policing and technology are going to propel the NYPD into the next millennium,” Concannon said. One tragic problem on Sept. 11 was that in many cases it was difficult, if not impossible, for emergency personnel inside the WTC to know what was going on outside of their field of vision. Such may have been the case with members of FDNY Squad 288 and Hazmat 1, both stationed on 68th Street in Maspeth. Summoned to Manhattan along with scores of other units throughout the city, they were conducting rescue operations when the South Tower fell, killing 19 of them. It would be the largest loss of life at a single firehouse on a day that saw 343 firefighters and 60 police officers listed among the more than 3,000 who died. A nd for all that has changed singe 9/11, Melissa Brengel says firefighters, in the most important ways, have not. She would know. Her brother, Jonathan Ielpi of Squad 288, was 29 when he died while charging up a stairwell. His father, Lee, is a retired firefighter. His brother, Brendan, was in the academy at the time and now serves with his father’s old unit, Brooklyn’s elite Rescue 2. It would be three months before Jonathan’s body was recovered. Unlike most families, they did not have to con- The Maspeth 19 still accompany their brethren on every run sole themselves with finding a from the firehouse on 68th Street. FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON
