The 25th anniversary of 9/11 is profoundly meaningful for Ray Palczynski of Bettendorf.
Now 66, he was a member of the Davenport Fire Department from 1980 to 2005, and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he joined 10 Chicago firefighters that first week of October, to help in the herculean cleanup and recovery efforts at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.
Palczynski started teaching part-time for the Illinois Fire Service Institute in 1994, which he continued full-time from 2005 to 2023, as a regional representative. He’s worked part-time for the U.S. Marshals Service, transporting prisoners to court appearances and to and from prison, for 30 years, to the present (about five days a month). Palczynski also does public safety consulting nationwide.
He remembers 9/11 vividly.
“I was on duty downtown in Davenport, and like everybody else, we're watching it on TV. And then all of a sudden the city said, all right, nobody on the street unless the bell rings,” Palczynski said. “They didn't want any public safety moving around because they just weren't sure what was what. And I remember that night. You've seen it in the paper, some of the cops have said it. We remember watching Bush's plane fly by because we went out of the building out into the alley.
"Unless a call came in, we didn't leave because they just weren't sure. But I worked that day and watching this, watching what was going on, I had one really good friend who was on Squad 18.”
That friend came to Illinois to teach with him at IFSI -- Andrew A. Fredericks‚ a 40-year-old FDNY firefighter, who was killed in 9/11. A 21-year FDNY veteran‚ Fredericks was co-author of the FDNY’s Engine Company Operations Manual.
“They brought instructors in from all over the country. Whoever was the best at what they did, they brought them in,” Palczynski recalled. “So there was half a dozen FDNY guys that came here and taught on a regular basis, and they were all good guys. There were some guys that came from Nashville, and we all just became friends. But this particular guy, Andy, was very passionate about engine company operations. He was big into it.”
He arranged to go with a group of 10 Chicago firefighters (since he taught with some at IFSI) to volunteer at the smoldering wreckage of Ground Zero, and they were in New York Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, 2001, though only working at Ground Zero one day. The city didn’t discover Fredericks’s body until Palczynski had arrived.
“And by the end of the week that we were there, his visitation was there,” he said. “After his visitation, the last of us that were there we drove straight home that night because all we did most of the week was go to funerals. And that's what they asked us to do. We worked one shift at Ground Zero and it wasn't that they didn't appreciate us being there, but this was their deal. This was their family, their members.”
“The fact that Andy was a friend and colleague made it very personal for me,” Palczynski wrote in his journal of the week. “Regardless of our friendship, I felt it was important to let my FDNY brothers know that we cared about them and we were there for them…Despite the pain, suffering, tragedy and immense losses the people of New York experienced, they treated us like family.”
Scrapbook full of memories
Palczynski keeps a large bound scrapbook of photos, department patches and badges, newspaper articles, and a journal (which he later typed) that he kept during the life-changing week. He also has a long list of FDNY funerals, from which groups of visiting firefighters chose – every day, to attend two funerals and a visitation, Palczynski said.
He also attended the packed St. Patrick’s Cathedral funeral for Capt. Terence Hatton, 41, on Oct. 4. His wife was secretary to then New York Mayor Giuliani, and she was pregnant with their first child when he was killed. That daughter is named Terri, in honor of her father.
In 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg renamed W. 43rd St., between 10th and 11th Avenues – home to Hatton’s beloved Rescue 1 stationhouse – in honor of the deceased fireman, named Capt. Terence S. Hatton Way.
“We went to his visitation just by happenstance. So we met the family,” Palczynski recalled. “His father was a fireman, typical. So we went to his funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral the next day. And the governor and the mayor all gave speeches on his behalf because he was a legacy. And Rescue One is the most elite squad in the city, and he was a captain.”
The street outside the cathedral was filled with firefighters lined up in tribute from around the country.
“When the services were over, we all went back outside. There's just thousands of firemen,” he said. “I remember I'm standing in a row and just as far as you can see there's firemen. So I go like this to look down the row and a guy, like 10 or 15 guys down, does the same thing looking my direction. It's a guy I knew from Worcester, Mass.”
That city, two years earlier, suffered a different firefighter tragedy. Six men lost their lives battling a fire at Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. on Dec. 3, 1999, in a 93-year-old abandoned building.
His first day at Ground Zero, Oct. 2, they started in the middle of the night.
“Ground Zero was eerie because there was no noise other than the noise from the work,” Palczynski recalled. “It was eerie because our first shift, we started like 3:30 or 4 in the morning. It was dark and damp, but as soon as the sun came up, it went back to just like the day of 9/11. It was warm and sunny and beautiful, but at the same time, very little noise. And that's what I remember the most is how quiet it was given what was going on.”
Of other FDNY members, he wrote in his journal: “Their sadness cannot be put into words and there were no words spoken…This was clearly a place for FDNY guys to be. Our presence was appreciated in the psychological sense, but not needed in the physical.”
Treated like royalty
At one Manhattan watering hole after visiting a fire station, Palczynski said his group was greeted like visiting royalty.
“Women hugged and kissed us, guys high-fived and all were genuinely appreciative of the fact that we came for their guys,” he wrote. “It was really an amazing and fulfilling experience. I can honestly say it was one I never expected, nor will I ever forget.”
Everywhere they went out to eat or drink, everything was offered at no charge.
“Never paid for a drink. People bought us food everywhere we went,” Palczynski said. “They're like, don't worry about it, it's on us. I'm like, no, no, no, we're here for you guys. She says, nope, you came for our guys.”
At the first-class Palm restaurant (250 W. 50th St., in Midtown), they had a delicious and memorable meal.
“People in the restaurant kept buying us drinks. You know, they knew we were firemen here, so somebody buy a round,” he recalled. “So these businessmen at the next table over sent over a bottle of wine, and we started visiting with them, hung out. Well, then they get up and left. Well, we were there till they closed because it was our best meal of the week, and I said, okay, you guys, this is gonna cost us. No bill. Those guys bought.”
During the week, he missed both his wedding anniversary (Oct. 6) and his son Nick’s 15th birthday (Oct. 4). Today, Ray and his wife Theresa have eight grandkids (from their three children).
So many FDNY members died (over 340 on 9/11) because of the bravery and courage they exemplified in doing lifesaving work.
Attitude of firefighters
“I don't think any of them ever gave a thought that they weren't going to be anything but successful,” Palczynski said. “In all the years, 45 years of doing fire service, I never showed up at something thinking to myself, this isn't going to work. You always think you're going to win.”
“Those guys, I think, had the same thing. We're going to get these people out, and we'll take care of the problem as we go,” he said. “I don't think they thought there was anything but success in their future. I think as it evolved, the guys who were down on the ground, it's like, oh, this isn't going as well. And when the first tower fell, I think everybody knew after that.”
Many children of those lost firefighters, as well as young firefighters nationwide, entered service inspired by the 9/11 response, Palczynski said.
“I think it showed a sense of pride and, I want to do this for my community. I would like to hope,” he said. “Most people who choose to do this job know what they're getting into. You're joining a family. And I can actually think of guys who came on the DFD and didn't last 5 years because they couldn't do it. It wasn't that they weren't physically able, but mentally, this whole idea of a family.”
Part of the brotherhood stems from the fact that firefighters live together during their shifts, usually 24 or 48 hours straight, and can face harrowing, threatening situations. The FDNY is the nation’s largest department, with 11,000 firefighters and 4,000 EMS personnel. The Davenport Fire Department currently has 135 firefighters.
Palczynski (who has conducted fire training worldwide, including nine trips to China) found the same instant bond with firefighters like him who responded to the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, which killed 167 and injured 684.
“I knew they were part of the same international union that I was part of,” International Association of Firefighters, he said. “As soon as I said Local 17, it was instant. And after a couple of days, the nurse goes, all right, what is with you guys? You got a secret handshake or what?”
“It's a brotherhood. We're all part of the same international union. We do the same job. I said, we're not different,” Palczynski said. “There's only a couple of different kinds of firemen. Even though some may get paid and some don't, we all do the same thing.”
“You know, it didn't matter whether you're from Chicago or a tiny little suburb,” he added. “When you were needed, you showed up. And, you know, I've gone to many Chicago Fire Department funerals, and guys come from all over the country, all over the world, because of Chicago being who they are, just like New York.”
The September 11 attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history, causing the deaths of 2,996 people, including 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide and 2,977 victims. Thousands more were injured, and long-term health effects have arisen as a consequence of the attacks. New York City took the brunt of the death toll when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan were attacked, with an estimated 1,700 victims from the North Tower and around a thousand from the South Tower. In Arlington County, Virginia, another 125 were killed in the Pentagon.
The remaining 265 fatalities included the 92 passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the 65 aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the 64 aboard American Airlines Flight 77 and the 44 aboard United Airlines Flight 93.
Most of those who perished were civilians, except for: 344 members of the New York City Fire Department and New York Fire Patrol; 71 law enforcement officers who died in the World Trade Center and on the ground in New York City; 55 military personnel who died at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia; a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officer who died when Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville, Penn.
Visiting the National Sept. 11 Memori/al
Ray and Theresa visited New York City in summer 2019, including the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
He said it was odd and haunting to see these items in this museum, compared to other national memorials, since he recalls the time period so clearly.
For the 25th anniversary, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum is opening a new exhibit, “In Their Honor: 25 Years of 9/11-Inspired Service.” It explores the enduring impact of service inspired by the 9/11 attacks. As a generation comes of age with no lived memory of 9/11, the exhibition examines how individuals and communities transformed grief into action—creating a legacy of service that has touched lives across the country and around the world.
The memorial website says 100 million Americans are too young to remember the day that changed our city and nation forever.
“It is our shared promise — made 25 years ago — to never forget so those born after 9/11 learn its significance and enduring legacy,” the site says. “As we commemorate this anniversary, a new generation will learn about the unimaginable loss we experienced and the inspiring stories of bravery, compassion, unity, and service that we witnessed, and have rippled through the decades.”
At least 600 FDNY members have died from 9/11-related illnesses, including cancers, among over 6,000 total deaths attributed to toxins and other conditions around Ground Zero. Palczynski said a couple Chicago Fire members ended up with cancers they assumed came from that exposure because they stayed for a week.
“We only did one day there, and that was okay with me,” he said. “If they wanted us to do it, I would have done it, but the fact that we didn't spend much time there, that's okay too. And by that time, by the time we got there, they were really good about keeping things wet down.”
Early this month, a new FDNY health report says more than 600 rescue and recovery workers have died from illnesses tied to World Trade Center exposure, while thousands more continue to live with cancers, cardiovascular disease, mental health conditions and other long-term complications, according to the new 25-year assessment released by the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program.
Palczynski concluded his 2001 journal by saying he told his wife he hoped to return home a better man. He went to New York, he wrote, “to be there for our brothers and they took care of us. What a profession.”
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