Highlighting a Father Mychal Judge Update

An update to Father Mychal Judge: Icon in a Can and Who Gets The Last Laugh Now? about the disposition of Father Mychal Judge's body, which was abandoned in the gutter on Vesey Street after the hero rescuers who were photographed carrying his corpse in a chair dumped it there.

(See: Father Mike: What Really Happened by Neil Graves, Courtesy The New York Post, reposted at Firehouse.com on 9/9/02, where it is still available.[On edit: Fuck Firehouse.com. For now, find it at FallenBrothers.com])

In the World Trade Center Task Force Interview of Assistant Commissioner Stephen Gregory linked to in the New York Times, Gregory informs us the what happened next:

"As we were passing St. Peter's Church, the captain of Ladder 102 and the lieutenant from Ladder 102 were coming out of the church and they informed me that they had Father Judge's body inside the church. They had brought it from wherever they recovered it into St. Peter's Church. At that point in time Tom McGonigle from the Field Com and myself went into the church. We went up to the altar. They had Father Judge on the altar. He was wrapped in sheets, some type of white sheeting, and they had him laying on the altar. We knelt down. We said a prayer."

The New York Times published a link to the transcript of the World Trade Center Task Force interview with a Lieutenant Frank Nolan of Ladder 102---he mentions finding two civilian bodies, but says nothing about Father Judge. Nolan mentions a Lieutenant Ciaravino who responded to the scene with him, but Ciaravino is not interviewed. The captain of Ladder 102 isn't mentioned, but he may be John P. O'Connell.

After a 26-year career with the New York City Fire Department, O'Connell went to work for Collapse Rescue Systems, Inc., as an instructor. His page at CRS Inc.'s web site says he "served in Engine 257 Canarsie, Brooklyn for one year and Hook & Ladder 102 in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for 7 years," without specifying where he was stationed on 9/11/01. But it says he was "in charge of all underground and confined space penetrations at the 9-11 WTC incident," and was "the technical advisor to the incident commander at the World Trade Center collapse," so that may rank as Captain of Ladder 102.

So many of the fire fighters associated with Father Judge did not give testimony to the World Trade Center Task Force project: Zachary Vause of Engine Co. 21 , Christian Waugh of Ladder Co. 5, Lieutenant Ciaravino of Ladder 102, Captain John P. O'Connell of Ladder 102.