9/11: We Were There. 25 Years Ago, In New York City’s Hour of Need, Schoharie County Stepped Up To Help.

The New York City harbor after 9/11 from the Schoharie County video We Were There.

Because that’s what neighbors do. No questions asked. Upstate, downstate...we're there for each other.

166 miles

3 hours 8 minutes

That’s how far, how long, the distance between Schoharie County and Manhattan.

Or in New York City’s darkest days, those that followed 9/11/2001, nothing at all.

Because when the Twin Towers fell, we didn’t wait to be asked.

Even before they knew what had happened at the World Trade Center–some remember being in the dark for days–local rescue volunteers, State Emergency Management staffers, and State Troopers–raced down to help any way they could, tours of duty that for some, lasted years.

“It’s not what one person did. It’s what we all did. Everybody played their part.” –Kevin Neary

Richmondville Mayor Kevin Neary, who worked for the State Emergency Management Office during 9/11, recounts those early days on the video We Were There during a 25-year anniversary presentation. Neary died in 2021 from World Trade Center-relatd cancer.

Twenty-five years and a day after 9/11, three of those who answered that call without a moment’s hesitation remembered those roller-coaster days and the friends they lost in a talk at the Cobleskill Firehouse.

They were:

Frank Tucker, a lieutenant with the Fairport, Long Island Fire Department. Returning the favor, he moved to Sharon Springs in 2001 to work for SALT on Hurricane Irene recovery efforts. 

“Thirty people I know died that day. And it’s been hard.”

John Copland, a 25-year member of the all-volunteer Cobleskill Rescue Squad and Fire Department and part of a six-member team that headed to the World Trade Center with an ambulance within hours of the plane strikes. 

Every September 11, Cobleskill Rescue Squad volunteer John Copland takes another look at his ID badges from the World Trade Center.

Would he do it again?

“In a heartbeat. On 9/11, we came together.”

And Brian Head, just 21 and working for the State Office of Emergency Management on 9/11. He ran the show in Albany until he was “drafted” by Kevin Neary, Chief of Operations for SEMO (and Richmondville Mayor), who pretty much ran the show in NYC. 

“We did some amazing things.”

In between clips from the video, We Were There, shot in 2019 by the late Dennis Shaw, the three stepped back in time to remember what those first days were like.

Joining them on the screen: then-State Trooper Chip Johnstone, Schoharie County EMO Director Mike Hartzel–he was still in the Army on 9/11 and headed up a special security team–and Neary, who died in 2001 from a WTC-related cancer, always a force unto himself.

[The panel changes nearly every time the video screens–and the stories with it. Look for it on YouTube.]

For all of them, the reality of what they–the country was dealing with–took a while to set in.

The audience at the Schoharie County Historical Association/Old Stone Fort video and panel presentation on 9/11 at the Cobleskill Firehouse.

And like the rest of us, one of the things they remember most clearly is the beautiful, blue skies of that September day.

Video

For Kevin Neary, 9/11 began with a call from the Nassau County Police Department. “‘Hey, Neary. A plane just hit the building.’ I immediately started picking up all my equipment. Big planes don’t hit big buildings.”

And once he was there, “We didn't know if the whole country was under attack. We were worried about nuclear power plants…”

For Chip Johnstone, working that day in Schenectady County, “We were thinking a single engine plane. We had no idea of the scale.” 

Brian Head, just a year into his job at SEMO on 9/11, shares some stories about his boss, the late Kevin Neary, just as famous as New York City’s mayor in the months after 9/11.

He got a few hours to go home to change. Forty cars and 100 Troopers from all over the Capital District became 100-plus cars by the time they hit Newburgh. 

“But on the Tappan  Zee Bridge, there were no cars. And no cars coming north on the Thruway,” he remembered, his voice breaking, all those years later, still haunted by what he didn’t see. “I remember seeing the cranes and equipment and thinking, ‘What are we going to do?’ 

What he did, after assisting the NYPD in security detail, was escort in grieving families. For five or six tours, seven days on, seven off, into the spring.

Panel

Frank Tucker said he’s struggled with PSDT ever since those days.

Frank Tucker moved to Sharon Springs to help with Irene recovery efforts, seeking peace and quiet from what he witnessed at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

It took a while for him to realize a particular shade of purple is one of his triggers for the panic attacks that continue. It’s the purple the victim he helped uncover was wearing. 

“I remember I brushed the dust off her face...It had a big impact on my life. I moved to Schoharie County for peace and quiet.”

John Copland was watching the Today Show when the first plane hit. With the second,“I immediately packed a small bag and headed for the firehouse,” where five other members of the rescue squad–Harold Ray, Lucille Compton, Janie Russell, Shawn McGovern, and Bill Averill–were also waiting. He still has a photo of that group.

“We were told to respond with an ambulance to ground Zero and the World Trade Center.”

Holding up his credentials, ”This time of year, I pick them up to remember what happened…”

Once in NYC, the Cobleskill Rescue Squad volunteers quickly realized the obvious: “We weren’t going to be able to do anything…What we saw…like workers on an anthill. Pieces of peoples’ lives. A notebook. An attache case. Pieces of clothing. But we couldn’t do anything. When they discovered a body, everything stopped. A special crew went in and recovered that…

“Emotionally, it was hard. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.”

Brian Head was headed into Albany to work. With the rest of SEMO leadership at a conference in the Midwest, just a year into his job, he was in charge. 

“I definitely was not on any list to be making calls to NORAD. Or the FAA” he said, still a little amazed. But he did.

No one at the SEMO Call Center was trained as a 911 dispatcher. “Flip phones were just coming out. Our communication was over the telephone and writing things down on paper. We got a lot of calls from the public. That was very hard on the staff. At one point, one of them, answering the phone said ‘I can’t,’ and just handed me the phone.”

It wasn’t the first time Head stepped up. Or the last. Neary knew he came from a local “towing” family. So he found himself in charge of heavy equipment staging and logistics at Ground Zero.

Just Schoharie County stepping up.

Video

Mike Hartzel: “I didn’t see for days what had happened at the World Trade Center. We left so fast, I didn’t see it on TV. We didn’t understand the magnitude.”

He spent the next eight months “riding around NYC…anything we thought might be a terrorist attack.” He didn’t leave until 2004.

Panel

Brian Head: “Neary was the one who asked for me. He was my supervisor at the World Trade Center…He was very well respected. He knew absolutely everyone.” 

And everyone knew Kevin Neary.

And in a story that still makes him laugh: When then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his entourage went through, “Everyone would stop, and stand up, and shout ‘Mayor!’. Neary–mayor of the Village of Richmondville [pop. 789]–would be right behind with his entourage. He’d get the same greeting: ‘Mayor!’ Mayor of Richmondville. Kevin knew absolutely everyone. To watch Kevin get the same respect as the mayor of New York City…”

And then there were the damn pumpkins.

That October, Neary came up with the idea of sending Schoharie County pumpkins to New York City, rallying Cobleskill-Richmondville’s FFA and FBLA and local farmers and collecting tons of them.

Fun? Sure. Logistically? It was…stressful. Especially after some Army guys tossed extra pumpkins into the East River–never realizing they’d float–drawing the attention of an alarmed and confused Coast Guard and the NYPD. Head got the call: ‘Brian, we’ve got a problem. We need you.’ 

He played dumb.

John Copland remembers being served dinner by volunteers like Joel Gray and Bernadette Peters–there to do what they could do too. “The contrast, when you were down there…it played with your emotions…”

His take-away after all the years: “Twenty-five years later, what I want to take away…everyone was there to help. The people…they wanted to do something. I felt like I fulfilled all I was told to do in church as a child. Do something positive for people. Help. It will stay with everyone forever and ever.”

Brian Head: “Every year we lose more and more people. A group of us used to get together on 9/111. It’s hard to talk about even with your family…Kevin was my rock. I go to the cemetery and light a candle for him every year like I did yesterday…It’s still hard.”

“I got to see these people coming together…people who would do anything they could to help.” –Chip Johnstone

All of Schoharie County’s Rescue Squads and Fire Departments are desperately in need of volunteers, from drivers to EMTS, not just for local emergencies but for things like 9/11. More on how to join, or how to help? Here…and here.

Contact the writer at patsynicosia@gmail.com.