EDS in Their Blood

REMEMBER 9/11 | FAITH IN ACTION

Bob Myers III, is better known in his family as “Bobby.”

Bobby was just a teen when he climbed into a Salvation Army canteen and tagged along with his father, Bob Myers Jr. Together they would answer calls for help when natural and man–made disasters struck the community.

“I was always around the canteen,” Bobby says. “It was part of our family’s life. It was something I always had a passion for.”

Bob jokes that his son “took over the family business” by entering Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) work like his father.

“He grew up on a canteen. Over the years, he got up in the middle of the night and went on fire calls and things like that with me,” Bob said. “It was a natural progression. As he got a little older, he wanted to volunteer.”

Today, Bobby is the EDS coordinator for the Salvation Army’s USA Eastern Territory. Meanwhile, Bob works for another non–profit ministry after a 32–year career as EDS director for the Salvation Army’s Western Pennsylvania Division. He holds the record as the longest–serving Salvation Army EDS director in the country.

Bob Myers Jr. with his young son, Bob Myers III.

Both father and son vividly remember answering the call on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. In the aftermath of those terrorist attacks, they served in Shanksville, Pa., and Bob later at Ground Zero in Manhattan. They agree that EDS work has dramatically changed in the two decades since.

In ensuing years, such disasters as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and COVID–19 have occurred. Bobby served at most of them (see timeline).

“We’re not without our disasters,” says Bobby, who became the territory’s EDS boss in 2019. “It used to be every two or three years, but now it seems like every year we have something we’re either dealing with directly in our own territory or in support of another territory.

“That’s part of the nature of what we do in emergency disaster services. People often forget about EDS until a disaster happens, but the reality is EDS is a year–round effort. We do local disasters 365 days a year throughout the territory, whether it be a house fire or a small flood or whatever the situation may be.”

A different approach

Bobby said the canteen ministry used to be the focus of EDS. Today, it is a part of EDS.

“It’s certainly still a significant part, but it’s one part of a much bigger operation that we serve under emergency management,” he said. “Now we really look at things as all–encompassing.”

Bob said EDS was a “stepchild program” when he first started, but that has all changed. He noted that since 9/11, The Salvation Army has made significant financial investments "in resources and equipment and things."

“I was lucky if I had a canteen that actually ran well,” he said. “I went from having a couple of broken–down canteens and one moderately good one to rebuilding an entire fleet.

“We had a mobile command center and a mobile supply center and all kinds of other cool toys in our toolbox. Those kinds of resources led us to provide support at a lot of other national emergencies around the country. The Army is positioned really well to be there and to be effective.”

Bobby said that before 9/11, EDS focused mostly on response and feeding support. While those remain significant components, The Salvation Army today offers a more comprehensive emergency management approach.

“We now have equal attention on the recovery side of things and the preparedness side of things,” he said. “Disaster recovery has become just as big a part of what we do. We look to help people’s, immediate and long–term needs.”

Training for best results Bobby said The Salvation Army today has a robust national disaster training program, which developed after 9/11.

“We use trained volunteers year–round,” he said. “We’ve raised the level of expertise in the professional ranks and we’re trying to support the Army holistically.”

What separates The Salvation Army from its partners in the EDS world is its spiritual component.

“It’s not just the physical relief we provide, although that’s certainly important, but it’s also the emotional and spiritual support,” Bobby said. “It’s even more than just pastoral care. It starts there and moves into ‘disaster mental health’ with some of our experienced people trained at a higher level.”

Bobby said the spiritual side of EDS is a huge motivator for him.

“It’s those moments when the Lord opens doors to me in those difficult times that I find rewarding as an individual,” Bobby said. “The faith part is one of the most significant aspects. The Lord finds ways to assure me as a disaster worker that He’s using me in ways that I can’t always see.

“EDS has always been one of the core missions of The Salvation Army. It’s why we’re a unique faith–based organization and a church. We talk a lot in the Army about the ‘ministry of presence’ and I feel EDS is a big part of that. You don’t always have to use words to show Jesus.”

Springing into action

The fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when everything changed for the Salvation Army’s EDS efforts, is never far from the mind of father or son.

Bob, who served as the Salvation Army’s EDS director in Pittsburgh, remembers driving into the office that morning after a long night on a fire call. He was listening to local radio personality and fellow Salvationist Fred Honsberger on 1020 KDKA–AM when the news broke. Bob raced into the office and made phone calls to the Greater New York Division and to Territorial Headquarters.

Today, Bob Myers III leads the USA Eastern Territory's EDS program. His disaster relief work has taken him around the world.

“I literally was engaged within the first five minutes of 9/11 and for the next two or three hours,” Bob said. “I was getting my staff all on board. I knew we were going to get busy because we operated a national supply program for EDS. I knew that we were already going to have to ramp up supply support from our division to the Greater New York Division, so that became our focus.”

One of Bob’s calls was to Bobby, who was sleeping that morning after working another overnight shift as a AAA dispatcher. His father told him he needed him in the office immediately.

A few hours later, Bob took a call from the county’s EDS director. There was a report of a missing plane over the Western Pennsylvania Division. The plane, United Airlines Flight 93, had also been hijacked by terrorists and eventually crashed in Shanksville, Pa. For the next 16 days, Bob and Bobby both served in Shanksville, while also supporting efforts at the Pentagon, which had been hit by another hijacked plane.

“I had a multifaceted response because we provided heavy supply support to the Pentagon and to Greater New York while responding to Shanksville,” Bob recalls. “We shipped in an entire truckload of supplies so that they had them the next morning at 8 a.m. These were uniforms, the food service products that were branded with our logo, and things like that."

“That started an almost daily supply shipment. While in Shanksville, we did support functions for the Pentagon and even New Jersey where we shipped equipment."

Fighting the battle together

Bob was in Shanksville for 17 days before deploying to Ground Zero. His original assignment was to set up logistics, but he quickly became the operations chief for two weeks.

Early in 2002, with 9/11 still on the country’s mind, Bobby took the job as EDS director in Philadelphia for the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Division. That same year, he served at Ground Zero in Manhattan at the conclusion of operations.

Both father and son would go on to serve together as EDS directors from 2002 until Bob retired in 2010.

Bob said, “It worked out great for me and for him because I had the western half of the state, and he had the eastern half. We were able to join forces regularly and work together for common goals. We got to see each other and go to statewide meetings all the time. It was nice to stay connected with him.”

Today, Bob is the executive director of Off The Floor Pittsburgh, a faith–based, non–profit furniture bank that provides donated furnishings to agencies that help people get their lives back together.

Bob said he misses EDS work. He calls it “the most exciting job in the world, if you do it right.” The year he left, the Western Pennsylvania Division’s personnel had answered 325 calls. The work was long and arduous. He admits, “I hit the wall, I burned out a few times, but I kept going.

“The work was exciting. Most people see it on the evening news, but I got to see it live and in person,” he said.

Some of Bob's more memorable deployments were the Midwest floods of 1993, the Los Angeles earthquake of 1994, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“My final big assignment was Katrina,” he said. “I didn’t really have any major deployment after Katrina, but that was a blast. I looked at it as a challenge and this is what I worked to do all the time. This is what I prepared myself for. My job was to be the ringmaster and keep the whole thing going.”

As the 20 th anniversary of 9/11 looms, Bob said it’s always an emotional day for him as he recalls the events.

“I take time and pause and think back and reach out to some people who have become lifelong friends. We worked together there on that day at Ground Zero and supported colleagues at the other sites,” he said. “It’s always one of those solemn days. I think about it regularly.”

Bobby took part in the ceremonial closing of the 9/11 site and said he still has flashbacks all these years later.

“It’s one of those things that always sticks with me,” Bobby says. “I remember certain aspects of it from time to time and sometimes it will just pop in my mind or something will trigger a reminder, but certainly as I lean into that date every single year, it kind of rings true.

“It just kind of solidified, for me, a desire to help people who are in that greatest time of need.”

by ROBERT MITCHELL

TIMELINE

2004

Four hurricanes hit Florida in six weeks: Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. Charley was the strongest hurricane to strike the entire U.S. since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The Atlantic hurricane season that year killed 3,200 people and caused $61 billion in damage.

2005

Hurricane Katrina led to more than 1,800 deaths and $125 billion in damage, most notably in the New Orleans area. It was, at the time, the costliest tropical cyclone on record and is now tied with 2017’s Hurricane Harvey.

2006

Heavy rains led to flooding in many parts of the USA Eastern Territory, including Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and New England. At least 16 people died in the floods.

2008

Hurricane Ike caused considerable damage and 195 deaths in Cuba, Haiti, and the United States, including Texas.

2010

Heavy spring rains over areas with remaining snow led to flooding in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The storms caused $330 million in damage.

2010

A 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti in January causing around $8 billion in damage. An estimated 3 million people were affected by the quake. Death toll estimates range from 220,000 to 316,000.

2011

Hurricane Irene impacted the Eastern part of the United States, including several areas of the USA Eastern Territory, particularly New York and New Jersey. Tropical Storm Lee killed 18 people and caused $2.8 billion in damage.

2012

Hurricane Sandy killed 233 people and caused $69 billion in damage throughout New York, New Jersey, and New England. Corps and EDS staff throughout the tri–state area went into action.

2013

A spring tornado in Oklahoma killed 24 people and caused $2 billion in damage. There were more than 900 twisters in the United States that year.

2017

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the USA Southern and Eastern territories and Hurricane Maria in the Caribbean.

2018

Hurricane Michael, which hit the Florida Panhandle and Georgia, was the first Category 5 hurricane to impact the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992.

2019

Hurricane Dorian was a Category 5 and regarded as the worst natural disaster to ever hit the Bahamas. At least 70,000 people were left homeless.

2019–2020

A series of earthquakes shook the southwestern portion of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, including 11 that were 5.0 or greater.

2020

COVID–19 impacted the entire USA Eastern Territory and the world. “This was the first time we had every division in our territory impacted with a crisis at the same time,” said Bob Myers III, EDS director for the USA Eastern Territory.