Middle Village resident honors lives lost with vigil committee
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
For the past 19 years, the 9/11 Vigil
Committee in Middle Village has held
a candlelight vigil and prayer service
at Juniper Valley Park to honor and remember
those who perished in the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World
Trade Center towers.
The committee — which is made up
of a group of volunteers from the Middle
Village and Maspeth communities —
was established immediately following
the tragic events of that day. It has
brought together hundreds of members
from churches, schools and local organizations
to Juniper Valley Park’s 9/11 memorial
garden, where a granite plaque
was installed in remembrance of the
thousands of lives lost at Ground Zero.
As the number of attendees has dwindled
over the years to 400 people, Frank
DeBiase, president of the 9/11 Vigil Committee,
said he is expecting a larger gathering
this year to commemorate the 20th
anniversary of 9/11.
According to DeBiase, who was also a
first responder at Ground Zero, it is of utmost
importance to remember and never
forget the events that unfolded on 9/11.
“Forgetting something like this is
outright upsetting. I go to local schools
and are invited by teachers to speak to
kids about it,” DeBiase said. “It’s just
as important to always remember and
share these things with them.”
Like his neighbors, DeBiase lost two
friends who were 9/11 first responders.
DeBiase, who is a retired corrections
captain of the Support Services Division
on Rikers Island, recalls the events of
9/11 vividly.
He started his workday at 5:30 a.m.
with a cup of coffee and a bagel before
hopping on the highway to Rikers Island.
While he reported to the commanding
officers conference room for the
weekly planning meeting, his secretary
burst in and said, “Sir, put on the TV. The
World Trade Center has just been hit by
an airplane and is on fire.”
As DeBiase and his team watched the
news on television, they were all trying
to make sense of the situation, he said.
“‘Must be a freak accident,’ ‘those
poor office workers’ and ‘that will be
a tough fire to get under control,’ were
some of the comments that went around
the room,” DeBiase said.
As minutes passed, with the news of a
second aircraft hitting the Pentagon and
another hitting the other World Trade
Center tower, and yet another plane
crash in Pennsylvania, DeBiase said it
became all too evident that the nation
was under attack and that the city was
“Ground Zero.”
While DeBiase’s unit — which was
usually called when a water main broke,
or when electric outages occurred when
Rikers was flooding or snow was piling
up — was sure that at any moment they
would get a call to dispatch their heavy
equipment (pay-loaders, back-hoes and
bulldozers) to the scene of the attack,
they were prepared and readied all personnel
to respond to the unprecedented
emergency, he said.
“There were thousands of people in
the twin towers when the attacks took
place and a rescue effort was in full
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.10 COM | SEPT. 10 - SEPT. 16, 2021
swing,” DeBiase said.
Later that day, DeBiase, along with
officers and civilian tradesmen, were
dispatched to the NYC Morgue in Manhattan.
DeBiase’s unit helped convert the
street adjacent to the facility into a highvolume
intake area for the receipt of
human remains. Tents were erected for
everything from examination tables to
fingerprinting stations, photography
stations and rest areas. There was even
a makeshift chapel.
As they got closer to the World Trade
Center site, the streets were empty and
abandoned. There was an acrid smell of
“burning everything,” DeBiase said.
“The scene was surreal. Mountains
of ruin, countless volunteers passing
buckets of hand-dug debris from one to
the next. It was a sea of humanity, determined
to find some way of help,” DeBiase
said. “So many lives lost, so many
friends — it was the same thought going
through everyone’s minds.”
While DeBiase assisted in the transfer
of remains from the ambulances to
the pathologists and then to the refrigerated
trailers, he says he will never
describe or discuss what his team recovered
on a regular basis as they sifted
through the rubble.
When an ambulance arrived containing
the remains of a firefighter or police
officer, workers at the site would stop
what they were doing and line the street.
“We would all stand at attention and
salute the vehicle until the fallen ‘hero’
was removed and sent to the pathologists
for processing. Unfortunately, this ritual
continued several times per day, weeks
on end,” DeBiase said.
While working at Ground Zero
among the thick smoke and stench, DeBiase
developed a sore throat. His mother,
who was a teacher at St. Margaret’s in
Middle Village, sent a delivery of 1,300
pounds of candy and throat drops donated
by students.
“We had enough to last us for the duration
of the recovery effort. It was gestures
like that which defines who and
what we are as a people during this most
challenging time,” DeBiase said.
For DeBiase, he will always be proud
that he was in some way involved in the
9/11 recovery effort.
“The torn rotator cuff I sustained
while lifting a body out of the wreckage
and the subsequent surgery will always
remind me of the job we did in the aftermath
of that horrific day,” DeBiase said.
In 2002, DeBiase received an “Outstanding
Duty Award” from his department
and although the word “hero” was
written in the citation, he says he does
not “in any way, shape or form feel like
a hero for what I did as a first responder.”
“I reserve that distinction for the
hundreds of firefighters, police officers
and patriot civilians who perished that
day in the most cowardly act of terrorism
our country has ever known,” DeBiase
said.
According to DeBiase, the world as
we knew it was forever changed on 9/11.
“However difficult, however much
we desire to move forward, it is up to us
to tell the story and keep the memory of
those who perished alive in our mind
and in our hearts,” DeBiase said.
Frank DeBiase, president of the 9/11 Vigil Committee. Courtesy of DeBiase