View full sizeSgt. Wayne Mockler of the Parma Heights Police Department got a tattoo with the torch of the Statue of Liberty with the number of hours (113) he spent volunteering In New York City on perimeter control after the 9/11 attacks. PARMA HEIGHTS --
When it came time for the Parma Heights Police Department to dispatch personnel to assist the NYPD after the 9/11 attacks, four names were literally pulled out of a hat.
Sgt. Wayne Mockler, Sgt. Bernie Walls, Detective Keith Madison and Capt. Charlie Darnell were picked to go to New York City. Madison and Darnell have since retired from the Parma Heights police force, but Mockler and Walls are still serving the residents of Parma Heights.
“It was an honor (to go to New York),” Walls said. “Every guy on the force wanted to go.”
Three weeks after the attacks, the four officers drove to New York. Mockler, who was in charge of the western region of the Southwest Enforcement Bureau at the time, had been involved with the preparations that occurred immediately following the attacks. Burke Lakefront Airport was to be a base to receive the injured and wounded from the twin towers.
When the four officers got to New York, they were not prepared for the devastation that they saw. Since ground zero had been sealed off for weeks already, they were kept on the periphery of the destruction, and Mockler, for one, was humbled by the task at hand.
The Parma Heights officers were given the assignment to guard the 13 tractor-trailers that had become the temporary morgue for body parts recovered from the rubble.
“It was the most gut-wrenching thing I’ve had to do in my whole career,” Mockler said.
When a police officer’s or firefighter’s remains were brought in, they would form a line and offer a hand salute. “It was heartbreaking,” Mockler said.
To a man, the four officers were amazed at the resiliency of every New Yorker they met — from police personnel to medical examiners to residents.
“Parma Heights?” they would ask, spotting the patch on their uniforms, and quickly say, “Thanks for coming.”
“I said it then,” Mockler said, “and I’ll say it again. They picked the wrong city to mess with. Those are the toughest people I’ve ever met, but they were also the kindest and most appreciative people I’ve ever met.”
Neither Walls and Mockler could get over how appreciative New York City people were to them. Back home, it was the same — at least for a while.
“That was the most horrendous event ever,” Mockler said. “But I think it made people wake up and take a different view of (police officers). Now, unfortunately, it’s forgotten, but with the 10th anniversary of the attack, they’ll remember it again. For that brief moment, at least in my career, people started to appreciate what we’re all about.”
Although Mockler said that he has no desire to ever go back to New York City, he was inspired by the city’s skyline one day when the four officers were walking near the Statue of Liberty.
“I looked at the skyline and where the towers had been,” Mockler said. “Then I looked at the Statue of Liberty in the harbor. It was so cool. Inspiring. It was like, ‘You guys can do that horrible thing, but the symbol of our freedom is still standing.’
“I couldn’t have put it into words,” Mockler said. “That’s what inspired me to get a tattoo of the torch of the Statue of Liberty with the number of hours I spent there.”