Rescue Helmet

Born in Riverdale, the Bronx, in 1959, John Moran served the New York Police Department for twenty-three years. Moran began his law enforcement career in the 48th precinct in the Bronx; in 1984, he was transferred to the Emergency Services Unit. After a 6-month training period, he was assigned to Emergency Service Unit Squad 2 in Harlem, became a Sergeant assigned to ESU Squad 4, and—by 2000—was ESU Platoon Commander Citywide. Throughout that time period, he saw lots of high-risk duty and little routine work.

By the summer of 2001, Moran was living in Rockland County and had married a woman who was also an NYPD officer, assigned to the mounted unit. On the morning of September 11, 2001, they had just started their vacation in Atlantic City, staying with relatives. The couple was riding their bikes on the boardwalk when they were told a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Assuming it was an accident, they biked to a breakfast spot, where they learned about the second hijacked plane. They pedaled home and decided to return to the city. What was normally a short drive of a few hours, became a 13-hour journey slowed by closed roads, roadblocks and heavy traffic.  

The following morning, Moran reported first to his workplace at ESU 4 for his uniform and vehicle and arrived at Ground Zero. Moran was assigned to serve as Platoon Commander for the Night Shift at Ground Zero, from 7:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. His responsibilities included search and rescue, as well as tactical protection for the World Trade Center site, where there was concern about a possible secondary terrorist attack targeted at responders.

A few weeks later, Moran was working on the pile at Ground Zero, attempting to peer into a void to determine whether it was safe to enter in search of survivors and victims. Unable to fit his head into the void, he removed his hard hat, placed it on a small heap of debris, and resumed looking into the void. Vibrations from a grappler working nearby shook the debris and caused the hard hat to roll away. When Moran pulled his head out of the void, the hard hat was not where he had left it. Looking around, he found it under a new pile of steel. The hard hat had been crushed, exposing its inner protective material. Upon noticing its condition, Moran recalled saying, “I’m glad my head wasn’t attached to it.” With NYPD hard hats temporarily unavailable, he procured a new hard hat from FEMA and wore it through the remainder of his time at Ground Zero. Moran saved the original hard hat as a memento of his time at Ground Zero. He continued to work at the site until June 9, 2002.