Firefighter's memorabilia keeps sacrifice and heroism of 911 alive

By Laurie Gordon
MCAFEE — Bravery, honor, valor, loyalty, patriotism, fraternity, dedication, perseverance, heroism, sacrifice, selflessness and family. These qualities describe a man named Tom Cooney. He's a husband, father and grandfather and loves his family, but he also has another family: the firefighters of New York City, and he wants to make sure those who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 tragedies are never forgotten.
Within hours of the Twin Towers' falling on that fateful Tuesday, retired firefighter Cooney (then in his 60s) learned that the missing firefighters included an old friend, First Deputy Commissioner William Feehan. He and Feehan had worked together for years at Ladder Co. No. 30 in Harlem. By that Saturday, Cooney could sit still no longer and left his home in Sussex County to join a corps of retired firefighters. He headed to the firehouse across from where the South Tower had fallen to report for duty.
“There's no way to describe it,” he said. “When I first arrived on the scene, I walked around in a daze for a while before I could check in. It was just tragic and unbelievable.”
Cooney recalled a massive sphere of steel embedded in an office building. Then there was the policeman he met with a rescue dog. “He was so frustrated because the dog would sniff something, where someone could be stuck still alive, but the heavy equipment hadn't gotten there yet, so there was no way to help them.”
“They told me to go around the block to the plaza and I had to climb over large blocks of concrete to get to where they needed me,” he said. There, Cooney volunteered, working eight to 10-hour shifts through the following April. His friend, Feehan, lost his life along with 342 other firefighters in the 911 tragedy. Wrapping his mind around the loss and the enormity of the attacks continue to be difficult.
During his time doing what he could to help, Cooney began picking up bits and pieces he found at the scene. Little things, like bolts, he decided to gather with the plan of someday showing them to people so 911 would not ever be forgotten. When he hurt his knee during one of his last trips into the city to help and the injury turned out to be a fast-growing sarcoma, his days responding to disasters were over, but his ambition to educate and remind people of the tragedy burned bright. Cooney gathered the things he'd found, coupled them with photos of those who had lost their lives, added things like his fire hat and started visiting libraries, banks and memorials to show the public.
“That infamous day and the heroic sacrifices of so many Americans, especially those of the New York Fire Department, need to be continuously shared with our nation's young people so that they may know and never forget what happened on September 11, 2001,” said Martin Supman, chief school administrator and Middle School principal of the Hardyston School District. “We all need heros in our lives to look up to and emulate. Your display helps promote the ultimate meaning of service.”
“The tragedy of 9-11, the recovery efforts and the impact the day had on us as a nation must never be forgotten,” said Paula Ray, principal of Career and Technical Education at Orange-Ulster Boces in Goshen, New York. The center was another of Cooney's numerous stops to show his display. “Your presentation was a reminder about the loss of life, the dedication and perseverance of the rescue workers and how essential it is to reflect on history.”
“The most unique thing I found was a piece of glass,” Cooney said. “You'd think with all the glass windows that were in those towers, there'd be lots of glass around, but there was hardly a trace. The burning of the buildings and the high octane gas from the planes meant it was all destroyed.”
Cooney recently had open heart surgery. Melanoma was discovered by his ear, and he needed to have lymph nodes in his neck removed. And he needs a knee replacement where the sarcoma was. Consequently, though he loved touring with his collection, he realized it was time for it to find a permanent home. He penned dozens of letters to various museums around the country, and finally received a glowing letter asking that his collection be housed at the Trolly Museum in Kingston, New York.
Cooney was thrilled.
“It's a great museum and they are going to build a new building to house a train car, a police car that was at the tragedy and other memorabilia along with my collection,” he said. For now, Cooney's exhibit is at the Trolley Museum in a temporary location and there's supposed to be a ceremony welcoming it on or around September 11.
Prior to 911, Cooney was one of the firefighters at the 1966 building fire on East 23rd Street in NYC.