In Their Own Words

Four years ago this month, America was shattered to its core by the September 11 terrorist attacks. At the time, the media sought to piece together a portrait of the terrible events of that day. Now, with the recent release of a digital archive of dispatcher tapes, phone logs and interviews with responders, we have an oral history far more potent and descriptive than any previous media coverage.

For four years, the city of New York fought the release of these communications, but following immense pressure from the families of the victims, plus the prospect of a court order, the city yielded to the demand, releasing approximately 15 hours of radio transmissions and 12,000 pages of oral histories collected from the public-safety personnel who responded on September 11.

While some families are hoping to challenge the assumption that firefighters ignored the mayday message they received to get out of the towers, instead arguing they never heard the command because of faulty radios, the archives show a response that was plagued by a lack of command, communications problems and conflict between firefighters and police. Many of these issues had already been identified by independent commissions such as the September 11 commission. While these archives confirm such findings, what they truly provide is a human dimension to the attacks, voices reaching out from the horror and tragedy to describe in painful detail the events of September 11.

With the current debate raging as to who should be the federal voice of EMS and, by implication, who will best enable the profession to meet the challenges of the future, sadly these archives remind us that EMS may be no further along in its readiness to respond to terrorist acts than on that September morning. Of the first responder funds awarded by the Department of Homeland Security in 2002–03, EMS received only 4%. Did you get a piece of that slim slice of pie? Do you feel you have received enough training to respond to a potential terrorist attack? Has your agency received grant monies for protective equipment? Are you ready?

According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), responders in our nation’s capital are not. The GAO found there are no response standards or a region-wide plan, even though Congress allocated $340 million in emergency preparedness funds to the National Capital Region (which comprises the District of Columbia and five surrounding counties in Virginia and Maryland) in 2002–03. In a recent disaster drill in Portland, OR, the company that ran the exercise reported to the Wall Street Journal that there was overconfidence, confusion and a lack of preparedness among the agencies involved in the operation. And these are not isolated problems.

As we remember the experiences of those involved in the September 11 attack, surely the only way to honor those who lost their lives is to make sure we are ready. Let us make that our mission and make sure EMS is not left behind.