After 30 years with the New York Police Department, and another four years with the Isle of Palms Police Department, Sgt. Thomas White is well-versed in protecting the community he serves. “People tend to think it must be vastly different policing in Manhattan versus policing on the Isle of Palms, but it’s more alike than you might think. They are both high-volume tourist destinations and require that you don’t let your guard down. Being on the Isle of Palms Front Beach near the pier on July the Fourth is very similar to working in Times Square – the size of the crowd, the volume of people and the tourist aspect is the same.”
After vacationing on the island with wife Mindy, a former NYPD sergeant, and their two children, White said, “We fell in love with the place, and decided to move here.” White and his wife still travel to NYC following the 9/11 tragedy for yearly physicals through the World Trade Center Health Registry by way of the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). White explained, “Jon Stewart advocated for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, testifying before Congress in 2019 when funding was about to end for sick and dying first responders.” Stewart’s passionate and emotional testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee helped to push forward the Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act. The bill ultimately passed, authorizing and funding the VCF through Oct. 1, 2090.
White continued, “People say ‘never forget,’ but I don’t need a plaque or a T-shirt or anything else to remind me of that day. The men and women who we lost and continue to lose. That’s the constant reminder.”
Of the immediate impact of the events of 9/11, White recounted, “Every officer was activated to come in for duty. We were called in on the news. So we reported to command and it was absolute mayhem when we got to lower Manhattan. For the first time in NYPD history, there was no plan in place. We were just winging it. When we got to Ground Zero, the smell is something I cannot forget – like a burning house smell, but so much worse. In all those months that followed, I never got used to the smell.”
White recalled it taking a few days to get a routine going before eventually having an actual system to the madness. Vehicle checkpoints were in place, and construction crews were sifting through the rubble while the assembly line of buckets filled with debris were passed along and meticulously sorted through.
“You have to remember,” White explained, “this was a crime scene. Every piece of that pile had the potential to be a clue. Whenever the remains of a first responder were found, a whistle blew and the relentless drone of the construction noise halted. Silence followed – until the body was extracted and removed. Then a second whistle would blow, and everyone would get right back to work. It was like flipping a switch. Even the construction workers stood silent, hands over hearts, until the second whistle and we’d all go straight back to the work and the noise, the fire. That fire never went out. If it did go out it would get reignited very quickly from the construction trucks and equipment scraping against some remnant.”
There was such an abundance of volunteers, supplies and donations that in the weeks following the tragedy, volunteers were being turned away. White recalled, “The supply donations were overwhelming. Help was coming from all over the country. People were being so kind. The sense of community and the acts of kindness – like driving on the West Side Highway and people holding up posters and banners thanking us, the police officers! We worked 12-hour shifts with no days off for months. The restaurants were not open for business, but they fed us. First responders, sitting in a five-star restaurant day after day, eating in these amazing restaurants because the owners wanted to express their gratitude for the work we were doing.”
The seemingly never-ending work continued for months with Thomas and Mindy working opposite 12-hour shifts. The aftermath of 9/11 brought one sorrowful moment after another. White recalled, “People, family members, would come up to us and ask if we’d seen their loved one. I always told them I’d keep an eye out, and I also always took the flyer. There were so many flyers of missing people. I’d fold it up, put it in my pocket and when I got home at night, I’d unfold them and place them on the table. It felt disrespectful to throw them out, so I just kept them.”
Asked when things began to feel like the worst might be behind him, White said, “When human remains were found, they were put in a red bag. When the last red bag was taken out of there, that felt like hope. When the funerals stopped, it began to feel like the end of this tragic time might be over. There were two to three funerals a week, with most of those being for multiple people. It felt like the funerals would never end. It was unimaginable, that grief.”
Today and every day, we remember that catastrophic tragedy. We celebrate the resilience of our first responders, our nation and our communities. We believe in the hope of a better tomorrow. Never forget.
By Laura Fogarty
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