Our conversation began with ease and lasted for what may have been close to an hour.  I vividly heard the details of that terrible day of September 11 in the life of a police officer stationed in Queens.  His unit had heard the call of the planes that had crashed into the World Trade Center.  He and his men jumped in a van, and with Howard, my police officer, driving, they sped to lower Manhattan.  What would normally have taken 30 minutes, ended in a 15 or 20 minute ride.  Traffic and a crowd of New Yorkers frantically running from the WTC interfered and kept Howard and his unit from pressing close to the area.  As the officers abandoned the van to proceed to their destination, traveling on foot, they saw the first tower crumble to the ground.  Stunned, and in a state of disbelief,. these men continued their effort to approach the WTC and begin the process of rescuing people.