‘I’m still here’: How a Ground Zero canine handler gave 9/11 families closure, beat cancer – and is now running marathons in all 50 states

Retired New York police officer and canine handler Tom Tatarian knew quickly that he and his team would not recover anyone alive at Ground Zero, but they searched diligently for DNA from victims to help bring closure to their families.

Tatarian was a Suffolk County Police officer who assisted the New York Police Department (NYPD) in the Ground Zero recovery efforts. Along with his canine partner, Hogan, Tatarian searched for two weeks in the “war zone” the World Trade Center had become.

“We kind of knew within 24 hours that we were never going to recover anyone alive, but I am sure we brought closure to a lot of people because we found a lot of remains,” Tatarian told Heartlander News. “Every time a team went out onto the pile, a dog was assigned to them. And what we would do is one guy would take his dog and another canine handler would accompany him with a body bag. Everything the dog indicated to we [would] throw in that body bag, and I can tell you, we didn’t find an intact body. We found hundreds of people, but not a single intact body.”

Tatarian said the K-9 units weren’t trained to wear booties over their paws and “even on the morning of the 12th, the heat was so intense,” so his team duct-taped booties onto their dogs so they “couldn’t yank the boots off, and it actually worked.”

Tatarian mused that his K-9 was “at the smart end of the leash.”

“Hogan was the best, and I was very lucky to work with him,” Tatarian said. Hogan retired from service in 2002, and Tatarian adopted him, with the dog living out his final years as a family pet.

When asked what the generation who does not remember 9/11 or was born after the attacks should know about that day, Tatarian said, “They need to remember that 3,000 people went to work one morning and never went home, right here in America.”

Ten percent of American adults were born after 9/11, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

“It’s hard to describe, you know, the absolute carnage. I mean, it was terrible,” Tatarian said. “We can’t allow history to repeat itself. If you ignore it and you don’t make people aware of it, it will happen again.”

Tatarian said he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in 2013 and that the World Trade Center Health Program attributed the illness to the toxins he was exposed to at Ground Zero.

“Since that time, I’ve had five surgeries, chemo and radiation, and I’m still here,” he said. He was declared cancer-free in 2023.

Tatarian’s diagnosis is far from unique among 9/11 first responders. Thousands of people have developed illnesses and cancers from Ground Zero’s toxins, and more than 9,000 people have died from the exposure, according to multiple reports.

Several first responders, many associated with the Fealgood Foundation, have been fighting on Capitol Hill to ensure funding for programs such as the World Trade Center Health Program for years. Heartlander News previously documented some of their stories. Tatarian said he has been associated with the foundation as well.

His battle with cancer was also a catalyst for an ambitious endeavor: running a marathon in all 50 states. A friend told him running would be cathartic, so Tatarian started with short distances and “now I’m running marathons,” he said.

“Never ran one till after I had my first cancer surgery,” he said. “I didn’t run a marathon till I was 50.”

Tatarian ran a marathon in Wyoming over the weekend, marking the 40th of the 50 states in his quest. He is planning to accomplish his goal by March 2028 with the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach.

“My goal is to finish standing up, not so much winning,” he said, adding that he’s finished first for his age group in several marathons.

After retiring from the Suffolk County Police Department in 2018 on a cancer disability following a year of cancer treatment, he now lives in Sarasota, Florida.

(Featured image: Tom Tatarian and Hogan at Ground Zero, courtesy Tom Tatarian)