Tuesday, September 06, 2005
By SHARON SCHLEGEL
Staff Writer
Scott Shields' eyes fill with tears, the pain he has lived with for nearly three years is evident when he talks about Bear, the search-and-rescue dog he led into the smoking rubble at ground zero Sept. 11, 2001.
In his new book, "Bear: Heart of a Hero," the Princeton resident, along with co-author Nancy West, recreates that experience with all its horror, pain, fear and soul-inspiring bravery. Shields will tell Bear's story during a book signing 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes & Noble in MarketFair.
It was Bear's intrepid spirit, Shields says, that resulted in his being the only search-and-rescue (SAR) dog to find survivors among the acres of debris.
The 11-year-old dog put in exhausting 18-hour days for weeks, finding many victims too late to save, but not to identify and bury.
Even after being injured by a piece of metal, which would cause the dog a cancerous wound, Bear persisted in his mission, Shields relates.
The story of the man and the dog Shields unabashedly called "my son" is unalterably interwoven, he stresses while sitting on a bench in Palmer Square.
That's why when Bear died on Sept. 23, 2002, his body riddled with cancer, Shields thought he'd never want another dog.
But today, as folks stop to pet the handsome retriever seated by his side, Shields explains that with the encouragement of his friends, he decided to take on and train Theodore, Bear's son.
The dog has already located two missing persons for police, Shields proudly says of the dog he calls Theodore-(able!).
"He loves everyone," Shields adds. "But Bear was a one-man dog."
-- -- --
A Drew University graduate who lived in Connecticut, Shields entered the family business after college, becoming a manufacturer and designer of fine dresses that were supplied to stores along the East Coast.
The major change in his life came with the purchase of his first dog, Honey, Bear's mother. When she had pups, Shields kept Bear. Training the two dogs soon went from being a hobby to a passion.
Shields began to volunteer for marine environmental groups, the dogs rescuing injured birds and helping Shields dock boats.
Within five years, Shields had decided to change careers, moving into emergency management full time, taking course after course in search-and-rescue and disaster work.
By the morning of 9/11, Shields was a seasoned New York marine safety officer, living in coastal Connecticut with Bear (Honey had died at 13), and both were thoroughly trained in national disaster preparedness.
Although Shields didn't dream how deeply he and Bear would be involved in the thick of things - "I thought we'd be working in support and logistics" he says - he immediately left for ground zero when he realized the 9/11 crashes were no accident.
Bear accompanied Shields wearing his Red Cross ID insignia collar. Shields says he would never have guessed that Bear's work at the site would result in his becoming America's most-decorated canine.
After he left the site after weeks of diligent work, Bear would be honored by dozens of organizations including the Army; the states of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut; the Queen of England's Scots Guards, that wrote a song about him; and the United Nations, which displayed his photo during World Peace Month as a "Hero to Humanity."
Perhaps most meaningfully to Shields, his courageous canine would eventually be buried as a firefighter, with thousands in attendance in New York harbor, where a "missing man" formation of planes flew overhead in Bear's honor.
-- -- --
Eager to talk about Bear, Shields downplays his own achievements at the site.
They include spontaneously stepping forward and directing traffic with a bullhorn when chaos was threatening, as well as organizing a fleet of boats to take firefighters and rescue workers to a pier close to the site.
He accomplished both despite arguments from bureaucrats that neither could be done.
Then, he spent weeks with Bear and other SAR teams "on the pile," as the rubble became known to disaster workers, digging sometimes into depths of ash and debris 30 to 40 feet high.
Even on 9/11, red tape sometimes intervened. In his dramatic recount of the events of that day, Shields writes that when he went to secure more teams of rescue dogs waiting in a staging area, he was horrified to find that he could not direct them to firefighters without filling out detailed required paperwork.
"I can't help but think maybe more lives might have been saved if there had been more search dogs on site in the first hours," Shields says sadly.
He describes the threatening conditions under which rescuers worked. Bear, whose remarkably sensitive nose could not function wearing a dust mask for protection as people did, "had his nose down in the toxic soup," and had to have his eyes and nose swabbed clean hourly before going back in.
Later, when a pet insurer tried to deny payment to the rescue dogs injured and ill because of their work at ground zero, Shields wrote, argued and then went to the press. The ensuing outcry led to the company agreeing to pay.
Nonetheless, Bear's total medical bills, more than $15,000, have still not been reimbursed, and most of the 350 SAR teams at the site were never even made aware a reimbursement for health care was available, Shields claims.
"That's part of why I started the foundation," he says, referring
to the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation .
Its goals, Shields explains, include providing health care to all canines that worked at ground zero and the Pentagon, and providing instruction in emergency management to SAR teams around the county and helping to equip them.
"Most of those teams do their work out of their own pocket," Shields says.
"Many get some help locally or from the state, but they really depend on donations. They do the work because they love it."
-- -- --
On Sept. 17, aboard the USS Intrepid Sea/Air/Space Museum in New York Harbor, one of the world's largest service-dog event will take place - a daylong demonstration of dogs' search and rescue, therapy, explosives detection and other abilities.
During that event, Shields says proudly, the foundation will present awards for "extraordinary service to humanity" to individuals and SAR teams, including the Army explosives detection team that recently returned from Iraq. v
Shields says no matter how well the day goes, he will ache thinking of Bear. Nor is that the only pain he is enduring.
"I fractured both ankles at ground zero," he says. "My health will never be the same. I can't breathe cold air anymore and I can't lift anything heavy. But because I kept going back in and didn't report my injuries within the time limit, I'm not eligible for compensation."
Other things also anger Shields, such as how politics has come to play an important role in which services are assigned to dogs and what lessons have been learned from 9/11.
He is disappointed, too, in the fact that while firefighters were seen as the nation's heroes in 2001, people are beginning to forget their extraordinary services, humility and courage.
Perhaps at least, he hopes, because of the book, Bear will not be forgotten. Meanwhile, Shields work goes on.
Just a few days ago, he and Theodore were on their way to Louisiana, to help in the recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina.
"They always need us. There's always more to do," Shields said.
To learn more about the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation and the Sept. 17 Intrepid event visit (bearsearchandrescue.org).
|
