A Technician Whose Kids Were His 'Hobbies'

By Bill Bleyer | STAFF WRITER

September 21, 2001

Derrick C. Washington, a Verizon technician from Calverton, never worried about working on the top floor of the World Trade Center's south tower.

"He was on the 110th floor, right below the observation deck," said his wife, Kiesha. "Derrick was very proud of working on the top of one of the highest buildings in America."

But when terrorists struck the complex on Sept. 11, Washington, who handled switching of international calls for the past six years, had few options.

There were no windows on the 110th floor, so when the 33-year-old father of three heard the impact of the first hijacked airliner into the adjacent tower, he ran up to the observation deck.

There he called his brother Brandon - a conversation of less than a minute that also was recorded by his brother's answering machine.

"I'm all right, man," Washington says excitedly on the tape. "There's smoke and everything. Just let Mom and Dad know so they won't stress out. The plane just missed our building and hit the building next door."

Washington said he would evacuate as soon as he grabbed his laptop.

"Forget the laptop and get out now!" his brother urged.

"OK," Washington answered. "I'm booking."

"That was the last thing we heard from him," Kiesha Washington, 30, said yesterday, as she sat at the dining room table in their apartment where yellow ribbons are tied around the trees outside, and American flags and flowers cover an area of the lawn. "You can hear the anxiety in his voice."

Washington didn't call home because his wife attends Suffolk Community College full time. When she learned of the attack, she left the Riverhead campus and drove to her in-laws' house in Brooklyn to watch the news and wait.

The family followed the now familiar pattern: making the rounds of the hospitals and filling out a nine-page missing persons form. Kiesha Washington provided dental records, and her father-in-law later took in her husband's toothbrush.

Relatives and Verizon employees have continued to dial Washington's cell phone and beeper in an effort to help lead rescuers to him.

"I try to keep hope alive, but as the days go by it gets harder and harder," Kiesha Washington said. She knows the other four employees who worked with her husband also are missing. "It's so conflicting because you hear on the TV that there may be some Jane Doe or John Does in a hospital, so that's why we put fliers out."

The fliers have photos of Washington with contented smiles and provide his vital statistics: "Age: 33. Height: 6 feet, l inch. Weight.: 180-200 pounds. Hairstyle: Bald. Jewelry: Wedding band, watch and a pinky ring. Last seen: World Trade Center Tower Two, 110th floor."

The flier, however, doesn't describe his personality. "He's a homebody," his wife said. "His hobbies are his kids."

Kiesha Washington said she has told her two older children, Christopher, 12, and Devin 7, what happened. But not their 3-year-old. "Malik does not know and he asks me if he can speak to Daddy. I try to keep him thinking about something else."

The neighbors at the Calverton Hills apartment complex held a candlelight vigil Friday night. And Kiesha Washington has been watching memorial services for other missing people on TV. But in her own case, she said: "I wouldn't even be able to think of that yet. It's just too soon. We're still trying to keep hope alive. I wouldn't do anything until I know one way or the other."