{"id":1235,"date":"2023-09-02T07:49:16","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T12:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2023-09-05T07:49:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T12:49:50","slug":"11-days-of-heroes-to-september-11th-2023-bob-schnelle-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/11-days-of-heroes-to-september-11th-2023-bob-schnelle-atlas\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Days of Heroes to September 11th, 2023: Bob Schnelle & Atlas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Read the full story online from the 9\/11 Memorial & Museum Website<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read clips from responses from NYPD Officer Robert (Bob) Schnelle in an interview here:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Bayside, Queens, where the NYPD K-9 Unit was based. I stepped out for a cup of coffee and suddenly my radio was going crazy. Everyone reported that a plane went into the World Trade Center, so I rushed there as fast as I could. On my way, the second plane hit, but I couldn\u2019t see the towers, so I didn\u2019t understand how bad it was. When I arrived on scene, I finally understood the scope of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I had a dog with me, Atlas\u2026I put the AC on for him, rolled the window down and went to help. As I was walking away from the car, the first tower came down. I ducked under someone\u2019s truck as the debris fell. I ran back to the car to get Atlas, because I knew I couldn\u2019t leave him in the car after that. Together, we went to start helping people out. That\u2019s when the second tower started to come down. I remember running for my life, I grabbed the dog, and we ran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought about letting Atlas go. I knew he could run faster than me, and maybe he could outrun this because I didn\u2019t know if I would be able to\u2026He helped me though, he was a young dog, and he was helping pull me faster. It was a run for your life situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, I was assigned to start searching WTC 7. I had a bad feeling. A sergeant told me he felt the same thing. The six of us in our search team gave ourselves 15-20 minutes, and we agreed if we didn\u2019t find anyone in that time we would leave. There were fires everywhere in the building and we just felt something eerie. I don\u2019t think we were out of there for more than an hour before the building collapsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was glad I chose to bring Atlas. The [car] windows were blown out\u2026I doubt he would\u2019ve survived if I left him there.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first few weeks, we were doing 12-hour shifts, almost non-stop. A mobile veterinary [clinic] was set up for the dogs\u2026The dogs were working hard. We were taking a beating with safety equipment, but the dogs had nothing\u2026It was amazing that they were able to perform. I\u2019m sure Atlas was traumatized by surviving that first day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told to join the WTC Health Program early. They told me that I could never imagine what I could get years down the road. I do have esophagus issues, GERD, asthma, and breathing issues. I consider myself healthy when compared to the other people who are suffering.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cAtlas died from cancer in 2008, at 10 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Image from CBS News<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read the full story online from the 9\/11 Memorial & Museum Website Read clips from responses from NYPD Officer Robert (Bob) Schnelle in an interview here: \u201cI was in Bayside, Queens, where the NYPD K-9 Unit was based. I stepped out for a cup of coffee and suddenly my radio was going crazy. Everyone reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}