UNITED STATES ARMY

CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY

INTERVIEW OF

LTC FRANK CANDIANO

BN COMMANDER

126-ORH-I-047

NEIT-126-047

CONDUCTED BY

MAJ PAUL LANDRY

126th Military History Detachment

AT

Jamaica Armory, New York, New York

October 9, 2001

TAPE TRANSCRIPTION
2

1 P R O C E E D I N G S

2 MAJ LANDRY: MAJ Paul Landry, 126th Military 

3 History Detachment. Today is the 9th of October, 2001. 

4 The time is 1506, conducting and oral history 

5 interview at the Jamaica Armory in Jamaica, New York.

6 Sir, if you wouldn't mind, would you please state 

7 your full name for the record and spell your last name 

8 please?

9 LTC CANDIANO: LTC Frank A. Candiano, 

10 C-a-n-d-i-a-n-o, Commander of 1st Battalion 258th Field 

11 Artillery.

12 MAJ LANDRY: Sir, is this your full-time 

13 employment?

14 LTC CANDIANO: Yes, I'm an AGR officer.

15 MAJ LANDRY: And how long have you been the 

16 commander in this organization?

17 LTC CANDIANO: I've been the commander of the 258 

18 approximately two years. 

19 MAJ LANDRY: What organizations make up the 258 

20 Field Artillery?

21 LTC CANDIANO: The following batteries are part of 
3

1 the 258 headquarters, Headquarters Battery; Battery A 

2 and Service Battery located in the Jamaica Armory; B 

3 Battery located in the Bronx Armory, Kingsbridge; and 

4 my C Battery is located in Brooklyn in Bedford Avenue.

5 MAJ LANDRY: Taking us back to the incidents of 

6 September 11, what were you doing prior to your 

7 notification of the incident?

8 LTC CANDIANO: Well, at about 8:30 September 11 I 

9 was looking over some notes to sit down and have a 

10 briefing with commanders at a staff meeting, a 

11 commanders staff meeting. 

12 At approximately 9:00 I threw on the television 

13 and there was information flashing all over the place 

14 about a plane hitting a tower. And no one knew if it 

15 was just an accident, a plane out of control. 

16 But by about 9:10 -- I'm looking at my notes here 

17 -- about 9:10 we went to the roof of the Armory and you 

18 can see clearly looking towards the west you can see 

19 the two towers of the World Trade Center from the top 

20 of the building here. 

21 At that point in time we saw one tower on fire and 
4

1 you could see the smoke coming out of the building, the 

2 plumes of smoke. And shortly thereafter you see a 

3 flash in the distance, the second building was hit. 

4 And we came back downstairs and at that point in time 

5 the television said that a second plane hit the tower 

6 and it wasn't a random act. 

7 So right there we knew that it had to be a 

8 terrorist activity. At that point in time, you know, I 

9 got all the full-timers together in this building and 

10 contacted the full-timers in the other two buildings 

11 and advised them to say that basically based on this 

12 state of affairs there is going to be some sort of a 

13 mobilization or something's going to happen. "What I 

14 want you to do is get your vehicles topped off, lined 

15 up, pull out a full compliment of MREs, whatever we 

16 have supply-wise that might be needed for an emergency 

17 operation and stand by for further orders." 

18 So with that two outlying batteries, B and C, went 

19 ahead and started to do that. And here in Jamaica the 

20 full-timers started topping off the vehicles, lining 

21 them up. We had a couple of GSA buses which were also 
5

1 prepped and ready to go. We also had C Company of the 

2 105th Infantry in this building. 

3 And I advised those individuals in C Company that 

4 if this turns out to be a plan where a Y2K plan is 

5 implemented that we had on file they would be OPCON'd 

6 to the 258 and prepared and moved because with that 

7 plan I'm the taskforce commander of Queens. 

8 And with that premise we went ahead and started to 

9 have equipment moved, lined up and prepped, had radios 

10 installed in all the HMMWVs, do a combo check and make 

11 sure that if somebody calls us we're lined up and ready 

12 to get out of the building. 

13 At about I believe it was 10:00 I contacted all my 

14 battery commanders off the alert rosters and in some 

15 cases battery commanders were calling me. And I said, 

16 "You know, so far as I know, and it's being broadcast 

17 that it is a terrorist activity, a terrorist event, we 

18 need to react accordingly." 

19 And commanders were saying, "You know, give me the 

20 green light, I'll come in." And I said, "Just stand by 

21 and we'll see what happens." In some cases I did tell 
6

1 commanders to come in ahead of time. 

2 And what I figured was basically that in the event 

3 this is something where we're not going to, you know, 

4 we'll stand down and they're not required to have us, I 

5 would just pseudo those individuals that came in in 

6 preparation of the upcoming drill weekend we were 

7 supposed to have. 

8 By about 1300 hours on the 11th according to my 

9 notes I had approximately 130 soldiers ready to go on 

10 the drill floor with equipment. And I had contacted 

11 troop command serving as our higher. 

12 Earlier in the day I did contact 3rd Brigade and 

13 3rd Brigade said that basically we'd be referred to 

14 Troop Command with the configuration as a down state 

15 entity as a higher headquarters. I gave an equipment 

16 status report, what I have up, what I have down, what's 

17 available for mission essential equipment. And I 

18 proceeded to let them know that the equipment is lined 

19 up. 

20 I let them know what we have as far as MREs 

21 loaded, what equipment I had available as far as the 
7

1 soldiers' TA-50 issues and some concerns that I had 

2 that I didn't have quite available to me that I needed 

3 to have. They all took down the information and we 

4 were playing phone tag back and forth. 

5 And then we had several problems as far as getting 

6 outside lines because by that time New York City phone 

7 systems were in a state of flux with everybody trying 

8 to call their brother just to get out of the city. 

9 By about 1530 hours on the 11th I had 

10 approximately 330 soldiers ready to go. I'd been in 

11 contact with the commander of the 105th Infantry who 

12 had called me that he was basically at Ground Zero 

13 because he works in New York City as an attorney with 

14 ADA, and he was giving me SITREPs as to what was going 

15 on. 

16 And, you know, I was referring him, taking down 

17 the information and also referring him to at that time 

18 53rd Troop Command to say, "Listen, you know, you're 

19 the eyes and ears on the ground right now. Contact 

20 Troop Command of the G-3 and let them know 

21 operationally what's going on. This way they can feed 
8

1 the data up to the JOC at state headquarters." 

2 By 1600 I requested information regarding a weapon 

3 status from the G-3 at Troop Command to say if this is 

4 a terrorist activity I need to draw my weapons. I need 

5 to be prepped. Leave weapons on the truck. 

6 And I asked what the rules of engagement were, 

7 "Are there rules of engagement established? What are 

8 we going to do? Are we going to assist the PD? Are we 

9 going to do a security mission? Are we going to do a 

10 mission for possible looting? Are we going to do a 

11 mission where we're going to do patrolling? Just give 

12 me the particulars and we can start to plan it." 

13 At that point in time they basically said that 

14 there is no mission for us to handle weapons going into 

15 the city. They don't think that that's going to be 

16 necessary. And I raised my concerns as a battalion 

17 commander of combat arms battalion to say, "Well, if 

18 I'm going into a hostile area, at least let me have the 

19 opportunity to take that equipment in." 

20 And I was told that I couldn't take it in. So by 

21 1630 that day lines were pretty well shot. We couldn't 
9

1 call out, and we were having problems even with the fax 

2 capability to try to pass stuff back and forth or e3 mail. 

4 By 1700 hours that day I requested to enter the 

5 city and I was told to stay in place and stand by from 

6 the Troop Command. At 1715 I contacted 3rd Brigade and 

7 the 42nd ID and requested updates and got some updates 

8 from the higher as well. 

9 And I requested that I had the troops ready to go 

10 and I wanted to enter the city, at least stage myself 

11 somewhere in one of the armories as a prep. You know, 

12 this way it's a jump-off point and we're at least 

13 closer to where we need to be. 

14 By about 1800 I had two GSA buses on the floor 

15 ready to go that we take care of for maintenance 

16 purposes and storage. I knew that with the amount of 

17 troops that I had on the drill floor with the organic 

18 transportation that I had because, you know, being in 

19 Artillery Battalion you don't have a lot of needs for 

20 HMMWVs all over the place because everybody moves 

21 around in the M10985s. 
10

1 We had contacted the New York City Transit 

2 Authority, the bus companies, and I basically said 

3 that, "You know, I need to move troops from here to New 

4 York City." Would they be able to assist us? "No 

5 questions asked. Give us a time and a location." 

6 And within a matter of maybe 30 minutes there were 

7 four New York City Transit buses sitting outside the 

8 armory waiting to transport the soldiers from the 258th 

9 and the 105th into Manhattan. 

10 By about approximately 1830 hours I contacted 

11 Troop Command again and I said that we're, you know, 

12 we're ready to go into the city. If something doesn't 

13 happen soon I'm going to lose soldiers. And I had to 

14 clarify that because of the simple fact that some of 

15 our make up of soldiers here in the inner-city area are 

16 transit workers, are firemen or policemen, emergency 

17 services. 

18 They too were being contacted to get into the city 

19 one way or the other. And for the most part at that 

20 point in time Troop Command, you know, the G3 said, 

21 "Okay, go." By 1900 we had some elements of the 258 
11

1 and military vehicles moving into New York City to go 

2 to the 69th Armory at 26th and Lex. 

3 At approximately 2030 hours the main body arrived 

4 at the 69th Armory. I met with the battalion 

5 commander, COL Slack, of the 69th to discuss what he 

6 had picked up G-2'ing in New York City because he had 

7 been there during the course of the day. 

8 And at that time I asked him to have his staff 

9 interact with my staff, have a consolidated briefing as 

10 to what the scenario was, what was going on and to the 

11 best of our knowledge were there any rules of 

12 engagement from the PD on the ground right there as far 

13 as what they were looking for. 

14 We had broken communications with Troop Command 

15 and it kind of made life a little tough for us at the 

16 time. By about 2100 hours when the briefings were 

17 completed, we had no contact with Troop Command because 

18 of the telephone lines being jammed up. 3rd Battalion 

19 commander from the 3rd Brigade that and worked together 

20 is COL Costigliola (phonetic) from the 101 Camp. 

21 COL Slack and I were in his office discussing what 
12

1 we need to do with the rules of engagement. And we had 

2 COL Costigliola on the speakerphone. And based on the 

3 fact that he was still putting people into place as far 

4 as getting them mobilized and the 69th was doing the 

5 same, I had 300-plus soldiers ready to go. 

6 I told both battalion commanders, "Then what I'll 

7 do is I'll hit the city first. I'll secure whatever 

8 needs to be secured. And based on what we're doing and 

9 how we're doing it, we'll do a battlefield hand-off at 

10 first light. But at least there's a presence there 

11 that night." 

12 And prior to that going on what I did was I 

13 dispatched a liaison based on what COL Slack told me 

14 the NYPD set up a command post. I dispatched a 

15 liaison, a COL Rivera, who was working with me from 

16 Selective Service, out to coordinate with the NYPD, 

17 Chief Howell. 

18 By the time I got on site with the troops out to 

19 the command post we knew what the perimeter was going 

20 to be, what they were looking for. And we were only at 

21 the command post maybe ten minutes before we actually 
13

1 moved out to secure the area. 

2 And basically what I did was I asked the chief to 

3 say, "Okay, we'll hear and we'll support you. We got 

4 the area originally from Chamber Street all the way 

5 south to Battery Park to secure and from side to side 

6 which was West Side Highway in West Side to South 

7 Street, which is a very large significant area as far a 

8 what had to be secured. 

9 A lot of that area was blacked out. There was a 

10 lot of chaos, confusion going on. There was a lot of 

11 debris all over the place. The smell in the air was 

12 horrible as far as what was out there. 

13 But what I asked them to do is to help facilitate 

14 his needs with our people. I asked them to take a 

15 couple of police department vans with drivers that knew 

16 the area that we were looking to secure to actually go 

17 out and I sent my battery commanders out in the police 

18 department vehicles so we knew by that time what zones 

19 each battery commander was going to have and what 

20 sectors they were going to be responsible for so they 

21 can G-2 the area and then know where to pre-position 
14

1 their troops. 

2 I used MAJ Cool to coordinate mapping of the areas 

3 that we're going to work with. I coordinated with the 

4 chief at that time to say, "Okay, this is what we'll 

5 do. This is how we'll do it. Where do you want my 

6 people in conjunction with your people and what 

7 assistance can we give you?" At that time it was very 

8 smooth transition. 

9 At the same token I was able to contact COL Slack 

10 to relay messages back to him that this is what's going 

11 on, that's what's going on. This way everybody was on 

12 the same sheet of music as to what to expect by first 

13 light. 

14 We had made arrangements and we all agreed, all 

15 three battalion commanders, prior to that I will stand 

16 my post during the night and we'll do a battlefield 

17 handoff where my troops will brief your troops. I will 

18 brief both battalion commanders at first light or at 08 

19 when we agree to do the handoff. As far as what 

20 significant activities took place during the night, 

21 what are the hot spots, what areas are there to be 
15

1 concerned with and develop that relationship as far as 

2 their handoff goes. That worked out well. 

3 We did that for several days before we had 

4 additional troops and support in there. Eventually 

5 what had happened is we established communications with 

6 53rd Troop Command and the 107th Corps Support Group 

7 because once the following day or two days into this 

8 scenario it developed that 107th Group actually became 

9 our higher command and control. 

10 At about 2100 as I discussed, with no contact with 

11 the higher headquarters and looking at my notes here 

12 battalion commanders of the 69th and 101 cabin, the 

13 258, coordinated efforts to establish who was going in 

14 first based on strength posture and readiness of the 

15 258. I assumed responsibility to be the first 

16 battalion to go in and secure the perimeter as a 

17 battalion. 

18 It's important to note that the 69th also had 

19 assets in there already, you know, limited assets and 

20 resources, small groups of guys working. In some cases 

21 people were working individually at Ground Zero moving 
16

1 debris. 

2 The 101 CAB had sent in some elements of a medical 

3 platoon to establish a morgue and work with the city 

4 officials there. The 105th Infantry had some folks 

5 already on site. And during that night the 105th 

6 Infantry broke off from us even though they were OPCON 

7 to us. I don't know where they had gotten some 

8 additional guidance, but they responded and went off on 

9 their own area to secure as far as their missions go. 

10 At 2115 I coordinated with the commander of the 

11 69th to basically say if I get into trouble and 

12 something goes on as far as terrorist activity because 

13 we've already been told that we couldn't take weapons 

14 in, I wanted that flexibility from him that I could 

15 draw 300 weapons real quick if I needed to in case 

16 things got dicey and hot. 

17 He agreed that we'll be able to do that in the 

18 event that there was some sort of hostile fire, and the 

19 PD was quite surprised that we went in without weapons. 

20 I guess they were looking for that kind of support. 

21 But, you know, the guidance from higher was go in empty 
17

1 handed. I don't ask to question things. 

2 But I had a pucker factor of 12 going in there 

3 only for the simple fact that I was putting my soldiers 

4 somewhat in harm's way not knowing what was going on, 

5 not knowing what I was up against going into that area. 

6 By about 2130 hours the perimeter pretty much was 

7 secured from Canal Street to Battery Park, West Side 

8 Highway to South Street. At 2145 we closed the loop 

9 with the chief of police at Pike and South at the CP. 

10 The 101 CAB provided an expandable van which we used as 

11 a CP next to the police CP. And by 2145 again the 

12 chief of police was notified that the loop was closed, 

13 all my people were in position. 

14 And basically my guidance to the battery 

15 commanders at that point in time, that's the end of the 

16 notes that I had here, my battery commanders were told 

17 to secure the perimeter, the main route around the 

18 city; only allow emergency vehicles in, prevent, you 

19 know, people, onlookers, just to come into the area; 

20 secure the area around Battery Park City to prevent 

21 anybody trying to get back into housing; prevent any 
18

1 type of looting that might take place; and make sure 

2 that roadways were accessible to allow emergency 

3 vehicles to come in and out of the city. 

4 In many cases that night a lot of my HMMWVs were 

5 used to pull steel, you know, from the road or debris 

6 from the road to allow emergency vehicles to get in and 

7 out into the city. 

8 Once the outer perimeter was established we 

9 started to secure an inner perimeter by roving patrols 

10 and just going up and down the streets to see if 

11 anybody was alive, anybody was hurt, identify bodies if 

12 need be. 

13 During the course of the first night we found a 

14 nose-wheel to one of the aircraft. We found the tower, 

15 the radio tower or the antenna off of one of the 

16 buildings at the Trade Center. 

17 The condition that we went into that night, we had 

18 no filter pit masks or particulate masks to go in 

19 there. There was a lot of flying matter floating in 

20 the air, particulate matter. Most of the area that we 

21 were in was in black-out conditions. Powder on the 
19

1 streets and some of the debris on the streets went up 

2 to the top of your boot. I mean, that's how deep we 

3 were walking in stuff. 

4 And in some cases we actually walked down the 

5 streets where you'd find an arm of a victim, a leg of a 

6 victim. One of the streets we found a vehicle that a 

7 beam was blown out of the building, a white Chrysler on 

8 one of the side streets. And I'm not sure exactly 

9 where it was. But there was a steel beam, I'd say the 

10 better part of maybe a 20-25 foot beam. 

11 This car was actually positioned on an island in 

12 the middle of one of the streets and this beam was 

13 across the roof of the car and there was a driver with 

14 his head outside the window and it looked by the 

15 pressure alone his head popped and the brains were kind 

16 of hanging out and on the side of the vehicle and 

17 everything kind of like stayed in place because of all 

18 the dust and debris. It just seemed to almost like 

19 solidify there. 

20 And again, working with flashlights during the 

21 night it adds a different dimension to how you're 
20

1 reacting in the city. And, you know, you walk down the 

2 street and you see a leg in a window. I had one of my 

3 soldiers walking getting to his station where he had to 

4 patrol and he was hit on the shoulder with a limb that 

5 was, I guess, just on the top of the building and I 

6 guess with the wind and everything else the limb fell 

7 down and clubbed the kid in the shoulder and he had a 

8 hard time with things. 

9 Another one of my soldiers walking down the street 

10 saw part of a leg that was actually fused to a piece of 

11 a beam from the high heat. Everything just seemed to 

12 stick together. 

13 During the course of that night I had a lot of 

14 concerns and reservations because I still couldn't make 

15 contact with higher headquarters. Our radios were only 

16 good internally to work. You couldn't really talk to 

17 anybody because nobody had -- we didn't have the 

18 capability to talk to higher headquarters. 

19 So the only one I got to talk to was the commander 

20 of the 69th or the commander of the 101 CAB through our 

21 cell phones. We had a hard time trying to get through 
21

1 to the 107th Group by phone. 

2 Moreover, we had a hard time trying to talk to the 

3 Troop Command by phone. So it was pretty much that we 

4 were, you know, internally linked and at the same time 

5 talking to the PD. 

6 As the night progressed the PD was telling us, 

7 "Help us in this area, help us in that area" which we 

8 obviously had done. And mostly that night it was 

9 walking street by street finding the bodies, 

10 identifying where they were, calling over the 

11 ambulances or whatever crews were out there to pick up 

12 bodies and take them and transport them to the morgue. 

13 That was going on. 

14 And I think for the most part around the immediate 

15 area of the World Trade Center where it went down, 

16 that's where the main emphasis and focus was to pick up 

17 bodies and remove bodies. But this was primarily 

18 people that were blown out of the building from that 

19 height that were sent several blocks away. I'm 

20 assuming that's where they came from. Or as the 

21 buildings exploded that's where they came from -- or 
22

1 parts thereof. 

2 At one point on one of the streets, and I'm not 

3 sure if it was Rector Street or Church Street, I tried 

4 to get on the 127th to talk to somebody. And I moved 

5 off the side of the road to get to a little high spot 

6 so I could possibly talk to somebody. I thought, you 

7 know, I could get better transmission. Unbeknownst to 

8 me that I was standing on a couple of women that were 

9 covered in debris. 

10 And I was pretty much sickened by that fact that, 

11 you know, I felt like I defiled somebody. And it was 

12 kind of tough. But, you know, you're there under those 

13 circumstances and you're hoping that you're going to 

14 find somebody alive. There was a lot of confusion from 

15 the standpoint that we were pretty much on our own that 

16 night. 

17 You know, good, bad or indifferent my commanders 

18 kept a good head on their shoulders. My operations 

19 guy, MAJ Cool was tracking what we were doing out 

20 there. We were talking internally so everybody knew 

21 where everybody was. And I constantly had the 
23

1 commanders and first sergeants check on the status of 

2 their people in conjunction with the PD folks that were 

3 out there. 

4 Our HMMWVs were used from anywhere from clearing 

5 debris to transporting firemen and policemen into the 

6 zone. There are zone 1, which was the hot zone. That 

7 was the World Trade Center itself. To moving bodies to 

8 the morgue if need be. 

9 And at one point in time during the course of that 

10 night, and I think it was about 3:30 in the morning, we 

11 walked down one of the streets and I guess steam pipes 

12 were popping. I'm not really sure what it was. But 

13 out of the clear blue coming down the street where my 

14 soldiers were actually walking out to get to the 

15 corners there must have been about 200 rats that were 

16 obviously in a panic. 

17 And I had everybody move to the center of the 

18 street because the rats were running along the sides of 

19 the street along the buildings in mass. And it was 

20 very strange to see just shoes on the street, you know, 

21 with flashlights you're looking down and you'll find 
24

1 shoes, in some cases pairs of shoes. 

2 And one instance we found a shoe with part of an 

3 ankle in it. But it was very strange to see just 

4 people either blown out of their shoes or they took 

5 their shoes off to run. 

6 On the same token, there were a lot of concession 

7 stands that you'll find from the morning, obviously 

8 with people going to work there are, you know, donut 

9 stands and bagels and rolls and stuff. And they were 

10 all covered in debris and the dust and the gypsum type 

11 of material. 

12 But, you know, you shine the lights in there and 

13 you'll see rats in there, you know, going to town on 

14 whatever was there. It was just something that was 

15 from another planet. You can't describe it any other 

16 way. I've -- in 28 years of military service I've not 

17 seen anything that, you know, I could even relate to. 

18 The fact that our soldiers need to train, you train for 

19 combat, you train for war. But you don't train to 

20 handle a situation like this. 

21 And everyone was very much aware of their 
25

1 surroundings. I talked to the commanders prior to and 

2 gave him a risk assessment as to what we need to do 

3 before we hit the streets. I told them to use their 

4 judgement as commanders. 

5 If there's something that they're not sure on, ask 

6 someone of the local authorities for additional 

7 guidance. At the same token, get back to me and let me 

8 know what the issues were. And we pretty much did it 

9 down and dirty as far as the safety brief and a risk 

10 assessment prior to going out. 

11 And I made it quite clear to all the commanders 

12 we're going into a hostile environment, you know? 

13 We're on two fronts. We're there to aid the civil 

14 authorities and provide security. But at the same 

15 token, there might be other people out there trying to 

16 take a shot at you. 

17 You know, so be very vigilant in what you're 

18 doing. Have a sense of urgency in what you're doing 

19 and complacency will bite you on the ass. Make sure 

20 that nobody gets comfortable because everybody's got a 

21 job to do. 
26

1 And I have to say I'm proud of every soldier in 

2 this battalion because I had E-4s making decisions that 

3 officers should make. You know, that they took it upon 

4 themselves to do the right thing because command and 

5 control, as difficult as it was in that area that we 

6 covered which was an extremely large area, we had 

7 problems based on the fact that we had problems with 

8 our own communications internally. With 12 series 

9 radios to 46s, you know, sometimes we couldn't reach 

10 everybody. 

11 And it obviously would act as interference with 

12 what was going on over there, I could understand why 

13 certain things didn't happen. But we worked out a 

14 system that in case we needed to talk to somebody and 

15 we couldn't get through, we relayed that information as 

16 the SOP as we normally would. 

17 Everybody kept pretty much a civil head as far as 

18 what was going on. But that night was an extremely 

19 ugly and painful long night. And again, with me going 

20 in first I didn't know what I was up against and what 

21 we were going to find. 
27

1 And, you know, the only thing -- my only lifeline 

2 was the fact that I had two battalion commanders that I 

3 could reach on cell phones to say, "You need to bail my 

4 ass out because I don't know what's coming down wind." 

5 And they were prepared to come in with whatever 

6 support they had available at the time. But thank God 

7 we were able to control what we had and secure the 

8 perimeter that night. 

9 And then by about 10:00 a.m. the following morning 

10 the 101 CAB and the 69th Infantry did a battlefield 

11 handoff with us. So I basically briefed them up as to 

12 what was going on. And then they took over the 

13 security during the course of the day, the same area 

14 that the 258 covered that night. 

15 We bedded down pretty much at the 69th Armory. We 

16 stayed close. In retrospect, I think it would have 

17 been easier for us to go back to our own respective 

18 armories. It would have facilitated chow a lot easier. 

19 It would have facilitated the soldiers getting 

20 additional equipment that they needed to do ongoing 

21 missions. 
28

1 But higher headquarters felt that we'd be better 

2 served by staying at that armory. By the second day, I 

3 think by the third or fourth day actually, we ended up 

4 moving to the 369th Armory up in Harlem, which I had 

5 some heartburn about because it was 110 blocks away 

6 from the area of operation that we had to work in. 

7 That necessitated our units leaving that much 

8 earlier. Although those roads were fairly empty, we 

9 just had to leave that much earlier in order to rotate 

10 our troops in and out in a timely manner to do 

11 battlefield hand-off.

12 The three battalion commanders really worked well 

13 together from the standpoint that we provided a close 

14 loop and closed loop as far as information processing 

15 goes. Information operations worked extremely well 

16 under those conditions with the three battalions. 

17 There were issues as far as what we had to work 

18 with, what we needed to bring with us that basically we 

19 were told we couldn't take NBC, we couldn't take 

20 weapons. 

21 And in hindsight, you know, not to point fingers 
29

1 at anybody, but I would have felt a whole hell of a lot 

2 more comfortable knowing that I had a weapons truck 

3 available to me if I needed it, not that I had to take 

4 it out but it was there plus my full compliment of NBC 

5 equipment.

6 The sad part of this thing is the fact that we had 

7 have the M-40 masks but we don't have any MOP gear to 

8 go with it because we're not authorized anything except 

9 for training. And in many cases, those MOP suits that 

10 we do use have been exposed because they had been used 

11 for training. 

12 So I had some feelings of not having a warm and 

13 fuzzy. In the event that we had a biological incident 

14 or a chemical I might not be able to react to the full 

15 degree that I wanted to.

16 But again, all the battery commanders and all the 

17 first sergeants and everybody down to that E-4, that E18 3, they all acted professional. They knew what they 

19 had to do and no one questioned anything. They just 

20 went ahead and did it to try to help. 

21 And moreover, I'm proud of the fact that these 
30

1 soldiers showed up without really calling them and 

2 telling them to come in. They knew it was their duty 

3 to be there, and they reacted accordingly. So I was 

4 very proud of that.

5 By the second day of the operation when we went 

6 back on shift we started to coordinate a bit with the 

7 107th Group under command of COL Cider (phonetic). And 

8 we picked up either the second night, Wednesday night 

9 or Thursday night we picked up under my OPCON to me was 

10 the 642 aviation. 

11 COL Tom Boscoe (phonetic) was the battalion 

12 commander, and he showed up with approximately 120 

13 troops to give me support. And basically the way it 

14 was established at that point in time was this map 

15 reflects the overall area by day five or six when the 

16 204 engineers came onboard along with everybody else. 

17 But COL Boscoe, his area of responsibility was 

18 around Battery Park going up towards the Wall Street 

19 area. And the rest of my battalion took the rest of 

20 the perimeter.

21 The day after that I think by either Wednesday or 
31

1 Thursday, I picked up a hundred to two hundred 

2 additional Air National Guard soldiers that were OPCON 

3 to me. I gave them areas and duties of responsibility. 

4 They were mostly top heavy with officers because they 

5 were a CE group. 

6 The problem I had with the Air Guard is basically 

7 they showed up without radios. They showed up without 

8 vehicles. And we had to cut vehicles and radios loose 

9 to support their operation. In addition to that, I had 

10 to support the 642 commander with a vehicle because 

11 they weren't prepared for that. Overall it was a good 

12 hand-off.

13 I had given -- as we were dealing with the 

14 information as best given to us we also started to 

15 coordinate with liaisons that were provided to us, 

16 military liaisons that were attending the briefings 

17 with the FEMA folks and the SIMO (phonetic) and the 

18 emergency services of the EOC. 

19 We were getting pretty much the battlefield hand20 off. I was working with the battalion commanders on 

21 the day shifts to find out, you know, what was going 
32

1 on. Our mission changed after the second day from the 

2 standpoint of if you're not finding bodies now, it's to 

3 provide the security and perimeter defense of the inner 

4 site as far as that operation goes as far as the 

5 recovery. 

6 Our mission tended to change a little bit because 

7 we were looking for folks that shouldn't be there. Had 

8 some concerns as to people posing as construction 

9 workers, posing as PD or auxiliary police. We had 

10 grabbed a couple of people posing as CON Edison 

11 (phonetic) workers. 

12 One of my soldiers had noticed an individual close 

13 to Ground Zero one day who was there taking pictures 

14 dressed as an Environmental Protection Agency guy. A 

15 couple of hours later he was back in the CON ED uniform 

16 taking photos. And we had grabbed the guy, referred 

17 him to NYPD. 

18 They took him off because as far as our rules and 

19 engagement we didn't know if this guy might be somebody 

20 actually working or maybe he was doing battlefield 

21 assessment, you know, as far as what the damage was and 
33

1 BDA. So under that premise anybody and everybody that 

2 didn't look like they belonged there we stopped, we 

3 questioned. 

4 We established checkpoints for the roads to come 

5 in and out of the area. And that was all coordinated 

6 with the PD. And they pretty much told us, "We need 

7 your assistance at this location. We need your 

8 assistance at that location." And that's the way we 

9 set up shop.

10 By about the fourth day we moved into the -- as a 

11 battalion headquarters we moved in by zones as far as 

12 what units were going to take responsibility for what 

13 areas on a 24 hour operation. Eventually my area was 

14 down to the Wall Street area after several days of 

15 doing this thing. And we secured all of Wall Street. 

16 We secured the ferry area. And by the second week when 

17 Wall Street was prepared to open, we provided the 

18 security to open up Wall Street. And we did street-by19 street searches all night long. 

20 (Interruption to interview.)

21 I still can't get used to that sound.
34

1 But we actually found instances during the course 

2 of the 11th to the 23rd when we pulled out we assisted 

3 in apprehended several individual with false passports, 

4 stolen vehicles, people coming into areas to secure 

5 property, taking a piece of the World Trade Center. 

6 They were looking to sell it, you know, on E-Bay, that 

7 type of thing.

8 And my guidance to the commanders is basically 

9 this, "Guy's you're looking at a federal crime scene. 

10 This area is a crime scene. Nothing leaves this place. 

11 You know, if you're going to take a look at that area, 

12 I want you all to go down to Ground Zero and take a 

13 look at what was done. Put it in your minds and then 

14 put it away. We have a job to do." 

15 And that's basically the way we worked. You know, 

16 it was kind of tough. But we apprehended three people 

17 that were trying to take pieces of material from the 

18 bomb site. We turned them over to the PD. 

19 We had a guy on a kayak around Battery Park, 

20 Battery City Park, up along this road that came in with 

21 a kayak with a night-vision device to try to get a look 
35

1 at what was going on. 

2 We worked with the PD. The PD called one of their 

3 police launches. A police helicopter came overhead, 

4 shined a light down on the guy. Somehow by hook or by 

5 crook, they got the guy into the boats. The lights 

6 went out and I don't know what happened to the guy 

7 after that.

8 Some of our soldiers I believe in the C Battery 

9 area caught somebody in a building trying to loot. And 

10 through my NCOs there was a broken window. This guy 

11 was inside a building in a broken window, through the 

12 broken window, they picked up a piece of plywood from 

13 the street. Took the plywood and put it against the 

14 hole in the window. And now he was secured in the 

15 building. I got a phone call to come down there, you 

16 know.

17 We get down to the site and you can see a guy in 

18 there and obviously he was hiked up on something. The 

19 flashlight is going all over the place. The window 

20 across was crackled and broken. And what the guy 

21 basically did was he jumped through that cracked window 
36

1 to get out of the building. And somehow he was 

2 apprehended down the block or around the corner with 

3 the PD.

4 So, you know, it's those types of things that we 

5 did to help. On the morning of -- on that Monday 

6 morning when the World Trade Center was supposed to 

7 open, one of my sharp E-4s just patrolling found a mail 

8 truck that was in the vicinity of -- I'm looking at 

9 Wall Street here -- around the vicinity of the Exchange 

10 place, right near the stock exchange. 

11 And it was a postal truck about 2:30 in the 

12 morning, 3:00 in the morning. And we knew that no 

13 postal deliveries were any time soon in that area. We 

14 called the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, called the PD. 

15 They came over, looked at the vehicle and determined 

16 that the vehicle was hot wired. 

17 After they did their thing they took the truck 

18 away. You know, we don't know if there were bombs in 

19 there. We don't know if there was anything in there. 

20 But better safe than sorry. There was no equipment on 

21 the streets at all and here's a postal truck, you know? 
37

1 So they took that and took it out of the way. 

2 But I have to say that the first night going back 

3 to the 11th the carnage on the streets as far as the 

4 emergency equipment goes was horrific. Besides finding 

5 the bodies, to see fire trucks, police emergency 

6 services vehicles mangled to the point that they looked 

7 like they were out there as far as artillery target 

8 goes was unbelievable the condition of this equipment.

9 When we start to secure the area and go 24 hour 

10 OPs in our own respective zones, one of the days, and I 

11 believe it was the Saturday of the first week, a 

12 fireman got off the truck, they looked at one of their 

13 fire engines, a ladder that had been totally decimated 

14 and evidently there were a couple of firemen pinned 

15 under the truck when it blew up. 

16 They all stopped and they got out and they kind of 

17 held hands and looked around the truck. Shortly 

18 thereafter there were four or five police officers that 

19 were there, and they all took off their hats and they, 

20 you know, were standing there in silence. And the next 

21 thing I know, I found myself along with maybe about ten 
38

1 soldiers in that area. And it was a very somber, quiet 

2 moment. 

3 But for that one instant, you know, it was like 

4 everybody was one family and everybody was grieving a 

5 loss. And it was, you know, everybody did what they 

6 had to do. You could see obviously there were tears in 

7 everybody's eyes. Everybody just gathered their 

8 thoughts, did what they had to do and went back to 

9 business at hand. 

10 Interestingly enough, that Tuesday night the way 

11 the fire and emergency services were working there were 

12 fire hoses all over the place, I mean, you know? And 

13 it turned into mud, you know, because where the hoses 

14 are linked together they leak. They put 4 X 4s on each 

15 side of the hose to protect it from being run over or 

16 the brass things from being mangled with the emergency 

17 equipment.

18 On one of the streets, and I think it was down 

19 towards Cedar Street, I looked down and see where 

20 everything is getting all muddied up. And I'm trying 

21 to see where we're going to preposition troops. I 
39

1 found a pigeon that was alive that was sitting on a 

2 piece of 4 X 4. 

3 And obviously it was shell shocked or disoriented 

4 from the blast. And that pigeon for one brief instant, 

5 one moment, everything kind of got quiet. I picked the 

6 pigeon up and I just moved it off to the side of the 

7 road. I felt very helpless. 

8 But to me that was the only sign of life that 

9 survived. And I felt almost as if I was able to save a 

10 life of some type. It might sound weird. It might 

11 sound crazy. But to me, you know, with all the noise 

12 and everything going on, I didn't hear anything. 

13 You know, it was like that was my only saving 

14 grace for a moment that I felt good that I was able to 

15 do something positive because there was nothing that 

16 was positive about that mess. And it was, again, the 

17 fact of working in an area with flashlights finding 

18 mangled bodies, it was really kind of tough to swallow. 

19 A lot of the areas I went through with LTC Rivera, 

20 we went through many areas prior to sending the troops 

21 into the inner streets to make sure that they wouldn't 
40

1 be subjected to too many horrors, if you will, as far 

2 as the area goes. But for the most part, that's the 

3 way that first night went. The second night was pretty 

4 close to the same. 

5 By about the third or fourth night they actually 

6 started to clean the streets up a bit. And, you know, 

7 we weren't dealing with as much dust and debris, but 

8 the PD had asked us for assistance with going building 

9 to building looking for bodies or reported smells in 

10 buildings that they wanted our assistance on.

11 In some cases by helicopter or whatever you found 

12 bodies that were on the roofs of buildings that they 

13 wanted us to work with as far as building clearing.

14 That went on for about a day or two until, you 

15 know, state headquarters and 53rd Troop Command said 

16 basically, "That's not our mission right now. You 

17 know, it's to aid civil authorities. But that exceeds, 

18 you know, what we should be doing." 

19 That pretty much went through the process of how 

20 we were doing business. The 107th Group came out. And 

21 in some cases there were some clean hand-offs. There 
41

1 were not clean-offs. 

2 We had issues, and I have to say that GEN Cline as 

3 the commander of troops for this situation told the 

4 three battalion commanders, you know, "I'm entrusting 

5 in you. I'm not there all the time. As battalion 

6 commanders you need to make a decision. Make a 

7 decision good or bad, but at least make a decision. 

8 Don't make, you know, don't be there without a 

9 decision. You know, you've got to come forward. Step 

10 up to the plate as a commander and do something." 

11 And he gave us the latitude and he kind of 

12 established rules of engagement for us, you know, to 

13 say, "Hey listen, we don't know what the hell is going 

14 on. We're going to react to it." And we reacted at 

15 the time to the situation as it arose.

16 Without that guidance it might have been a 

17 different picture. You know, so he gave us more or 

18 less rules of engagement for that particular area, you 

19 know, for us to work with. But again, you know, in 

20 retrospect saying, "Okay, I'm ready. I'll be the first 

21 unit in" I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I 
42

1 don't know why I said what I said outside of the fact 

2 that somebody had to do something. 

3 And I think about it, I had a pucker factor after 

4 the fact, you know? Then I didn't have a pucker 

5 factor. It's instinctive. You just go and do because 

6 you need to do. But I just think that, you know, three 

7 bags full now, Christ, what could have happened? You 

8 know, I count my blessings that it turned out the way 

9 it did and we didn't run into any snipers out there. 

10 We didn't run into any adverse situations. 

11 But the other part about that first night was 

12 basically with some of the after-shocks in the area you 

13 actually had in some cases pieces of glass pane windows 

14 coming down from 10 or 15 stories of buildings in the 

15 surrounding area 20 stories up. 

16 And you also had to be very visual to the fact 

17 that, you know, some guy might get impaled. He might 

18 get sliced up because you can hear the wobbling of 

19 glass prior to hitting the ground. And, you know, it 

20 was just a very eery sight and eerie feeling that 

21 night. That's really all I can say about the first two 
43

1 nights of the operation.

2 Come I believe Thursday things started to come 

3 into play and come into sync. We had a lot of problems 

4 from the standpoint that communications were a big 

5 concern to us. 

6 Having the proper equipment at Ground Zero and in 

7 the vicinity, particulate masts, the filter masks, we 

8 finally got some but they were the wrong type. NYPD 

9 was advising us as to the right type of filters to 

10 have. We passed it on, but by the time we got them it 

11 was a little late in the game. 

12 (End of tape 1, side A.)

13 MAJ LANDRY: Continuation of the interview. This 

14 is side two.

15 LTC CANDIANO: The 101 CAB in the 69th had the 

16 opportunity because they were working during the day 

17 shifts. As supplies came in to hit the zone, they were 

18 able to grab respirators. They were able to grab 

19 filter masks, goggles. Pretty much on the night shift 

20 it was a different situation because most of the stock 

21 was depleted for, you know, the day emergency workers 
44

1 not only military but primarily all the civilian 

2 agencies that were there working in conjunction with 

3 NYPD and the fire department and emergency services.

4 We started receiving equipment piecemeal. That 

5 kind of slowed our process down so to speak because we 

6 wanted to make sure that the soldiers had everything 

7 they needed to do the job out there. 

8 And again, through our briefings and the hand-off, 

9 the battlefield hand-off, we pretty much knew what was 

10 going on for the night events. And we also coordinated 

11 with the PD as best we could to handle any situations 

12 that might come up.

13 When I got into zone five, which was the area 

14 given to us by the Aviation Brigade when they came 

15 onboard -- Aviation Brigade came onboard and they set 

16 up in Battery Park. COL Mescow (phonetic) was the 

17 Aviation Brigade commander establishing policy as far 

18 as how we had to do business and what was being done. 

19 We were given the area of zone five, which was 

20 pretty much Wall Street and the area around Wall Street 

21 to include all the ferry terminals and everything going 
45

1 up from Broad Street to Wall Street and then a little 

2 further up to and including Maiden Street, Maiden Lane. 

3 That was a pretty good area for us in the financial 

4 district. 

5 MAJ LANDRY: Sir, just to take you back just a 

6 little bit. Up until that point you had been running 

7 24 hour OPs, swapping on lots with the CAB in the 69th?

8 LTC CANDIANO: Absolutely, yeah. And then --

9 MAJ LANDRY: Covering the whole zone. 

10 LTC CANDIANO: Right. 642 was thrown into to --

11 MAJ LANDRY: Okay.

12 LTC CANDIANO: -- and we were covering that zone.

13 MAJ LANDRY: So now, so do you remember which day 

14 the 642 DSAB came in?

15 LTC CANDIANO: 642 came onboard to work with me I 

16 believe it was Wednesday night.

17 MAJ LANDRY: Okay.

18 LTC CANDIANO: Late Wednesday they came into the 

19 mix and were OPCON'd to me. And I believe on Thursday 

20 the Air Guard was OPCON'd to me of the first week.

21 MAJ LANDRY: So when was the determination made to 
46

1 go from everybody working one area to assigning zones 

2 of responsibility?

3 LTC CANDIANO: I think that happened -- I'm not 

4 sure what day Aviation Brigade came onboard. But we 

5 were pretty much running with the plan in place from 

6 the 107th Group because they became our higher and we 

7 were working through them to Troop Command. 

8 When Aviation Brigade came onboard they 

9 coordinated with the PD. And by that time the PD had 

10 established zones that they wanted to work with. There 

11 was zone one through six I believe. And by that time 

12 basically what was done was the Aviation Brigade 

13 established what battalion would be responsible for 24-

14 hour operations within their respective zone. 

15 And the 642 was still OPCON'd to me up until that 

16 point in time. The Air Guard left us because with the 

17 change of mission with the United States in preparation 

18 if something happened overseas, Air Guard assets got 

19 turned back to going to wherever they were going as far 

20 as the preparation of additional military activities. 

21 And they were with us I think one night and one night 
47

1 only. 

2 642 by that point in time brought more people 

3 onboard. Exactly how many COL Boscoe had I can't tell 

4 you. But they were given their own zone to work with. 

5 And they were working out of zone four. The 258 had 

6 zone five. 101 CAB had zone two. 105th was in zone 

7 one, which was the hot zone. 

8 And we don't know Ground Zero exactly how they 

9 were working that as far as who put them there. 204 

10 Engineers were working out of zone seven, and they also 

11 incorporated -- the 101 CAB also incorporated part of 

12 zone three along with the 204 Engineers when they came 

13 onboard. 

14 And that's pretty much the way we established 

15 work. Within our own respective zones we went to 24 

16 hour OPs.

17 MAJ LANDRY: So that zone split though, that 

18 determination was made on Wednesday, Thursday or was it 

19 later in the week?

20 LTC CANDIANO: I believe that zone determination 

21 was made -- to the best of my knowledge that was made 
48

1 by I think Monday or Tuesday of the second week. 

2 MAJ LANDRY: So basically you went from Tuesday 

3 to --

4 LTC CANDIANO: To Monday.

5 MAJ LANDRY: -- to Monday with the three 

6 battalions splitting -- you guys took the night --

7 LTC CANDIANO: Right.

8 MAJ LANDRY: -- and the infantry and the CAB --

9 LTC CANDIANO: Took the day.

10 MAJ LANDRY: -- took the day?

11 LTC CANDIANO: Right.

12 MAJ LANDRY: Until that fateful time, sometime on 

13 Monday --

14 LTC CANDIANO: Monday or Tuesday, I can't recall 

15 when, when Aviation Brigade came onboard. But we also 

16 had the 642 augmenting our operation. And, you know, 

17 they were part of that mix at that time also.

18 MAJ LANDRY: Check.

19 LTC CANDIANO: Eventually I believe --

20 MAJ LANDRY: Let me check the time, sorry.

21 LTC CANDIANO: That's all right.
49

1 MAJ LANDRY: How long were you in place till you 

2 were finally relieved? Do you remember when that was?

3 LTC CANDIANO: We were in place from Tuesday night 

4 all the way through to the 23rd. When I set my CP up 

5 when we moved into -- my CP was set up on South Street 

6 and Wall Street. The way I did business for my zone --

7 and it was pretty much left with the other commanders 

8 how they were setting up -- I had a very good working 

9 relationship with the two-star that I had out there in 

10 my zone at the CP. 

11 I co-located my military CP with the police CP. 

12 This way there was an easy hand-off of information. 

13 And at the same token if they had a hot report in, I 

14 could easily send over my S-2 and talk to somebody 

15 there as far as that information, what's hot, what do 

16 we need to do? 

17 And we developed that relationship that in the 

18 event that I had something that came in I shared it 

19 with him as well. So we had a very good working 

20 relationship. And internally we did hand-offs as far 

21 as that information flow goes. That worked to our 
50

1 benefit extremely well. 

2 We had some things that were kind of disheartening 

3 at the same token. And you'll probably hear from some 

4 of the other commanders on this. By Friday the 21st we 

5 were getting reports that there was a possible 

6 biological attack planned for New York City. 

7 We heard about some of the people out there with 

8 -- the spooks with weapons of mass destruction and 

9 information that we weren't privy to. But 

10 interestingly enough, we were also told that some of 

11 the PD were given atropine injectables. 

12 And we didn't quite understand what was going on 

13 outside of the fact that there were reports out there 

14 that there may be something happening either in the 

15 inner-city or in the outlining burroughs. 

16 So when that happened, you know, my particular 

17 zone there must have been maybe 20, 30 or 40 cop cars 

18 in that geographic area. By about 1:00 in the 

19 afternoon it was down to 25. By about 5:00 at night 

20 there were maybe 10. 

21 By 11:00 that evening the only thing that was 
51

1 there was the CP. And I believe that the CP was not 

2 mad. I mean, I can't, you know, I can't substantiate 

3 that outside of the fact that the 101 CAB, COL 

4 Costigliola, basically had heard through the grapevine 

5 that his network on the other side that there was a 

6 possibility of some sort of a biological attack or 

7 something along those lines. 

8 And a lot of the PD were going to the outlining 

9 burroughs. This way in case there were problems in the 

10 outlining communities, they can react to it. 

11 At that point in time it seemed like the only guys 

12 that could be found were the 258 and the 101 CAB 

13 because we were on -- by that second week the 69th was 

14 pulled out. And I guess you're probably aware that the 

15 69th pulled out --

16 MAJ LANDRY: Yeah.

17 LTC CANDIANO: -- early. That left the 258 and 

18 the 101 CAB really to, you know, to defend the fort so 

19 to speak. And it was kind of disheartening because 

20 here we have NBC masks but no MOP equipment. And not 

21 that you're going to do a whole hell of a lot with a 
52

1 biological agent. But just the psychological factor 

2 knowing that you have the proper equipment out there 

3 would have been a nice feeling. 

4 So the commander of the 101 CAB and the commander 

5 of the 258 looked at each other, we gave each other a 

6 hug and we went back to our posts because we didn't 

7 know what to expect, you know? 

8 And we went out to our troops and told them to 

9 stay alert, be vigilant, you know, report anything out 

10 of the unusual, out of the norm. And again, that night 

11 was a very long night for us because we didn't know 

12 what to expect. 

13 We were looking for some downtime during the 

14 course of this thing because my troops were somewhat 

15 fried. You know, it's -- you know, you have an 

16 adrenaline rush obviously doing certain things. But 

17 the unknown factor going in, these kids were wired. 

18 They didn't know what to expect. They saw horrific 

19 things. 

20 And all I wanted to do during the course of the 

21 first week, by the end of the first week, was stand 
53

1 down part of my unit. And not stand them down 

2 permanently but stand them down for a 24 hour period, 

3 still maintain the coverage but rotate troops out so 

4 they can have proper crew rest, touch bases with their 

5 families because they weren't going home, let them know 

6 that everybody was fine, get clean uniforms, get proper 

7 toiletries, spend some time with the bride, you know, 

8 do the right things and get back to doing the mission 

9 at hand. We were told we couldn't do that. 

10 Again, I don't question the leadership. I'm a 

11 soldier and I follow through. But as a commander I 

12 need to look after my troops. And I think I would have 

13 gotten a lot more mileage with my soldiers had they 

14 been given some of the, you know, the additional time 

15 to go home.

16 So that was somewhat disheartening that we didn't 

17 have, you know, someone couldn't make the decision to 

18 allow my troops to get back and forth in and out.

19 What also hindered this operation tremendously I 

20 think was the fact that when we were mobilized the term 

21 was "mobilization." So when you use mobilization 
54

1 troops think that they're going to be federalized to 

2 support the operation.

3 As it turns out, it was a state activation and 

4 troops were placed on state active duty. That impacts 

5 in some cases how many soldiers can support the 

6 mission, how many soldiers can afford to be there 

7 because, you know, soldiers going back to Desert Storm, 

8 you know, some soldiers lost their jobs participating 

9 in that, not very many but some did. 

10 But in some cases when soldiers go on state active 

11 duty the benefits package is not there and they lose in 

12 the long run. As a traditional soldier you know how 

13 that impacts things. And we had instances where 

14 soldiers in the past lost jobs for being on state 

15 active duty. Soldiers' and sailors' relief pack 

16 doesn't cover issues with state active duty that you 

17 would if you were placed on ADSW.

18 So had the troops been federalized or had the 

19 troops been placed in an ADSW you would have seen a 

20 continuation of additional soldiers showing up to 

21 support missions. 
55

1 When it was put out that it was a voluntary call 

2 up and you didn't have to be there, we lost some of the 

3 soldiers that were either self-employed, soldiers that 

4 were going to college, students that needed to get back 

5 to school. Obviously they needed to be there. 

6 But some soldiers just could not -- their hearts 

7 were in the right place, but they had families to 

8 support and they couldn't be there. They weren't 

9 entitled to the same package that you would as an ADSW 

10 soldier.

11 So, you know, for future planning purposes, God 

12 forbid something ever like this happens again, the role 

13 of the Guard is an important role. However, how you 

14 have these soldiers activate and perform their missions 

15 -- funding is a tremendous issue. 

16 I'm dealing with funding issues on a daily basis 

17 as far as what soldiers got paid versus what they 

18 should have been paid. And, you know, retirement 

19 points, the whole nine yards, there's certain things 

20 that they look for. 

21 They're not covered -- state active duty soldiers 
56

1 are not covered for their family members in case a 

2 family member is injured. Whereas, with the ADSW or 

3 federalization of troops, family members are obviously 

4 covered through, you know, the medical channels in the 

5 military.

6 That's been an ongoing issue with us and it's been 

7 brought to our attention constantly by our soldiers. 

8 And if this mission progresses and goes on for an 

9 undetermined length of time, we're talking months and 

10 months down the road, somebody needs to address the 

11 fact that you can't keep soldiers on state active duty 

12 for an indefinite period of time because you're going 

13 to lose your soldier base, if you will, as far as 

14 missions go. 

15 At the same token, you know, if you don't 

16 establish soldiers on a federal mission, God forbid you 

17 have a state emergency like a flood or a snow storm 

18 where you're going to need soldiers additionally called 

19 up. You're not going to get that opportunity to get 

20 those soldiers out there to do that job. 

21 And those are things that myself as a commander 
57

1 along with the other commanders are concerned with from 

2 the standpoint that, you know, this has been a horrific 

3 act. And if you need a sustained force, whether it be 

4 the Homeland Defense or whatever, you need to put these 

5 soldiers into different stats than what they're working 

6 on. 

7 The soldiers that are working the mission right 

8 now for the Air Force through the 27th Brigade are put 

9 on ADSW or federal service. So they're getting a 

10 different benefits package than the soldiers that are 

11 out on the streets doing the mission now. So, you 

12 know, you can't -- in my eyes you can't mix apples and 

13 oranges Everybody's wearing the same hat or you have 

14 some serious problems.

15 And it's issues like that that's going to butt us 

16 in the tail down the road. In the even that there is 

17 another God forbid another -- a bomb or something going 

18 off where there's mass destruction, I'm concerned that 

19 we're not going to have the turnout that we did with 

20 this because of soldiers being told that they go on 

21 state active duty and they're not entitled. They'll do 
58

1 their job. They may not be happy about it, but 

2 initially they'll be there. 

3 But as time wears on that solider base is going to 

4 disappear. We see that now with missions going on now 

5 that soldiers are saying, "I can't continually be state 

6 active duty because I'm not giving my family the same 

7 benefits that I would if I were back at my other job." 

8 Now, that's few and far between, but it's 

9 happening, you know? At the same token, the city of 

10 New York there are workers in the city of New York that 

11 have completed their military leave time because they 

12 get, you know, maybe 30 days a year military leave, you 

13 know, so they use their 15 days of annual training. 

14 Plus their weekend drills if it comes into their 

15 scheduled time, they use that. You as a police officer 

16 know that that drill and how it works in your 

17 respectful state. 

18 But those guys that are on state active duty 

19 basically now have burnt out their military leave time. 

20 So they have to say either they go back to their jobs 

21 working as a city service employee or, you know, 
59

1 they're making provisions to give additional buy-back 

2 time of up to 45 days. That hasn't happened yet. I 

3 know the state has done it, but the inner-city has not 

4 done it. That impacts what's going on as far as what 

5 soldiers are being made available to perform their 

6 mission.

7 So I think there is a myriad of reasons why 

8 soldiers can be doing this, but you know, the almighty 

9 dollar is catching up to everybody or the buy-back time 

10 is impacting what's going on. 

11 And somewhere down the road the future occurrences 

12 of this magnitude, somebody from either the national 

13 level at NGB or the federal level from Homeland 

14 Defense, National Guard will fall under that, but 

15 somebody says, "This is the rules of engagement. These 

16 are the entitlement of these soldiers" because you've 

17 got an awful lot of Guardsmen out there that are 

18 willing to do that. 

19 But the thing is, they can't make the commitment 

20 to do that on an ongoing basis because they can't 

21 afford to do it, you know? And that's a reality check, 
60

1 and that's something that's going to impact a lot of 

2 folks down the road. 

3 And my only thing is this, I'm worried about the 

4 next time we do this. I'm worried about what the rules 

5 of engagement are going to be. We need to have a 

6 support platform put out there prepositioned someplace 

7 to say, "Okay, this is the equipment, guys, that you 

8 need. You need cell phones right away." 

9 And I don't know if you want me to get into that. 

10 But in order to best handle this mission in the PO we 

11 need a support platform for us. We need cell phones. 

12 Cell phones were not given to us. Cell phones were 

13 donated by somebody making a phone call, that type of 

14 thing. We need to make sure that these people are 

15 properly prepped for this type of thing as far as their 

16 training goes.

17 I've incorporated my training now -- I've changed. 

18 I've got a weapons clause weekend coming up. I want 

19 every soldier to make sure that they've got hands on a 

20 weapon and they're qualified. Not only that, but I've 

21 pushed force protection training and I've pushed NBC
61

1 training for our soldiers. 

2 I really think that the NGR base needs to be 

3 extended. I really think that every battalion needs to 

4 have one full-time NBC NCO onboard and you need to have 

5 a full compliment of NGR soldiers in each battalion 

6 because had I had a full compliment of NGR soldiers, 

7 this whole operation for me would have been pretty 

8 smooth. 

9 I mean, we did miraculous things with what we had 

10 to work with. But I'm working at 33 percent of my 

11 authorized bill. And that's kind of tough when I have 

12 a battalion of 570 soldiers. 

13 So no, that type of thing that's going to make a 

14 difference. But the three battalions, the three 

15 battalion commanders knowing each other, being part of 

16 a combat arms team, being in the same brigade, we took 

17 this literally as a combat mission and we established 

18 the rules of engagement to get the job done. 

19 And I can only say that thank God the three guys 

20 that were there know each other know their ins and outs 

21 and their quirks, that we were able to keep a finger on 
62

1 the pulse until we got the proper support that we 

2 needed.

3 We have a lot to bring to the table and we want to 

4 talk to somebody about it. Obviously there's ways of 

5 doing things better. And we lived it. And we had the 

6 opportunity to put something on the table to say, "Hey 

7 guys, this is how we could all do the job better" 

8 because there is going to be a next time. 

9 Hopefully it will be later as opposed to sooner. 

10 But somebody's got to listen to what we've got to say 

11 and we've got to put this out. 

12 And what we're doing this week is the three 

13 battalion commanders are putting together a 

14 consolidated AAR based on what we've done based on what 

15 worked and based on what didn't work and what we need. 

16 And it's going to be one over the world type of thing. 

17 And, you know, there are things that should have 

18 happened and recommendations that have to be made for 

19 people, the echelons above me to say, "Hey guys, look, 

20 you need to look at this." You know, we have -- in the 

21 state we had a JOC that we were working through at 
63

1 state headquarters. 

2 In my heart of hearts I believe that that JOC, 

3 they need to have almost like a jump talk. Something 

4 happens, a hot spot in the state, almost like a 

5 reaction force. You need to get that JOC, that support 

6 team, down to the hot zone right away to say, "Okay, I 

7 have five 06s or six 06s here that can make command 

8 decisions to say we need logistical support, we need, 

9 you know, equipment support, whatever the case might 

10 be." 

11 Those are the guys that control the purse strings. 

12 Those are the guys that make the big decisions and 

13 say, "We can make this happen." We get funding because 

14 right now as far as I'm concerned, and I've through 

15 channels that funding on certain things were issues, 

16 you know? There was no issue.

17 The issue was we've been attacked. The issue is 

18 that people are out there dead. The issue is that we 

19 had troops that might possibly be in harm's way. What 

20 are we doing to do to better facilitate the civil 

21 authority needs and moreover, take care of your troops 
64

1 in the process. 

2 You know, because I saw people testing air from 

3 every city agency possible out there. I didn't see 

4 anybody from the military side out there that if we 

5 have a weapons of mass destruction team or we have a 

6 HAZMAT why aren't they out there doing air sampling,

7 you know? That's an issue.

8 Equipment issues that everybody should have the 

9 same equipment out there to function with. That should 

10 be an issue. Going into a hot zone, as far as I'm 

11 concerned, it was a hot zone. We should have weapons 

12 readily available. They don't have to be out on the 

13 shoulder, but have them with you that in the event 

14 something does happen, you know? Because PD had said 

15 to us already, "Where are your weapons? We thought you 

16 were coming in with weapons." 

17 I mean, they said to us, "Where are your weapons? 

18 Where are your flack jackets? Why don't you guys have 

19 them? You know, if you need ammo we at the PD will get 

20 you ammo." You know, because they had their own 

21 arsenals out there, you know? So that wasn't an issue. 
65

1 But rules of engagement, there should be a pre2 execution checklist. And we're prepared to put one 

3 together. The three battalion commanders are prepared 

4 to put a package together to say, "This is what you 

5 need to survive. You need cell phones. You need a 

6 weapons platform. You need all kinds of stuff." 

7 We saw folks out there from other agencies with 

8 satellite telephones, you know. You know, in the event 

9 communications went to hell in a hand-basket all 

10 together, at least you could communicate with somebody.

11 MAJ LANDRY: When are you planning on doing that, 

12 having that that meeting, sir?

13 LTC CANDIANO: The three battalion commanders are 

14 getting together with the outgoing brigade commander 

15 and the incoming brigade commander on Thursday at the 

16 69th Armory where we're going to put our AA on paper as 

17 far a what we, you know --

18 MAJ LANDRY: You don't happen to have the time for 

19 that do you sir?

20 LTC CANDIANO: We're going to get together during 

21 the day, but I guess we're going to talk at night with 
66

1 the two 06s.

2 MAJ LANDRY: Because I would love the opportunity 

3 to assist you and even help you document that.

4 LTC CANDIANO: Okay.

5 MAJ LANDRY: That's something that we do. 

6 LTC CANDIANO: Okay.

7 MAJ LANDRY: We actually have the ability to take 

8 your thoughts and concerns and hand-deliver them to the 

9 Center for Army Lessons Learned. 

10 LTC CANDIANO: Because there is a concern for 

11 that. And at the token, you know, I might shoot myself 

12 in the foot for saying this, but somebody out there has 

13 to listen, you know? And we know that there is a new 

14 secretary, a new cabinet position for Homeland 

15 Security. We need to get to him, you know? By hook or 

16 by crook, that's the bottom line. 

17 That's where we need to go because he's 

18 establishing a doctrine now. He's got to make some big 

19 decisions. And I think he needs to talk to some of the 

20 people from this side, the military side obviously as 

21 to how we could have done our jobs better because I 
67

1 have a conscience from the standpoint that this is 

2 going to happen again and I need to share what I did 

3 and what I know with somebody else, you know? 

4 And I have a hard time sleeping at night knowing 

5 that I have something to say and I'm very frustrated 

6 that I can't say it properly. But at the same token, 

7 nobody's telling me I can't. It's just that tau's not 

8 -- this is something that should have been generated 

9 already. 

10 The three guys that were in there from day one or 

11 day two, pull them out. When they came out put the 

12 thoughts down right away and react to, "How did you 

13 immediately handle the situation?" And again, I thank 

14 God that the three battalion commanders were level15 headed enough because we didn't get to talk to anybody 

16 else. 

17 We did it on our own and we put it together the 

18 right way, you know? And, you know, I feel very 

19 comfortable that we did the best job that we possibly 

20 could do under those circumstances. 

21 And in retrospect, I just wish I had the 
68

1 opportunity to have maybe a little pocket recorder with 

2 me that I could put my thoughts down at the time when 

3 things were happening because I know there is a lot of 

4 things that I wanted to see happen that didn't happen. 

5 And again, communications were critical to the 

6 operation. 

7 Having the proper NBC equipment, having the proper 

8 vehicles which luckily we did have in that area. I 

9 would like to have seen -- we had MP units out there. 

10 And my biggest bitch up front was if you've got some MP 

11 units out there -- and I know I was told that they were 

12 out there doing things. 

13 But three MP companies on the ground you can 

14 easily establish in certain check-points, you know, 

15 choke points where they're coming into the city with 

16 massive quantities of emergency service equipment to be 

17 at those critical areas. 

18 And that's an MP function in life, you know, to 

19 establish those security points and those check-points 

20 for traffic flow to allow them in and stop the flow of 

21 equipment that really don't belong in that area, you 
69

1 know? 

2 Because you'd have people that live in Battery 

3 Park City that were trying to get it. That's a good 

4 mission for the MPs to secure that area. 

5 The 105th MPs that were supposed to work with me 

6 that didn't work with me, my advice to them was I 

7 wanted them to establish Battery Park City because with 

8 their night-vision devices and the fact that they're 

9 trained in the mount, my contention was put those 

10 infantry guys in the areas where the housing 

11 developments and buildings where people were living or 

12 staying, secure that area and then do a floor-by-floor 

13 search, you know, to see if there was anybody in the 

14 buildings, anybody hurt.

15 At the same token, after day two or three we 

16 needed to start checking to see if there -- obviously 

17 with these houses people have pets, you know what I 

18 mean? 

19 As weird as it sounds, you can hear, you know, 

20 dogs barking in the distance and you didn't know where 

21 the hell they were coming from. They were coming from 
70

1 those buildings, you know? So we knew that ASPCA 

2 wanted to get into those areas. So you needed to have 

3 military folks go in with them. 

4 And again, a mission for the infantry guys to do 

5 mount training procedures in an area where you have 

6 that type of housing that would have been perfect. 

7 And again, utilize assets where, you know, 

8 somebody from the JOC can come down and say, "Okay. 

9 We're walking hand in hand." You set up the JOC, set 

10 it up with the SIMO office or the FEMA office right 

11 there to say, you know, hand it off this way as opposed 

12 to going four different channels because by the time 

13 the information, the flow, comes back it could be 

14 several hours before a decision is made. That might 

15 cut the down time maybe one or two hours. You know, 

16 but timing is of the essence and time is critical in 

17 that particular scenario. 

18 And was there a way of doing business better? 

19 Looking at it now, yeah, there were a lot of things 

20 that we could have done to improve the way we were 

21 doing business. But the first time this was done, you 
71

1 know, we made history. We wrote doctrine that night 

2 and the following days. And I think the way we did 

3 business, the way people perceived us out there really 

4 impacted. It was very positive.

5 When the National Guard troops were on the 

6 concerns, especially in my zone, you know, first night 

7 everybody was totally confused. Second day, second 

8 night there was still a shock there. By the time Wall 

9 Street opened when 258 was responsible for that 

10 particular zone as people were coming off the ferries 

11 they were hugging us. You know, "Thank God you guys 

12 are here. You know, you make us feel secure. You make 

13 us feel safe." 

14 And just the military presence did make a 

15 difference. The military presence is making a 

16 difference in the Air Force. Military presence is 

17 making a difference in the railroad, the terminals that 

18 we're in now. It's making a difference on the peers. 

19 People do feel secure. 

20 But they're also asking questions, "How come you 

21 guys don't have weapons, you know?" In the Air Force 
72

1 they do. But I guess moreover the first couple of 

2 nights they were looking for that kind of, you know, 

3 support that there was a presence there. 

4 The cops felt secure knowing that we were there, 

5 believe it or not. But they would have felt better 

6 most of them if they knew that we had weapons. It 

7 doesn't say you have to pass out ammo, you know? If 

8 the situation dictates then you pass it out or you 

9 carry it on. 

10 And if you need to put a magazine in your weapon I 

11 understand that. But, you know, the results of 

12 engagement have to be clear that if you're standing on 

13 the corner with a police officer and he's being fired 

14 at, you know, whatever the situation is those 

15 situations, those rules have to be established now, you 

16 know, for future events, God forbid they do come up.

17 But I really think that when the 101 CAB pulled in 

18 on Wednesday morning along with the 69th they had 

19 weapons. I was out there cold-cocked Tuesday night 

20 because my higher headquarters before I lost 

21 communications with them told me, "In no way shape or 
73

1 form do you take weapons, no weapons." 

2 And I bargained with the devil to turn around, as 

3 I said, with the 69th commander that if I say "blow" 

4 you know, you're here with weapons to support me. You 

5 give me weapons I need for my troops." 

6 That was my only fudge factor that I had. And 

7 thank God that I was able to do that regardless of what 

8 higher told me. You know, because again we didn't know 

9 what we were into that night.

10 But the first night -- the bottom line is the 

11 first night was security and recovery operations, you 

12 know? And that was it. You know, whatever we found, 

13 helped pick up, police up and secure the area and 

14 perimeter and don't allow people in that didn't have to 

15 be there. And prevent any looting and give whatever 

16 support to clean the streets up as best we could.

17 But following days the mission seemed to shift, 

18 like I said, and it was more or less security and only 

19 security. 

20 And there's probably a lot more that I can add to 

21 this, but I'm just kind of vegged on it. But when we 
74

1 came out on the 23rd when we were relieved by the 204 

2 Engineers and -- the 204 was already there. I think 

3 the 152 came onboard. 

4 When we rotated out back at the Armory is where we 

5 were debriefed. We had a crisis intervention group 

6 that was out there from Oklahoma City that worked with 

7 us. And basically they debriefed us. And some of 

8 their folks told me that some of my soldiers had some 

9 horrific stories as far as what they did through the 

10 night. And they work with groups of 20 to 30 soldiers. 

11 And then those soldiers that needed individual 

12 counselling one on one based on their assessment 

13 through the groups they worked with those soldiers on a 

14 one-on-one basis to discuss any issues.

15 I think for the most part that's the way, you 

16 know, we did business. We worked hand in hand with the 

17 local authorities. We worked with liaisons which 

18 worked out well. And we had a good, strong 

19 relationship with the PD and the fire department. And 

20 it was just one family, one concept, one way of getting 

21 through it. 
75

1 It didn't matter what uniform you had on, 

2 everybody was working together for the same end 

3 statement and same goal. So, you know, it was a 

4 tremendous undertaking. 

5 And, you know, if I had to do it all over again 

6 I'd want to do it with the same people on all levels, 

7 you know? And again, to look at it, you know, there 

8 are ways that we can do things. We need to work 

9 smarter and not harder, you know, we really do. And 

10 that's basically it.

11 MAJ LANDRY: Excellent, sir. Thank you. Thank 

12 you for your time.

13 LTC CANDIANO: Okay, my pleasure.

14 MAJ LANDRY: MAJ Paul Landry from 26th Military 

15 History Detachment. This concludes the interview. The 

16 time is now 1639 hours. This interview was conducted 

17 at the Jamaica Armory in Jamaica, New York.

18 (The interview was concluded at 1639.)

19 * * * * *