Ties That Truly Bind
The first responder and the family of the victim; it's a 9/11 kind of story
With instincts honed over years spent working in collapsed buildings, Mike Regan eyed the wrecked innards of the Pentagon for spaces where victims might be buried. It was Sept. 13, 2001, two days after American Airlines Flight 77 had smashed through the Pentagon's west wall. Regan led an eight-man search-and-rescue team through tangled piles of smashed office equipment. Flash fires flared around them. Finally, the team reached a charred work area. As they began to lift debris, they uncovered a conference table. Then bodies. Some were still sitting in chairs.
Regan approached one of them and coaxed a wallet from the trousers. There was a driver's license that belonged to Dan Shanower, 40, of Naperville, Ill. Regan noted the info on a pad and sent the wallet out to the FBI. Then Regan and his team continued searching. Keep moving, that was the ethos of the rescue squad. Focus on the work. Don't let it become personal.
Yet when Regan and his wife, Janice, commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks next week, it will not be in Virginia, where Regan spent five days combing through the Pentagon rubble. It won't be in New York, either, even though Regan grew up in Brooklyn and lost two close friends, both firefighters, when the twin towers fell. Instead, the Regans will spend Sept. 11, 2006, in Naperville, attending a memorial service in the Chicago suburb and visiting with Dan Shanower's parents, Don and Pat. It's a connection that has grown organically out of the ashes of 9/11. "They have a lot of the same emotions we have," says Regan of the Shanowers. And while seeking solace from the rescuer, the Shanowers have reached out to him, too, exerting a steady, gravitational tug. "It's hard to say no to them," Regan confesses. "We've stayed in touch because of the type of people they are."
It's a new experience for Regan. As a member of Virginia Task Force 1, a group of Fairfax County, Va., firefighters who double as a federal search-and-rescue team, Regan has faced many traumatic scenes: the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, earthquakes in Turkey and Armenia. Until 9/11, he had never gotten to know a victim or his or her family. But once Regan's work at the Pentagon was finished, he called a firefighter from Naperville he knew, Chuck Wehrli, and said he had found a victim from Naperville. "Dan Shanower?" Wehrli interjected. The Shanowers were well-known, thanks to five active kids and a schoolteacher mom. Dan had been bright, mischievous, and popular. He had joined the Navy after college and become an intelligence officer, bringing home stories of his travels. Wehrli asked Regan if Dan's parents could call him. Despite reservations, Regan said sure.
So on a Sunday in mid-2002, the Regans' phone rang. Regan and his wife were heading out; Janice was already in the car. When Mike didn't materialize, Janice went back inside. "It's the Shanowers," Mike whispered. Haltingly, Dan's parents asked what Regan had seen at the Pentagon. There were long pauses. After an hour, the Shanowers asked a question the firefighter knew was coming: "Do you think he suffered?"
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