Karl Olszewski

Port Authority officer Karl Olszewski, 40, of Jersey City, found a gold chain - cheap, ornamental.He's worn it ever since."It was the closest thing I found to anything humanistic," he said."It established some contact.The rest was all steel."

They dig, day after day, through all kinds of matter.Powdered cement, drywall, melted metal and, occasionally, human matter.

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"You pick it up, and hold those ingredients in your hands - that's when you feel the weight of the moment," Olszewski says."It's like a farmer with soil.Except, instead of being proud, the inverse happens.You do it with horror instead of pride."

Port Authority officer Karl Olszewski, 40, of Jersey City, found a gold chain.It was a cheap ornamental chain.He has worn it ever since."It was the closest thing I found to anything humanistic," he said."It established some contact.The rest was all steel."

They dig, day after day, through all kinds of matter.Powdered cement, drywall, melted metal and, occasionally, human matter.

...
"You pick it up, and hold those ingredients in your hands, that's when you feel the weight of the moment," Olszewski says."It's like a farmer with soil.Except, instead of being proud, the inverse happens.You do it with horror instead of pride."

© 2002

"You pick it up, and hold those ingredients in your hands -- that's when you feel the weight of the moment," says Port Authority Officer Karl Olszewski, 40, of Jersey City."It's like a farmer with soil.Except, instead of being proud, the inverse happens.You do it with horror instead of pride."

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For Army Reserve Capt. Karl Olszewski, the memories of the next 8 1/2 month will also be forever imprinted on his mind.A New York/New Jersey Port Authority police officer, Olszewski was one of 43 officers who stayed at Ground Zero, taking only short breaks, until May 30 when the clean up officially came to an end.Shortly after attending a reserve component chemical officer advanced course at Fort Leonard Wood, Olszewski talked about the painful and grueling experience.

"They asked those of us who were the first ones there if we wanted to stay," Olszewski said."There was no question I would stay."he said the Port Authority lost 37 officers, while the New York Police Department lost 23 and 343 New York city firefighters died in the collapse of the towers.Olszweski said he saw the first images of the first tower being hit by what was believed at the time to be a small biplane while watching television at his Jersey City home.

"I thought, 'Gee, a biplane isn't going to do much damage to the tower,'" Olszewski said.He said it wasn't until quite a while later that he went back to the television and saw that a second plane had slammed into the second tower.

"The first plane hit at 8:48 a.m. and the second tower was hit at 9:05 a.m., Olszewski said."It was at that point that we all knew, that we, as a country, were under attack - that this was no accident.By 10:29 a.m. both towers had disintegrated into the pavement 110 stories below.

"The south tower fell at 9:50 a.m. and the north tower came down at 10:29 a.m.," Olszewski said, with the typical preciseness of a police officer.As soon as Olszewski realized what was happening, he rushed from his home a few miles away to what he knew would look like hell on earth.We (police officers) didn't have to be called in," Olszewski said."All of us knew we were going to be needed down there."

"When we first arrived, we set up a mess, supply, command post and triage," he said, "but there were hardly any wounded coming in.
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Olszewski said the two men suffered extremely serious injuries, but survived.He said the volunteers who worked day after day digging out the rubble, hoping against hope they'd find someone alive, got to know each other and soon had a "mantra" they spoke to one another.

"'We will never forget,we will never forget,' that's what we said to each other.We'd be walking by one another and that's what we would say," Olszewski said."That became our overall theme, the message while we were down there.It was sort of our battle cry if you will," he added.Olszewski said while working at Ground Zero, there wasn't much chance to really digest what had happened.

"Half of me, like a lot of people, couldn't believe it, yet you had to accept that it happened and carry on and do your duty," he said."It was my training in the U.S. Army that helped me to do what I could to help.

"A lot of images down there have been erased from my memory.But, there are moments I'll never forget in terms of the death and destruction.," Olszewski said.

He said there was some good that came out of the terrible tragedy."I think before 9-11, there wasn't enough interest and enough love for our country, for the American flag itself.I think that has all changed for the better," he added.

Capt. Karl Olszewski, presents a Twin Towers flag that was flown at Ground Zero in New York City, to Col. (P) Stanley Lillie, Chemical School commandant, during a school gradation ceremony.
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Chemical School Commandant Col. (P) Stanley Lillie accepted the flag from Capt. Karl Olszewski, who is an officer with the New York Port Authority.
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Olszewski was among 42 police officers who spent more than eight months continuous at Ground Zero searching for bodies and cleaning up debris.

"We never rotated out," he said."Because of the passion we felt for that particular job, we stayed until the last dish pan, last shovel of dirt, was removed."

Olszewski said the idea for giving the school a flag that had been flown at the site came from a class discussion.The reserve officers talked about why they chose to serve the military.

"We talked about 9-11 and I shared some of my experiences at Ground Zero with them," Olszewski said."I had the guys (port authority police officers) fly one of the Twin Towers flags at Ground Zero and then send it to me.

The specially-designed flags depict an American Flag laid across the Twin Towers on a white background.

Olszewski said he hoped displaying the flag at the Chemical School would serve to motivate future students and remind them of why serving the military is so important.

Police Officer Karl Olszewski