New Jersey State Police Lt. Col. Richard H. Arroyo had a better background than most other law enforcement members to deal with what he would see, hear and smell at Ground Zero in Manhattan the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Arroyo, a Mays Landing resident and former Galloway Township officer, spent time as a medivac pilot from 1986 to 1997 for the New Jersey State Police before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“Flying medivac everyday, you are dealing with a lot of injuries. That probably prepared me for that,” said Arroyo about flying car-crash and accident victims to the hospital. “You can hear and see everything that is going on. ... You get to the hospital, and you witness the family members coming in.”

Arroyo, 67, and Pastor Gary Holden, 71, of Vineland, were two South Jersey residents who were at Ground Zero helping out. Almost 20 years later, they are both still working and trying to help, this time through arguably the biggest national crisis since 9/11, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both men developed serious medical conditions from their time at Ground Zero. They are encouraging everyone who is eligible to register with the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund by the deadline of July 29, and to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination shot as soon as possible if an individual suffers from a 9/11 preexisting condition.

By the time 9/11 happened, Arroyo was a member of the tactical emergency admission specialist, or TEAMS, unit with the State Police. He was at Ground Zero for more than a month, working 18-hour days at first with search and rescue and later with recovery efforts. A bus would take those involved to sleep in the enclosed parking lot of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.

“As horrible as the situation and the actual event was, you really got to see a whole different side of America,” Arroyo said.

After working the first night at Ground Zero, Arroyo and other people he was with had not eaten for 18 hours. A man on the street was cooking hamburgers near the Javits Center. Arroyo asked the man if he could buy some. The man refused to take money and gave them to him.

“It was unbelievable. People would come up to us and see if they could give us clothing,” Arroyo said.

Holden volunteered as a chaplain at Ground Zero from March through May 2002 to provide spiritual and emotional support to any of the first responders and workers that needed it. He was there with the Four Chaplains Chapel & Memorial Foundation, out of Philadelphia.

“Most of it for us was one-to-one. People would come up to us, and it wasn’t just first responders. There were people that would come there, and they were hurting for some reason, and they would say, ‘Chaplain, Chaplain. I need to talk to you.’ We were really busy 24/7,” said Holden, who was the pastor at Trinity Bible Church in Vineland at that time.

Years later as a result of his having been at Ground Zero for extended periods of time, Arroyo was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2018 and bladder cancer one month later in June 2018. He is in remission from bladder cancer, but is still being checked for both.

“It was 17 years before I found anything wrong,” Arroyo said.

Holden was diagnosed with 9/11-related, Stage 4 prostate cancer two years ago. He has received dozens of laser treatments and is on medication for it.

Michael Barasch, managing partner of Barasch & McGarry: Lawyers for the 9/11 community, based out of New York, said the 9/11 community is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, since tens of thousands of responders, downtown office workers, residents, students, teachers and others contracted respiratory illnesses and cancers from exposure to World Trade Center toxins.

“Their immune systems are compromised, and they are scared to death. My firm alone has lost over 100 clients with 9/11-related underlying conditions to COVID. It’s truly heartbreaking,” Barasch said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Arroyo was working as the police administrator for the Delaware River & Bay Authority Police Department in Delaware. The places in his officers’ territory include the Cape May Airport, the Millville Executive Airport, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry and the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

Arroyo said his officers did start wearing masks while out in routine patrols when COVID-19 hit. He said maintenance personnel did an excellent job obtaining masks.

They also ordered face shields and switched from uniforms that needed to be dry cleaned to those that could be hand washed.

“We put hand sanitizer in every vehicle,” said Arroyo, who added that hand sanitizers are also throughout the facilities. “The vehicles are wiped down between every shift. ... We still practice everything that we started.”

With Arroyo’s preexisting medical conditions from 9/11, he makes sure he wears a mask when he is out in public, and he socially distances himself.

“I also was vaccinated on the 16th (of January),” said Arroyo, who added he had no side effects from the vaccination. “I highly recommend it.”

After 9/11, Holden stopped serving as pastor of Trinity Bible Church, but what he experienced at Ground Zero led him to become the founder, president and CEO of The Police Chaplain Program.

Holden said it has been much more difficult to pastor to people during the COVID-19 pandemic than it was for him during 9/11.

“Hospital chaplains are there, but you cannot go into the rooms,” said Holden, who added that unlike 9/11, which was in person, COVID-19 pastoring sometimes has to be done by Zoom or phone. “You are actually ministering to the families because they cannot go in and see them (their dying relative) either.”