From Forest Hills VAC: Richard Allen Pearlman joined the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps Youth Corps at the age of 14. Richie immediately excelled in performing the tasks of a dispatcher. He took his job very seriously, knowing that he provided a vital link between the ambulance that was carrying the sick and the rest of the world including the hospital they were going to.

Richie was a constant presence at the Corps. He was the regular Tuesday night and Saturday daytime dispatcher. He was present at every can shaking and blood pressure screening the Corps held. He also became involved in the Boy Scouts of America, where he was able to pass on his knowledge of EMS to younger scouts around the area.

The following information about Ricardo Quinn was excerpted from: "Limited Help for Families of Medical Rescue Workers" September 23, 2001, By JIM DWYER:

Mr. Sullins and his partner took two patients to the hospital, including one who was severely injured, Mrs. Sullins said. On their third run into the building, his partner went out to the ambulance for supplies. She ended up in a New Jersey hospital, unsure of how she got there, said Mrs. Sullins, whose husband did not escape.

They have two sons, a 4-year- old, Julian, and an 18-month-old, Christian. Mrs. Sullins, 26, met her husband while she was shopping in the East Village, and he pulled up on a motorcycle ? "doing what young men on motorcycles do," she said. "He caught my attention."

David Sullins appears to have about $10,000 in life insurance, according to his wife, Evelyn Sullins. She said that the hospital had set up a trust fund for their children's education.

Now she knows for certain that Carlos Lillo would give his life for her. Because he did.

On duty in Astoria, Carlos Lillo, 37, was mobilized to One World Trade Center, where Cicilia worked for the Port Authority on the 64th floor. When the couple could not reach each other by cell phone, Carlos went into the building to find her.

"I was trying to tell him that I got out and not to worry about me," said Lillo, 35. "I know he was my hero, because I was in there and he was trying to save me."

She met Carlos in 1982, when they were students at Long Island City High School. He was in a relationship and they never dated. They met again at a New Year's Eve party 15 years later, and by that June decided to move in together. He proposed at their housewarming party. They married last year in Jamaica.

 New York Times Article - September 21, 2001

The following information about Ricardo Quinn was excerpted from: "Limited Help for Families of Medical Rescue Workers" September 23, 2001, By JIM DWYER

The family car never came home the night of Sept. 11 to Bayside, and the phone did not ring. So Ginny Quinn was pretty sure that her husband, Ricardo, had been stuck all night at Elmhurst Hospital Center, working as a paramedic. The next morning, she said, she got a call from another paramedic who asked, "Did Rick make it home?" Her husband, who had a shoulder surgery this summer and was on a light duty assignment, had not gone to Elmhurst Hospital. "He just hightailed it over to the trade center," Mrs. Quinn said. Mr. Quinn was one of eight paramedics and emergency medical technicians who ran into the burning towers and did not make it out alive.

From other paramedics, Mrs. Quinn learned that Mr. Quinn ran into Tower 2 and stopped to bandage a fellow medic who had been hit by falling debris. He helped load another patient into an ambulance, went back inside to help, and disappeared. "I know he went in there thinking of other people," Mrs. Quinn said, referring to her husband's run into the tower. "The world is missing a good, good person." She paused. "Well, it's missing 5,000 of them."

Having graduated from Hudson Catholic High School in 1992, David was hired as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) with the Jersey City Medical Center and took on simultaneous responsibilities as an EMT for UMDNJ (University Hospital EMS) through 1993. A burning desire to do more led David to receive an Associate's Degree in Paramedicine from UMDNJ in 1994, and was subsequently hired as a Paramedic with the Jersey City Medical Center, his MICP #1889. Recognizing David's superior talent and leadership skills, UMDNJ elevated him to Ride Master of the UMDNJ EMS Bike Team in 1995 where he served through 1999. Success waits for no one and David was clearly on that path as he began to pursue studies in Sports Medicine at Kean University. In 1998, he was promoted to Tour Chief of the Jersey City Medical Center in charge of Emergency Services. That same year, he was also made a member of the NJSEA Meadowlands Arena as a Team Paramedic. Having aided and saved numerous lives in medical crisis, David understood his calling and what it meant to be of "Service."

David embraced his calling willingly, wholeheartedly, and humbly. He did not know where his path in life would lead, but, as a man of strong faith and trust in God, and with the love and support of his family, he was able to forge ahead on the journey of life. His desire to provide for his family and to be of service to his community led David on August 7, 2000 to take his rightful place among the ranks of one of the Nation's best police departments, that of the Port Authority Police of New York and New Jersey, his Badge #834. What was sure to have been a stellar career, was cut short on a fateful Tuesday on September 11, 2001.

David left this world committed and true to his mission and vocation and we know he lived out that vocation up though the final moments of his young life, having saved two fellow comrades of the PA Police, among them two superior officers; and a third civilian security guard. David, as strong and kingly as his name implies, took charge and led them all to safety. He could have saved himself, but bearing witness to the Gospel message that of, "No greater Love is there than this, than to lay down one's life for a friend," David heard the voice of God calling in the pain and suffering of those in need, and his response was simply "Here I am Lord." And David went home.

David was laid to rest on October 5, 2001 at the Grove Reformed Church Cemetery at 1132 46th Street in North Bergen, New Jersey.