Editor’s note: This is Part 6 of a nine-part series reflecting on the September 11, 2001, terror attacks ahead of their 25th remembrance this year. Retired Port Authority Police Officer Bobby Egbert, a 9/11 first responder veteran, examines the lasting impact the attacks had on the law enforcement profession and the ways our country and world were changed forever.

Unsung heroes are defined in the Reverso English Dictionary as “people who do great deeds but receive little or no recognition.” There is no more fitting way of describing the heroic work of “New York City’s Boldest,” its correction officers, in the September 11, 2001, rescue and recovery operation at the World Trade Center.

New York City correction officers work some of the toughest beats in town, especially at Rikers Island, the Department of Correction’s (DOC) main facility and a city within a city that can house 15,000 inmates. When the 9/11 attacks began unfolding at the World Trade Center, the DOC — an approximately 7,000-member law enforcement agency responsible for managing and policing the city’s correctional facilities and inmate population — immediately went into a department-wide mobilization, deploying members of its Emergency Service, Harbor and K9 units to Lower Manhattan.

Correction officers brought their history of difficult and complicated work as they joined the New York City police and fire departments, along with other responders, to assist the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) in performing the greatest rescue in our nation’s history.

DOC officers became a critical part of the recovery operation in the wreckage of the World Trade Center, known to responders as “The Pile.” In a DOC video titled “We Were There,” Port Authority Police Lieutenant John Ryan, the Day Tour Task Force Rescue and Recovery commander, said, “There was no one who put a greater effort into the rescue and recovery than correction officers.”

DOC Harbor units were also part of the huge flotilla evacuating thousands from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey.

As recovery efforts began, correction officers established a temporary morgue at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital and provided support services for the Medical Examiner’s Office, while DOC’s K-9s were integral in the search for the remains of those who perished as families sorrowfully hoped and waited for recovery of their loved ones.

DOC ESU Officer Lora Green remembered finding victims, saying, “This was someone’s family member, a father, son, mom, daughter. It starts to hit home.” She added that she felt a duty to give them some kind of dignity.

Officer Hector Fernandez of the DOC Emergency Service Unit recalled a day on The Pile when a void in the wreckage needed to be searched. He descended into the fiery ruins and uncovered the remains of several New York City firefighters and two Port Authority cops. He emotionally said, “They died for our country trying to save lives. That stays in my mind all the time.”

Correction officers also worked at the Fresh Kills Landfill in the borough of Staten Island, where an interagency complex was created to recover and process evidence, human remains and personal effects from the rubble transported there. In addition to correction officers, the Fresh Kills site was staffed with personnel from the FBI, PAPD, NYPD and other agencies. DOC Emergency Service Unit Officer Brian Hanberry recalled working with decomposed bodies and how DNA from those bodies became part of the uniform you were wearing.

Mass casualty incidents usually involve responses from multiple mutual aid agencies. Those agencies work together, endure the same risks and sacrifices, and are all equally fundamental to the operation’s success. Yet media outlets typically focus on one or two agencies in their reporting. After the World Trade Center attacks, local and national media intensely covered the rescue and recovery operations of the New York City Police and Fire departments and either disregarded or were unaware of the equally heroic work of other agencies. Yet the New York City DOC’s heroic work cannot be denied — its courage and dedication in the rescue and recovery, and the sacrifices of its members.

“We know we could not have done this job without the Department of Correction being here side by side with us, working for the families who were asking, ‘Please bring something home of my loved one taken from me on September 11, 2001,’” stated PAPD Lieutenant William Keegan. He emphatically added, “The Department of Correction did that.”

Benny Boscio, president of the New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association (COBA), the union representing approximately 5,000 New York City correction officers, discussed the suffering of his members, saying, “approximately 800 uniformed and non-uniformed members of our department became ill from toxins they inhaled day in and day out from the fumes of smoke that burned endlessly from Ground Zero.” He reported, “of those who have become ill, more than 40 have died from 9/11-related illnesses.”

It never matters whether the badges worn or the patches on a sleeve are different. It is the selfless actions of individuals who swore an oath to always act that becomes of paramount importance in dire situations. And those actions of unsung heroes are never performed for recognition.

Officer Fernandez may have said it best: “I know that we were there and had a significant part in it, and in that I take solace, to know we know. And that is good enough for me.”

Twenty-five years have passed and hundreds of active and retired New York City correction officers still suffer from 9/11 illnesses contracted during their work at the World Trade Center. Each requires continued medical care, many for the remainder of their lives.

Boscio, like other first responder union leaders, is an advocate for the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund to remain viable, saying, “COBA continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow first responders to ensure Congress continues to fully fund the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund to support the families of those brave heroes, who risked everything in their selfless service to our city.”