This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Morris Twp. Honors Its 9/11 Heroes

Award made 10 years after terrorist attacks.

The 33 responders from Morris Township who rushed to New York City when they were called on the day of 9/11 and the days that followed were honored this week.

Awards were presented Wednesday, at the Morris Township Committee meeting.

The responders were "the number of people who were able to give in ways the average person wasn’t able to," said Mayor H. Scott Rosenbush as he and the four committeeman along with and State Assemblyman Anthony Bucco Jr. handed out certificates of appreciation for that service.

Find out what's happening in Morris Township-Morris Plainswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Patricia Simms and her husband, Greg, both members of the Morris Township Office of Emergency Management, drove in the Saturday after 9/11 to bring the local firefighters to help in the recovery efforts.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Simms, recalling the Ground Zero site. “You couldn’t even tell where the building was. It was just a big pile of rubble.”

Find out what's happening in Morris Township-Morris Plainswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Several OEM members were there to help the emergency workers sifting through the site. The provided assistance washing out the responders' eyes and cleaning up. All the responders had come with masks, gloves and goggles, but many of the crew were given even better equipment once they arrived.

“As you walked down the street, everyone was coming up to us saying ‘no, here’s a better mask’ and things like that," Simms said.

Fire Chief Scott Lovenberg, one of 13 township firefighters who responded to Ground Zero, said the "devastation you see on television was nothing compared to what you witnessed, nothing you could possibly even imagine."

Firefighter Jim Hendrickson described it as "surreal." Rather than give details of what it was like to be on the rubble looking for people, he said "it was quite a ride home."

The Morris Minute Men Emergency Medical Service personnel honored included Larry Gross, Paul Cullen, Dave Buckley, Jordana Fenik, Jim Bryce, Karriem Aston, Adam Drew, Jeff Hochman, Richad Eberhardt, Brian Mauro, Patrick Christel, Mike Kuback, Kate (Hartshorn) Domanski, Jason Lawler and Dave Ambrose

Firefighters were Robert Duffy, James Hendrickson, August Kaufhold, Lovenberg, Richard Mazzocchi, John Murphy, Michael Nunn, Edward Perr, William Prentiss, Michael Ryer, James Slate, James Tanga and John Wohlgemuth.

OEM members were Greg Simms, Patricia Simms, Harvey Klein, director, Donald Morong and Armand Stewart.

Klein said the same volunteer spirit was evident during Hurricane Irene when the Minute Men, the firefighters and the township police department came to the aid of .

Calling the need "extremely unusual," and citing the need to care for people who had "special needs, diabetes, dialysis, many of these people could barely walk off the bus," Klein said "the reality was the Morris Minute men made a tremendous response. Our cops did a great job, took control and treated everyone with respect."

The proof was in the appreciation the "people showed toward the Red Cross and law enforcement officers," as they were on their way home, Klein said.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?