Colts Neck Mayor Remembers the 'Unrealness' of 9/11

This article was originally published in 2011, in honor of the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. 

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Mayor James Schatzle reported for duty with the First Aid Squad in Colts Neck. A call to a motor vehicle accident, with entrapment and a call for the medavac helicopter, ended just before a plane hit the first tower.

And as the helicopter lifted into the air, Schatzle heard over the ground radio that it would be heading to New York after its patient transport. The mayor finished his shift with the squad, then answered the call for volunteers in New jersey and at Ground Zero. By 7 p.m., he was on his way to Jersey City to aid in the search and rescue mission at the Path station tunnel.

“The conclusion came very quickly that there was nobody to rescue,” Schatzle said.

He then boarded a boat to Ground Zero, a scene that Schatzle described as staring at a movie set.

“If I think of it now as it was that day, just the unrealness,” he said. “You wanted to hear someone say ‘cut’, but it wasn’t a movie.”

Schatzle spent 33 days at the scene, treating rescuers for injuries such as cuts and burns. Half of the time he was in New York as a paramedic, and the other half using his certification in crisis intervention for psychological treatment.

“As rescuers, it was very difficult for the first two days to get people off the line,” he said.

Schatzle remembers that rescuers worked night and day, most of the time looking for fallen volunteers.

“It's hard to stop when you are looking for one of your own,” he said.

The worst part, he said, was digging through tons of debris, only to find no one underneath it.

“We hear things like, ‘you eventually get to somebody,’ but we didn’t,” he said.

A plaque hangs on Schatzle’s wall with a picture of himself and several items from Ground Zero. Included is his identification tag, which the mayor said was given to rescuers within only a few days, to keep track of each other.

“Within two days, there was such coordination and accountability, it still impresses me,” he said. “No one plans for this.”

But when the mayor looks back on his time at Ground Zero, he remembers the overwhelming support.

“Never before, and never again, do I anticipate such visual support from people,” he said, recalling his daily drive up the West Side Highway as the streets were lined with people cheering for volunteers. “There was a job to be done, and people did it.”

Today, the mayor looks at how far the nation has come, and how much it has forgotten. He said there are less American flags on cars, and less visible support for the ongoing war.

“There are still people that are fighting because of that day,” he said. “But now, it is half a world away instead of one hour away. It’s kind of amazing that we can lose that.”

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