Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Port Authority Lost Many Heroes On September 11th

Aired December 05, 2001 - 06:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
Moving on now, we may never hear all of the stories of heroism that came out of the fateful day September 11th. But the colleagues of one group of courageous individuals say that they are determined to have their legacy remembered. CNN's Beth Nissen has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For 11 weeks they've been working alongside the fire department and NYPD at ground zero, but few outsiders recognize the PAPD - the Port Authority Police Department.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems that we're the forgotten. They're advertising NYPD and FDNY and EMS, how they're going to celebrate them, the heroes of New York. Well, we're there.

NISSEN: The Port Authority Police are often overlooked even though they have extensive law enforcement powers in both New York and New Jersey. They protect the major area airports, train stations, main bus terminals, bridges, and tunnels, and they were responsible for policing the World Trade Center complex owned by the Port Authority.

PAPD officers in the Trade Center Precinct were the first to respond on September 11th. Officer Raymond Murray fielded desperate calls after the planes hit.

RAYMOND MURRAY: I was getting calls from the 75th floor, 82nd floor, 96th floor, from both buildings and just telling me that they, you know, they couldn't get to the stairs, and I kept telling them we were sending people up there as fast as possible.

NISSEN: Most of the Port Authority police officers who went up there were killed when the towers collapsed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our particular police department took the largest loss of life, I believe, in the history of the United States. Thirty-seven of the police officers from our police department were lost in that attack.

NISSEN: Their names are listed on a chalkboard at the PAPD ground zero command trailer. Thirty-seven lost from a force only 1,400 members strong - a loss significantly higher than that suffered by the NYPD, which lost 23 of its 40,000 officers. Few know the stories of heroism behind these names - the story of Captain Kathy Mazza, the commanding officer of the Port Authority Police Academy. She is reported to have saved scores of people with her quick thinking and her nine-millimeter sidearm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were on the mezzanine level and the buildings were - buildings falling down around them. They were getting trapped and stuff was piling up and they couldn't get out. So they crammed themselves into a corner and she actually shot out one of the windows. Those people got out. She stayed behind to help other people.

NISSEN: Port Authority Police Officer Joseph Navas raced to the burning towers from across the river in Jersey City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through transmissions we found out that he called the Holland Tunnel and told them to open up a lane so they can get there a little quicker and our last transmission of him and his team was that they were working their way up in the 40's, somewhere around 41st floor, and then building two came down.

NISSEN: Port Authority Police Officer Kenneth Tietjen rushed to the Trade Center from the midtown Manhattan bus terminal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trains weren't running. The only way he and his partner could get down there is they commandeered a cab. They took a cab from the driver and drove down, I'm told on sidewalks through traffic and got all the way down there. One of the first questions my kids asked me when I got home was did Kenny make it. And I think it's the first time that my kids were aware of anybody that was actually killed, you know, that they knew.

NISSEN: Thousands more children might have known someone who died if it hadn't been for Port Authority Police Officer Walwyn Stuart. His fellow officers think of him every time they patrol the ruins of the path commuter train station under the World Trade Center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was Stuart's post down here.

NISSEN: The first plane hit at rush hour that morning when the station was jammed with commuters. Officer Stuart heard there was an explosion and gave a crucial order.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He took it upon himself to stop the trains from coming in. He got people back on the trains and ordered the motor men to take them back into New Jersey. One person, all by himself, got everybody out of there - thousands of people. We didn't have one injury or one death of any commuter that was coming to the Trade Center that day.

NISSEN: When the towers collapsed, they crushed the train tunnel and the last train evacuated by officer Stuart before he went up into the towers to evacuate others and was killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a true hero - I mean if there's ever a - any particular story of heroes, that is one of the 37. NISSEN: The details of those stories may never be known. The bodies of those heroes may never be found. So far the remains of only six of the 37 have been recovered. But their fellow Port Authority police officers are still working 12-hour shifts, six days a week looking for them and the thousands of others buried in the wreckage. People who live lives of service and sacrifice - people who are and will be remembered.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com