From: "Barb Kavouras" To: "Confessional Lutherans in Missionary Boldness" Cc: "Dean Kavouras" Subject: CLIMB: Chaplain's Field Report January 15 2002 Date: Friday, January 18, 2002 5:16 PM Chaplain's Field Report Cleveland, Ohio January 15, 2001 Dear Friends, Very recently I received the following article about the work going on at Staten Island. Because it's a better description than I myself could give, I enclose it in its entirety. Lt. Bruce Bovino mentioned in the article is the NPYD Lieutenant I spoke of at the close of my field report from October 10, 2001. The Lutheran Heritage Foundation has asked me to weave these field reports into a book. I'm working on that presently, and hope to include this article as part of it. Currently there's nothing special to report - only the daily chaplain's work: visiting the sick and injured; counseling with firemen, policemen and FBI agents on the fears and frustrations of the job as well as the normal array of personal dilemmas; spending time with them in the office and in the field, a safe and trusted friend - always there to support and encourage them with the Word of God. Now, here's the article. Remember these people in your prayers. From: News and Views | City Beat | Sunday, January 06, 2002 From New York Daily News Online Anguished Search For Traces of the Missing Grim task at Fresh Kills By RICHARD T. PIENCIAK Daily News Senior Correspondent Standing amid the transplanted ruins of Sept. 11, the immensity of the task underway at this makeshift City on the Hill is difficult to comprehend. Death and its aftermath are spread out everywhere. The 175-acre encampment, born of the World Trade Center attacks, ultimately will serve as the final resting place for the countless tiny pieces of humanity that will prove to be unretrievable from the 1.2 million tons of Ground Zero debris. Any failure to decipher completely the minute fragments of human flesh entombed in the mounds of waste will not be for lack of effort, though. Literally billions of pieces of debris are being scrutinized meticulously at the reopened Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island in the hope of finding a victim's body part or a personal belonging that can help give a heartbroken family a bit of solace. "It's a corporal work of mercy," said NYPD Deputy Inspector James Luongo, who heads the sifting and retrieval effort. "We're helping to bury the dead." The site has a second mission, although the importance of that has diminished over time: The search continues for a chunk of incriminating evidence and for the so-called black boxes from the jetliners that hit the twin towers, killing nearly 3,000 people. Already 900,000 tons have been processed in this arduous effort, including heavy steel that has been recycled. At the center of the operation are several work areas, each equipped with three large conveyor belts: one for fine soil and particles, one for solid pieces as tiny as one-quarter inch, and one for larger chunks. Working daily from 5 a.m. to midnight, hundreds of NYPD detectives and federal agents dressed in protective gear stand watch along the conveyor belts - as many as eight to a belt - searching through every fragment. When warranted, a piece of debris is picked up and given closer scrutiny. Items such as a ripped woman's shoe are examined carefully, but usually are put back on the line because they lack any identifying feature. Possible body parts are placed in plastic buckets, which are handed over to the NYPD Crime Scene Unit. Stored in freezers, the body parts are quickly passed on to the medical examiner's office. A forensic anthropologist is often on site. Because there were many restaurants in the WTC complex, investigators have been finding animal bones among the debris. So far, 2,900 human body parts have been recovered at the landfill, an average of about 30 a day - and an average of about one per victim. 46 Victims Identified By last week, 46 victims had been identified from remains retrieved here, some by fingerprints, some by dental charts and some by DNA. Many more human parts are being tested for DNA. Special Agent Richard Marx, the FBI's lead representative here, said one victim was identified recently from a four-inch piece of bone. The most dramatic reminder of the terrorist attacks is the collection of burned-out and crushed vehicles - row upon row of civilian cars, NYPD police vans, patrol cars and a wide variety of fire apparatus. There are more than 1,200 wrecked vehicles here already, with another 800 expected when crews at Ground Zero get to the Trade Center's subterranean garages. The cars are stacked up to four high. Alongside, there's a Con Ed truck, a Verizon van, a sport-utility vehicle that was used by an NYPD undercover team. In between are mangled motorcycles and police scooters. The graveyard of fire trucks is a sobering and humbling sight. Several of the trucks are so squished they are barely recognizable. The long ladders of several trucks had been softened by the intense heat of the WTC fires, then reshaped into half circles. The contents of car trunks and back seats reveal clues about their former owners: a Wilson Hammer 5.0 tennis racket cover, tattered pages from a Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys Super Mystery paperback ("Murder on the Fourth of July"), a kid's two-wheel scooter, stuffed animals, a shopping bag from Saks Fifth Avenue, a VCR tape of "Seinfeld," cell phone bills, a jumpsuit, exercise equipment, a hair dryer, a box of wedding invitations. One day the searchers found hundreds of shopping bags from a Gap store. Another day, they found a large selection of Gap clothing, with the price tags still attached. Engine parts from American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower, sit outside the FBI trailer, next to several landing-gear tires. Searchers have found several box cutters, though they don't know for certain if these were among the ones used by the hijackers. While the larger pieces of debris "bring the message home," Luongo said, the retrieval operation is the heart of the City on the Hill - the reason for its being. "There's no glamour, no Hollywood here," said Luongo, contrasting this barren parcel to the celebrity atmosphere exhibited from time to time at Ground Zero. "This is the nonsexy part of the operation. This is where the work is being done." The site, carved out of the 3,000-acre landfill that was shut last March after 50-plus years, is staffed by 300-350 NYPD detectives, drawn on a rotating basis from across the city. They are joined by Sanitation Dept. personnel and up to 60 federal agents, including representatives of the FBI, Secret Service, Customs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Agriculture. While much has been written about the bravery and heroism displayed at the WTC site, there are many unsung heroes toiling here, too. "It is important that people understand the dedication of the detectives working up here," said Luongo, a 21-year NYPD veteran and father of four. Luongo's top assistant, Lt. Bruce Bovino, who had a Sept. 11 birthday dinner reservation with his wife at a WTC restaurant, added, "We're the lucky ones. We're getting to do something." John Paccione, 36, a 12-year NYPD veteran who usually works out of the 60th Precinct Robbery Squad, said, "You hope that by working here you can help bring some finality to the families, whether they are police or fire or civilians. "We all have to do our part," he added. "We're at war." Paccione, who's been reporting to the landfill one or two days a week for three months, has been part of teams that have found clothing and pieces of human remains. "The most important thing is to find bodies, or at least body parts, to help bring about that finality," he said. Health and Safety Paramount The investigators work in a highly compartmentalized environment. At the start of each shift, they're given a brief introductory speech, then outfitted in protective gear - full-length white Tyvek suits, half-face respirators with HEPA filters, hard hats, goggles, hearing protection and protective footwear. Concerns for health and safety are paramount. The air is sampled regularly for asbestos and other contaminants. Test results are posted prominently. Before meal and coffee breaks, and at the end of the shift, all workers undergo decontamination, including showers, if needed. The site had been operating on two 12-hour shifts, starting at 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. "But the mission has changed appreciably in recent days," Luongo said. "There are fewer big pieces. The debris stream is much finer now; it needs more care and attention." Last week, Luongo added a third shift, starting at noon. Equipment maintenance and repairs are performed in the remaining five predawn hours. Site methodology has come a long way, too. Assisted by Bovino and Marx, 33, Luongo started out supervising detectives sifting through the debris with garden rakes, or manually, on their hands and knees. Today, the work force uses sophisticated heavy equipment, much of it fabricated from the commercial recycling industry. One of the new machines, made by a company in Ireland, consists of a long, round cylinder that resembles a giant clothes dryer. It spins big hunks of debris to loosen and separate fine particles that had clumped together around one or two large pieces. "It is a constantly evolving situation," Marx said of the developing technology. The so-called City on the Hill is now its own community. There's a mess hall, complete with hot food, the Salvation Army and elderly Southern Baptist Convention volunteers from Florida. Up to 700 meals a day are served at "The Hilltop Cafe." All of the eating, changing and decontamination centers are heated. So are many of the outside raking and sifting areas. Inside the food hall, there's a Christmas tree in the center of the eating area; photos and brief biographies of victims serve as ornaments. There's a big-screen TV at one end of the hall. On Friday, a cabaret singer, accompanied by a piano player, entertained the landfill troops, sort of like a USO show. The mess hall walls are filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of supportive letters and drawings from school kids throughout the nation. Outside stands the only surviving tree from the outdoor areas around the WTC. Bovino, a 46-year-old father of two, acknowledged he and his colleagues had heard the complaints and concerns from some victims' relatives that at times there hasn't been enough reverence paid during the sifting process. "I'm not going to say that we're going to find every piece and every bit," Bovino said. "We may miss things. But it won't be for a lack of trying. It's just that there's so much debris. We're doing the best we can." Officials hope to close the operation by September. The most optimistic view has the job being completed by July. But much work remains to be done. And heated tents notwithstanding, winter is setting in. Once the retrieval operation is completed, and the remains of so many are buried here, Luongo and the others hope the city erects a memorial. "This wasn't only a police and fire tragedy. This wasn't only for New York," Luongo said. "This was a tragedy for the whole country." Rev. Dean Kavouras, Chaplain Cleveland Safety Forces FBI, Cleveland chap7953@multiverse.com "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." Romans 3:28 + + + Confessional Lutherans in Missionary Boldness + + + The CLIMB e-letter brings you unedited, uncut reports directly from the mission field, whether in South America, Africa, Europe, inner-city, rural, or collegiate America, or military installations and battle sites around the world. 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