ROB RIVERA US SOLDIER AT GROUND ZERO DURING 911

just loading it with body bags that are filled and I'm like wow things just got real you know like and we're in this like garage area and just just loading them I one after another well I go to my partner I'm like look at you seen this like just it's it's incomprehensible and um and so we set up this triage site and we our job was to staff this triage site and this was one of the mental challenges of that day more so than most and not what people would expect but um just seeing nobody in this triage area now the triage area was set up for the police officers and firefighters who were in the buildings and so once they collaps they the thought was the mindset was well you know Rescuers and responders will get them out bring them directly to this triage site on location and then we'll treat and then make deter determinations on which hospital they're going to go to because the hospitals were all on weird standbys and everything else so you can imagine but um there was nobody there and we waited for a little while and there was not one firefighter not one police officer that was in the buildings and we're like where are they like where are they it took me years to realize that we were breathing them in um is what happened they were these people were pulverized they were you know they were just not there they most most of them were not even found most a lot of people that were in the buildings were never found um you know they they found pieces of bones on rooftops years later I mean like it they the the the amount of energy that was in those buildings when they collapsed you know when you're when you're taking out subway stations that are underneath when you're blowing out power you know power Banks and everything else you know it was just incredible and so so yeah none of them came out and U that was tough that was really really tough and so we decided let's open up our doors and let's start triaging just civilians you know just people who are on the street and that's what we did uh we continued doing that until about 11:00 p.m. that night and then um then we got relief so just to be clear Rob because I want to make sure I'm following the so the building that you went to to triage there was supposed to be First Responders there yeah yeah absolutely and it was empty because those First Responders went out to save people but they never made it back correct I just want to be clear wow yeah yeah and that that was that was beyond tough that was beyond tough because you know we we knew some of them were going to be deceased we knew that you didn't realize that like platoon or whatever the equiv were 30 343 firefighters multiple paramedics didn't make it back scores of police officers like just never it back um and when you got to that scene you were devastated CU you kept waiting for them yeah we were waiting all the equipment all the gear was there yeah wow just crushed everything was just crushed and so um basically we so we we we didn't have the opportunity to help those people and uh and that was difficult but um you know I I I'm at least glad that we did uh open up and start triaging for regular people because obviously there was a need you know yeah yeah um you know and another Eerie aspect of the day