QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, September 15, 2016 Page 14
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Always missed but never forgotten Bikers, colleagues gather to honor volunteer EMT Richard Pearlman by Mark Lord Chronicle Contributor
As a little boy, Howard Beach resident Richard Pearlman used to ride his tricycle around the neighborhood, setting off its siren for all to hear. “He always had a calling to help people,” said his mother, Dorie. By the time he turned 15, the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps headquarters on Woodhaven Boulevard had become his home away from home, putting his talents to good use. But it was Pearlman’s instincts that ultimately cost him his life when, at the age of 18, the law office messenger out on an errand in Lower Manhattan heard an allhands-on-deck call and headed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The last time anyone saw Pearlman alive, he was helping a bloodied woman out of the skyscraper before going back into the burning building, which would soon collapse on top of him. Marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, the FHVAC teamed up with the Punishers Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club to sponsor the “Run for Richie,” a motorcycle ride from Resorts World Casino to One World Trade Center and back to Forest Hills last Saturday.
Hundreds of motorcyclists ride down Woodhaven Boulevard to honor Richard Pearlman, the Howard Beach resident and Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps member who died trying to PHOTO BY MARK LORD save people at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The event was the brainchild of Paul “PJ” Marcel, president of the motorcycle group and event coordinator for the corps, who wanted to “show respect and homage to the family” who are still actively involved with the volunteer organization. Marcel imagined “something over the
top” to honor Pearlman, whom he knew as a friend from the neighborhood and who was himself a motorcycle buff. “This is PJ’s way to honor Richie. It means a lot to us,” said Pearlman’s mother, who was joined at the ceremony by her husband and other members of the family.
And honor him they did, with an estimated 1,200 bikers from as far away as California and Florida participating in the run. FHVAC president Alan Wolfe, who planned the event with Marcel, remembered Pearlman as “an eager kid” who “loved coming down here.” “He must have really liked this place,” Wolfe said of Pearlman’s commute from Howard Beach to Forest Hills and back. “We remember Richie because he was our member, but we remember everyone who was lost.” Longtime volunteer Daniel Exler, wearing a shirt with a shoulder patch dedicated to Pearlman, recalled that the young man “wanted to be an EMT more than anything.” “He knew what he had to do when the plane hit that tower,” Exler said. “The heart and soul Richie had inspires us to do what we do.” Lifetime corps member Michael Rizzo, who delivered the invocation, didn’t know Pearlman well but admitted, “It’s still not easy to accept.” For Pearlman’s mother, the loss is tinged with further bitterness. “It’s disappointing to me how my government’s Justice Department didn’t do justice by me and my family,” she said, noting they continued on page 21
9/11 tribute to the living at Vaughn College hosts roundtable of those who responded to attacks on the ground by Michael Gannon
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Editor
On Sept. 11, 2001, Lt. Dan Carbonaro of the Port Authority Police Department led a contingent of officers from their posts at Kennedy Airport to the World Trade Center after the Twin Towers were struck by hijacked aircraft. “We arrived just as Tower 2 began coming down,” Carbonaro said to a crowd at Vaughn College in East Elmhurst on Sept. 8. “I gave one order — ‘Run!’” he said. Carbonaro, a former Jackson Heights resident, was among the guests last Thursday as Vaughn hosted those in the aviation industry and the military whose lives were impacted by the 9/11 attacks. Some speakers were flight attendants and managers who had placed friends and colleagues on the doomed aircraft. Vaughn College, which caters to those seeking careers in aviation and aviation technology, was a natural host for the conference on resiliency among people who have suffered catastrophic loss, according to Tom Murphy, who served as a moderator.
“Resiliency means not moving on, but moving forward,” said Murphy, a professor at Fordham University in the Bronx. He also is the founder Edge4Vets, a veterans assistance group, and the author of “Reclaiming the Sky: 9/11 and the Untold Stor y of the Men and Wome n W ho Ke pt A me r ica Flying.” “People in the aviation industry suffered losses on 9/11,” Murphy said. “Some in the military joined up because of 9/11. Many people in aviation and the military came to the same place from different directions.” Panelist Debbie Roland, an American Airlines flight attendant, and Tony Knisley, American’s fight services manager at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, put friends and colleagues on Flight 77, which eventually struck the Pentagon. United Airlines flight attendant Eileen Ammiano trained the crew for Flight 93 out of Newark, NJ, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania as passengers attacked the hijackers to take the plane back. Sudahee Henriquez, now a psychotherapist, was a flight attendant
on JetBlue that day, with a problem no one could have forseen, and one that required absolute calm and cool. “We were the first airline to have televisions,” she said. “Passengers were watching the news. We didn’t know what was happening, but we had to keep reassuring them.” Q ueens nat ive Ma r y McKenna, an American Airlines f light attendant, lost friends on 9/11, and again t wo mont h s lat e r whe n American Airlines Flight 587 came down in the Rockaways, killing 265 people Queens native and flight attendant Mary McKenna, right, speaks of coping on and when the plane lost its verti- after 9/11 in a conference last week at Vaughn College with flight attendant trainer cal stabilizer. Eileen Ammiano, left, flight services manager Toni Knisley and flight attendant “I knew [Flight 587] Capt. Debbie Roland. PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON Edward States; I knew co“Dirt therapy,” one said. pilot Sten Molin,” McKenna said. get to work.” They also took teddy bears Airline employees responded “I must have lost 25 friends.” Moving forward for Carbona- gradually, given time to ref lect that have been sent by the public ro, now retired, and his men took on just the right way to move to a children’s shelter where slain flight attendant Michelle Heidenforward. place instantly. Among the things American berger long had volunteered. “We were buried — me includThey eventually created a fully ed,” he said. “Eight of us went Airlines employees did was a out. Four came back. The way we memorial garden to flight atten- stocked recreation room for the moved forward was literally to dants Ken and Jennifer Lewis in ch ild ren, nam i ng it for thei r Q friend. get up and dust ourselves off and their favorite park in Virginia.