From Crisis to Compassion: A 9/11 Retrospective with Constable Oswald Fudge

Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime

4.4 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, is joined by Constable Oswald Fudge to discuss the extraordinary hospitality of Gander, Newfoundland, during the 9/11/01 attacks.

Sheryl was directly involved in coordinating efforts at the Pentagon. She provides a detailed timeline of the tragic events, sharing personal concerns for her family involved in the airline industry. Together they share humorous anecdotes about toilet paper donations to touching stories of resilience and compassion. Sheryl and Oswald also discuss the transformative power of the play "Come From Away," which focuses on the events of 9/12.

Show Notes:

[0:00] Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum. Sheryl starts off by recalling where she was on the morning of 9/1/01
[0:42] Sheryl outlines her role in the aftermath of the attacks
[1:09] Timeline of the 9/11 attacks
[3:06] Sheryl recounts the fear and confusion she felt while trying to get information about her sister Charlene's flight
[7:44] Sheryl introduces good friend and guest Constable Oswald Fudge to the listeners
[9:03] The various challenges faced during the crisis, including medical emergencies, language barriers, and cultural differences
[10:37] Question: Can you tell us about that day [9/11/01] from your perspective?
[11:14] Oswald recalls receiving a personal request from Sheryl during the crisis
[13:50] “And Charlene said there was not one person in Gander that did not give and support.”
[15:30] Question: Can you give a perspective of the food to the listeners?
[17:50] Sheryl recounts how locals went above and beyond in their hospitality
[19:22] Question: What was the most extraordinary thing that you experienced during those five days?
[22:00] Oswald shares a touching story about young girls dressing up as fairies to cheer up terminally ill children
[29:03] “If you, want to do something good for somebody or, donate money, or donate some volunteer hours. But you can't out gander them.”
[32:25] The Day the World Comes Town
[34:20] Question: Is there anything else you want to be sure that you say or highlight that I haven't thought to ask?
[36:14] Come From Away
[42:21] A special thank you from Oswald
[43:03] “In true Newfie fashion, it was nutting.” -C.O.F
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Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.

You can connect and learn more about Sheryl’s work by visiting the CCIRI website https://coldcasecrimes.org

Social Links:

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was a Tuesday morning and I was sitting in the floor playing with my son Huck.
0:14.5	He was about nine months old and was really learning to pull himself up to stand and he loved to stand. Good Morning America was in the
0:23.4	background and I was half paying attention when a clip came over showing an airplane hitting one of
0:31.2	the Twin Towers. As the anchors were trying to figure out and grasp this quote accident, I was already calling the National
0:39.0	Crisis Response Team to see if they needed me. I watched a second plane hit the South Tower,
0:46.2	and at that point I called the crisis response team back and told them the Georgia team was ready
0:52.1	wherever they might need us. Half of our team eventually was sent to New York City,
0:58.0	and the other half that I was a part of was sent to the Pentagon.
1:02.0	I was the coordinator for the crisis response team at the Pentagon
1:06.0	that served the men and women of the Pentagon.
1:09.0	The first plane we would later learn was American Airlines Flight 11.
1:15.3	It hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 846.
1:20.1	16 minutes later, at 903, the World Trade Center South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175.
1:30.3	Both towers failed within an hour and 41 minutes.
1:34.3	A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon at 937, causing a partial collapse.
1:45.0	The fourth and final attack, United Airlines Flight 93, flew toward our capital, but passengers
1:54.0	retaliated and took back that aircraft and forced the hijackers to crash in a field in Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania,
2:04.1	at 10.03 a.m. These terrorist attacks killed 2,97 innocent people and injured thousands more.
2:16.8	It was the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement in history.
2:22.3	340 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers were killed.
2:28.3	As these attacks were unfolding, I immediately checked on my brother-in-law at the time who was a captain for American
2:36.4	Airlines. He was home safe. My sister Shelley, a flight attendant with American Airlines, she was
	...

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