McKinstry: Charlie Wassil paid the ultimate price for 9/11 sacrifices

When two planes crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Charlie Wassil knew exactly where he was needed.

Even though the Peekskill police detective was some 50 miles north of lower Manhattan, Wassil was a first responder to the core. A true public servant.

He organized the department's response and arrived at Ground Zero that day to help search for victims. He never hesitated.

For weeks, he dug through mountains of rubble and hauled away buckets of crumbled concrete and charred debris.

Eventually, it cost him dearly.

Wassil died Wednesday after a long battle with neurosarcoidosis, a rare lung disease that attacked his spine and left him paralyzed. He was 52.

Signs of his failing health showed just a few months after working on "the pile" at Ground Zero. But it wasn't until 2010 that he had to retire from the Peekskill Police Department. Wassil needed a wheelchair and spent the past four years in-and-out of a nursing home.

In between stays, Wassil lobbied Congressional lawmakers -- even traveling to Washington -- on behalf of thousands who needed health coverage as a result of illnesses brought on by working on a toxic mound and its clouds of carcinogens.

Wassil himself was forced to raise tens of thousands of dollars with the help of friends for his costly and sometimes experimental treatments.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was passed in 2010, setting aside $2.7 billion for those first responders who were injured or ill. Yet Wassil remained outspoken on the need for better and expanded coverage, particularly since the federal government had then concluded there was no link between cancer and the chemicals at Ground Zero.

Wassil knew it didn't require a team of scientists to prove the two were related. In fact, just last month another major health study of 21,000 rescue workers concluded they faced a 15 percent higher risk of cancer, which followed the addition of 60 types of cancers last year to the list of World Trade Center-related ailments.

Sadly, the bills, funds and studies came too late for Wassil. There were many heroes in the aftermath of 9/11, but somehow the term doesn't adequately capture all that Wassil sacrificed.

"He was just a true guardian of the people," Wassil's close friend, Peekskill Police Chief Eric Johansen, told me recently.

"He was a tough guy on the outside. Ultimately, he was one of the kindest and most compassionate people you'd come across. . . . If anyone was in need, he was the one who led the charge to help."

A Peekskill native, Wassil served in the U.S. Marine Corp. from 1977 to 1983. He joined the New York Police Department in 1986 and then became a member of the Peekskill force in 1992, where he served for 18 years.

His arms were covered in tattoos, so he certainly looked like a guy you wouldn't mess with. But his actions showed he had a rare combination of toughness, tenacity and compassion.

On the beat, he went after criminals and held the hand of grieving mothers. He believed he was put on this Earth to serve people, the chief said.

And serve he did, giving all that he could.

Gerald McKinstry is a member of the Newsday editorial board.