A world unkind

When Pat Gallagher and his men finally got out of the dark, unstable and dust-filled tunnel, it looked like a nuclear strike had smashed into his city.

“We faced New York City and all you saw was dust and papers,” he said. “I remember papers falling from the sky, papers that were probably important and on somebody’s desk a short while ago.”

The day, of course, was Sept. 11, 2001. Las Cruces Police Department’s (LCPD) retired chief Gallagher was with the New York Police Department. He was working as an investigator with internal affairs, supervising a group of officers at the time.

“We were deployed to a mobilization point in Manhattan and saw the second tower fall from the highway,” Gallagher said. “We had a perfect view. We got to the mouth of tunnel and they told us we are not sure of the structural integrity of the tunnel and they handed us those crappy masks like the ones we have now. There was no electricity. Even emergency lights were useless because there was so much dust.”

What they saw was hard to believe, he said, because it started out as such a beautiful day, clear and warm. They went into the dust, told it was safe, to do their jobs.

“I am still losing friends who were breathing in the dust,” he said. “Every time I see dust on my car, all I think of is the dust from there. Some of it might have contained human remains.”

Gallagher was assigned to a temporary command at Harlem Hospital to identify people as they got there.

“And we waited for the injured to come,” he said. “Fifteen hours later, we were dismissed, because the injured never came – they were all dead.”

Those with injuries were few enough that they were treated at facilities closer to Ground Zero.

Admitting the event contributed to his decision to move to New Mexico after retiring from NYPD, Gallagher said he was a first responder in 1993 for the first World Trade Center terrorist attack and “wasn’t interested in sticking around for them to try to kill me a third time.”

He said he is disappointed that Patriot Day ceremonies have been postponed in Las Cruces for 2020 due to the COVID-situation, although he knows it is important to keep people safe. He said the people here are great and the community is supportive of its law enforcement but “this year especially it would be good to give [law enforcement] a pat on the back.”

“These days, it would have been nice to have [the ceremony] to remind people of the importance of law enforcement,” he said. “Speaking as a veteran of law enforcement, it’s disheartening that people have forgotten. We are human.”