Once back on the ground, they began to make their way along the West Street overpass, headed toward an emergency rescue station. All at once, the North Tower began to collapse above them. (It went down at 10:28 a.m.) Tabeek’s later notes make the horror of this moment starkly clear:

As Lt. Andy and I walked onto the [enclosed] overpass I heard loud rumbling and whistling. I said, “Andy, we are going to be hit by debris; come stand by me.” Then Andy said that he would break the glass and get out, but I said that it was plated. Then as Andy just got to my right side, all hell broke loose; the wind and the fire, and the debris was falling. One minute Andy was there and then the next he was gone. It felt like an eternity that the debris just kept coming down, and then a blast of fire that was like I was being baked in the hot sun, the left side of my face and hand were burned.

The debris was up to my shoulder blades then there was dead silence you could here a pin drop. I turned the flashlight on but couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. Next I started to dig myself out and look for Andy. I kept saying I got to get to Andy. I kept calling for him. I was gasping for air and coughing. I used the collar of my suit jacket as a filter to breathe through. Then I heard the whistle from Andy’s Scott Air Pack but still could not find him in the dark. I tried to search for him by the light of the fire. I was yelling his name over and over. “Tell me where you are so I can get to you.” Then I heard some other guys yelling, “We are lost and we are trapped!” I called back to them: “I will get you; stay where you are.”

Blinded by smoke and dust, and covered with cuts and abrasions, Tabeek was staggering through the North Tower’s pitch-dark basement area full of rubble, where he found six Port Authority and New York City policemen wandering around in the darkness and screaming for help. After leading them to safety and finally emerging back into the daylight, he eventually found himself at a medical emergency station where he was treated for the wounds that covered his entire body, and for the smoke inhalation that has left him with a deep, wracking cough to this day. (He continues to take daily medicine for his cough and recurring sinus problems as well as for post-traumatic stress syndrome.)

A Survivor's Tale

Tabeek survived. But his loyal comrade during the North Tower evacuation didn’t; Desperito’s body was found later in the North Tower wreckage. It was after midnight before George Tabeek finally walked back into the arms of his wife and children in Brooklyn. But by 10 the next morning, he was back at the site that would become known as Ground Zero, beginning the first of many 12-hour days spent digging through the ruins of the World Trade Center for survivors. During several of those painful and exhausting excavations, Tabeek’s son, George III, a New York City policeman, worked next to him. In the end, the two of them worked for several hundred hours as unpaid volunteers who were hoping and praying to find survivors.

Soon after the tragedy of 9/11, Tabeek once again found himself working on security issues for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Under the supervision of PA Inspector General Robert Van Etten, he worked for months at a time with the agency’s facility management and public safety units to prepare threat assessments that were designed to help prevent future attacks of the kind that had destroyed the WTC. Aided by his staff, Tabeek spent long hours working on terrorism-prevention programs for New York City-area airports, ports, tunnels and bridges, along with the Port Authority’s PATH transit system and its New York City bus terminal. He also led an extensive effort to assemble threat assessments for various Port Authority offices in New York and New Jersey, including the executive office in Manhattan.

But George Tabeek hasn’t been the same since 9/11. Shattered by the loss of Desperito and dozens of close friends and colleagues, he struggled along for a couple of years in his job, then retired in 2004. Today you will often find him in his small Brooklyn garage, tinkering with one of the antique cars he collects in order to shield his mind from the memories of that dreadful day.

He is an authentic American hero.

Ask him what it all means — almost seven years after the blood, the smoke, the horror and the sublime heroism out of which so many human beings risked their lives for others — and Tabeek will tell you this much:

“I wasn’t a very good Catholic before 9/11; but now I go to church every Sunday. I do believe in Providence, and maybe the reason God saved me that horrible day was to help save other lives, including those of my staff on the 22nd floor and also that group of six police officers after Tower No. 1 fell.

“I do think everything is laid out for us and God basically says: ‘This is when I want you, and this is what you’re going to do before that.’

“I also am privileged to have known and am honored to have worked with the following nonuniformed staff and friends who perished while putting the needs of others first and risking their own lives to save thousands within the World Trade Center complex that day: Douglas Karpiloff, Ronald Hoerner, Gene Raggio, Edward Calderon, Edward Strauss, Frank De Martini, John Fisher, Kenneth Grouzalis, Robert Lynch, Joseph Amatuccio, James Barbella, David Ortiz, Peter Negron, Francis Riccardelli, Anthony Savas, Pablo Ortiz, John White, Larry Boisseau, William Wren, Richard Fitzsimons, Denny Conley, Esmerlin Salcedo, Rick Riscola, John O’Neill, John Griffin, Jim Corrigan and Frank Varriano.

“And I’ll tell you one other thing. I thank God every minute for every breath I take, and for saving me, for the sake of my family.”

The Fairleigh Dickinson University community was deeply saddened by the events of 9/11, with many of our alumni, faculty, staff and friends directly and indirectly affected by the events of that day. FDU Magazine has created a blog for readers to share their stories or pay tribute to the members of the FDU community who were lost on September 11. Go to myfdu.net/blog/fdumagazine.

FDU Magazine Home | Table of Contents | FDU Home | MyFDU.net | Blog About It

©Copyright 2008 Fairleigh Dickinson University. All rights reserved.

For a print copy of FDU Magazine, featuring this and other stories, contact Rebecca Maxon, editor,
201-692-7024 or maxon@fdu.edu.