She could be a 9/11 casualty, but regrets nothing

Stacey Goodman emerged from the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, where the Twin Towers had stood the day before, and saw debris piled 10 stories high.

Through the smoke, she could make out twisted metal and rubble. The ash covered everything and everyone.

“It was like something from a horror movie set,” Goodman told hundreds of people gathered at Tempe Beach Park for a 9/11 memorial Tuesday night.

Goodman, a detective with the Suffolk County Police Department, volunteered with the federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team. With spotlights fueled by generators, Goodman could see people shifting rubble.

“People worked in silence as if they were in a church or synagogue,” she said.

Goodman worked 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. for 23 days straight. In the first few days, there was no electricity or water. The team slept on unused body bags.

“What I remember the most and it will never leave me is the smell of burning flesh,” she said Tuesday. “It was constant.”

Goodman worked in a makeshift morgue, where she helped identify remains.

“I am no hero, and I don’t claim to be one, but I worked with many,” she said.

Now they are dying. An estimated 2,100 people have died of 9/11-related illnesses such as cancer and respiratory ailments. Experts believe those deaths soon will surpass the number of people killed in the attacks.

“Please keep these people in your prayers,” Goodman said.

After she spoke Tuesday, Philip Manning approached her. His brother Terry was killed in the World Trade Center. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” Goodman said.

Manning nodded. “Thank you for everything you did.”

Goodman retired from the force after 21 years. She moved to Arizona two years ago and works for the TSA at Sky Harbor International Airport.

She struggles with worsening health, but says, “I would do it all over again.”