ABSTRACT
If the death of so many of their comrades in the disaster of 9/11 was the initial wound in the heart of the firefighters of New York, the inability to achieve full retrieval of the bodies of the men lost at the World Trade Center (WTC) has been like another knife in the heart of many men. Many firefighters remain frightened of a future terrorist incident. During the year following the 9/11 attacks, pension incentives and family pressures to leave pushed that number to forty applications per week. As the Fire Department struggles to replace senior men, firefighters must deal with the simultaneous dilemma of having to integrate new members into the life of the firehouse. As the mourning process deepened over the winter, the men moved from a numbed frozen guilt to a more "therapeutic depression" which featured grief and despair. Many had worked through some of their rage, self-blame, and denial to psychologically inhabit their new world.
