Editor's note: This account was written by Sharon Kirby Mottola, NYPD (Ret.), and reaches the Department through Officer Glick's collection of September 11 stories from the NYPD family. Her words run below exactly as she wrote them. The watch is a black Timex quartz with military time printed inside the dial, a graduation gift from her mother in June 1986. She still has it; it is the one in the photographs, scratches and all.
As any member of the NYPD knows, a watch is part of our uniform. My watch was a black Timex that along with the numerals had military time under each number. It was a gift from my Mom when I graduated the Police Academy, June of 1986. It was kind of a joke because I didn't catch on at first to military time, so she felt this would help.
September 11th was such a beautiful day. I was assigned to Red Hook Court, Brooklyn, due to being on medical restricted duty after a line of duty injury. I was outside the court when one of the Assistant District Attorneys passed me and said "Hey, did you hear a plane hit the WTC?" I told him I hadn't, and he replied that it could have been pilot error. He then went into the court, I looked at my watch, and it was 0853.
I went inside the police-only area and the phones were ringing off the hook. Some of my coworkers went up to the roof to see what happened. We still weren't calling it a terror attack yet, but things changed when one of the officers came down the stairs. My watch said 0905. I can never forget the look on his face, pure white, shocked at what he had just seen. He yelled "another plane hit the other tower, it's terrorists!" Then, the news came that there was another plane that hit the Pentagon. I was then told to notify the sitting Judge, and to no surprise, he was as shocked as we were. Court was closed soon after.
I do remember calling my husband, also a member of the department, and my Mom, to let them know I was ok and what we knew. I went to the roof and saw the black plumes of smoke, something I'll never forget. Soon after we got word that we were going to be going to the Towers. Then, the First Tower fell. At this point I didn't look at my watch, the shock made time, as the cliché says, stand still.
We got transport and stopped at a grocery store on Atlantic Avenue. We didn't know how long we would be there. By this time the second tower had fallen and the 4th plane had crashed in Shanksville, thanks to heroes onboard that flight. We continued traveling into Manhattan and looking down the streets looking toward where the towers should be, all you saw was white smoke and papers in the air.
Once at the site, we got our orders at the makeshift Command Center. Our post, one of the piers on the West Side. They were planning on making it a temporary morgue. Sections for every possibility, placing bodies into categories such as Civilian, Police and Fire casualties. There was even a place for the unknown, remains that were just parts. I kinda got sick. But we were there to take fingerprints and tag the bodies... however nothing came. We never received bodies, because there really weren't many bodies to be found. I remember sitting on a ledge seeing guys from The Barrier Detail coming in. They were covered head to toe in white dust. They said it didn't look like there were any survivors and hardly any remains. I looked at my watch, 1510, and realized I had a doctor's appointment. I then realized there was no phone service. I kept looking at my watch all afternoon, feeling useless.
We left Manhattan going back to Brooklyn and as we passed Tillary Street, I saw my husband directing traffic with his squad. I didn't see him again till the evening of September 12th, his birthday, but only for a few moments.
After 9-11 we went to 12-hour-tours and I requested to come off restricted duty to help. When I did, I volunteered for any place they needed help. Ground Zero, The Morgue and Staten Island landfill. Pictured with this article are photos of me working the landfill, looking for evidence or human remains. During this time, I looked at my black Timex with the military time so often, as if to document my time there. After I retired, I never wore a watch again. My time was finished.
Sharon Kirby Mottola NYPD (Ret.)