The day after the September 11 attacks, I was informed I would be on a plane to New York City the next day to work in the morgue. I had training and experience with dental forensics identifying bodies and helping with criminal cases in Alaska early in my career. That put me on the database as qualified for this assignment. My supervisors agreed and I was promptly sent east.
We stayed in Queens, where we were informed of what to expect during our 12 hour shifts. We would be bussed to the morgue, in my case to work from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. seven days a week. We would work in either the ante mortem or post-mortem sections, mostly on computers and obtaining records of missing persons. After one week there, I was placed in charge of the 12 dentist night shift antemortem section. We used a system called Win ID to enter records from missing persons, including radiographs and descriptions of existing conditions. We later matched the records with information from discovered body parts to confirm positive identifications.
There were times we confirmed that persons were not missing, when we would call and be told the person was alive and well. Our missing persons numbers dropped from over 5,000 to under 3,000 in the first two weeks. I was able to work in the post-mortem section at times, where recovered body parts were delivered in black body bags. The smell was horrible, and the emotions were difficult to deal with, but the goal was to help loved ones get closure, and we were thanked for our efforts. It is impossible to understand how anyone could think destruction of so many lives could help their cause. I hope it is a one time event and we never need to use such identification methods again.
It’s nice to know other WI dentists were out there. I spent 2 1/2 weeks at the WTC with the DMORT team. DMORT is a federal disaster response team (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team). I had been on DMORT for 24 years and was also deployed to Hurricane Katrina for 2 1/2 weeks. In NY, I spent most of my time at the Staten Island Landfill going through debris that had been trucked out there from ground zero (working with the NYPD Crime Scenes Unit). The rest of my time there was spent in the morgue. I also worked the 12 hour shift & like Dave 7pm – 7am. I told my kids, it had been a long time since I had pulled an “all-nighter”. I was taken down to see ground zero twice by law enforcement officials & was in complete awe at what I saw. I have been a consultant in forensic dentistry for numerous agencies throughout Wisconsin since 1981 and nothing really prepares you for an event like this where so many innocent lives where just totally destroyed. 17 years later, I think most of us will remember exactly where we were and what we were doing on 9/11/01. Thank you Dave for a poignant reminder.
I had forensic training while in the military and would like to get on the appropriate list (s). How do I do that?