Lee ielpi with his fire van nuys

Lee Ielpi’s eyes fill with tears as he recalls finding the body of his son in the rubble of the Twin Towers after three months of relentless searching.

“We were very fortunate,” he says. “On Dec. 11 we found our son – his whole body. There were only 292 whole bodies out of 2,749 people who died [at the World Trade Center].”

The horror of Sept. 11 and what he saw in the months that followed still lingers in Ielpi’s mind, but he copes with it the only way he can – by helping others like himself.

A retired firefighter, Ielpi, 60, was at the W.T.C. site for nine months after the attacks. Initially, the search for his 29-year-old son, Jonathan, also a firefighter, drove him to work day and night. But as the months wore on, he stayed and helped others find their loved ones. Soon after, he became vice president of the September 11th Families Association, a nonprofit organization wi Lee ielpi with his fire van nuys airport!