Until Joy Karnes called, Allegheny County 911 dispatcher Randy Tedesco was watching history, not changing it. The Munhall woman's frantic call, at 7:56 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, gave Tedesco a pivotal role in saving two police officers trapped beneath the World Trade Center rubble nearly 10 hours earlier. "I need to be patched through to the NYPD rescue. Immediately. This has to do with the World Trade Center," Karnes told him. Between routine calls, Tedesco and other dispatchers had been transfixed by broadcasts of the terrorist attacks and their aftermath. Like most Americans, they repeatedly saw the twin 110-story World Trade Center towers collapsing into 10-story piles of rubble. "I wondered how somebody who's trapped under the World Trade Center could end up speaking to someone in Munhall," said Tedesco, who has never before spoken publicly about that day. He believed her. Even if he had not, he would have handled the call the same way. "Regardless of whether I believe her or not, I have to treat every call as if it's real -- especially in that situation," he said. Four fuel-heavy planes had been hijacked and turned into flying bombs. Two took down the twin towers and destroyed the other five buildings that made up the World Trade Center. A third ripped into the Pentagon. Passengers aboard United Flight 93 rebelled, sparing another Washington, D.C. area target by downing their plane in a rural Somerset County field, where numerous Allegheny County rescuers had been sent. Allegheny County's Emergency Operations Center, housed in the same Point Breeze building as the 911 center, had activated that morning when Flight 93 headed toward Pittsburgh air space. Karnes' call was for help 370 miles away in New York City. She had received a call from her brother, David Karnes, a former Marine staff sergeant who lived in Connecticut. He had gone to Ground Zero on his own, searching for survivors. A movie about that rescue, "World Trade Center," directed by Oliver Stone, opens Wednesday and has only a passing reference to Joy Karnes as the unnamed "sister in Pittsburgh" and does not mention Allegheny County 911's role. David Karnes and Marine Pvt. Dave Thomas, whom he ran into during his search, found two officers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey trapped beneath the rubble. Local cell phone frequencies were jammed and Karnes could not reach rescuers in the New York area. Sgts. John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno were trapped in what had been a concourse between the two towers. They did not want Karnes to leave, afraid they would not be found again. So David Karnes made the long-distance call to his sister and asked her to relay their location to rescuers. During Joy Karnes' call to Tedesco, it was unclear whether her brother was trapped with the men or was attempting to rescue them. She said the three officers were near the Forward Hotel, 10 yards south of a fountain and about 40 feet below the rubble. Tedesco's notes were passed to Michael Lupinacci, the assistant communications manager, in the county's emergency operations center. He called Karnes back to recheck her story, then tried unsuccessfully to reach the NYPD, Port Authority and other rescuers by phone. He faxed a message on Allegheny County Emergency Services letterhead to the NYPD, saying: "Received call from Dave Karnes ... trapped in World Trade Center with NYPD Sgt. Maglaughlin and Sgt. Gemetto.10 yards from south fountain 40' down near Forward Hotel. Not a joke call to confirm." He signed his name and gave both his and Karnes' phone numbers. Greg Bolar, a dispatch technician who has since died, sent the same message over the National Crime Information Center, a law enforcement-only computer network that allows instant-messaging. Lupinacci called David Karnes' cell phone and left a message, repeating the information he had received about the officers' location and telling him they were getting him help. At 8:37 p.m., an NYPD sergeant called Lupinacci saying they had received the fax and had dispatched rescuers to the scene. Deluged with prank calls and false leads, the NYPD asked Allegheny County to check out Joy Karnes' call "even to the point of investigating Joy -- to get somebody out there to see if she seemed to be legit," Lupinacci said. Years of experience told Lupinacci, now 44, "This was a good call." Still, county police were sent to Joy Karnes' home. "A half-hour later, NYPD called me and questioned me," Joy Karnes said at the time. "They weren't sure whether to believe it. They asked me if (my brother) had a psychiatric history. I told them he was a police officer and he walked out on an excellent job to do this." New York firefighters called her on their way to the scene to verify the information once again. Rescuers in New York quickly found the site, erasing any doubt. About 11 p.m., Jimeno was freed from the rubble and taken to the hospital. "New York called us back and said they did make the rescue, and we couldn't have been more ecstatic here," said Bob Full, chief of Allegheny County emergency services. Tedesco was home when he heard the news. He said he was happy and relieved. "Basically, it's a thankless job and you don't see the results much of what you do," Tedesco said. McLoughlin, the 19th of 20 people rescued, was freed at 8 a.m. the next day. Genelle Guzman-McMillan, a Port Authority secretary, was pulled from the rubble 4 1/2 hours later. The attack on the World Trade Center killed 2,749 people. Although Tedesco is vague on the call's details after five years, he said it was the most memorable in his eight years as a dispatcher. He turned down all local and national media requests for interviews at the time. "That's not me. I just consider it my job. It's what I was there to do ... and there were so many other people involved. Anybody can answer the phone. It just happened to be me. I would like to think anybody who answered the phone would have handled it the same way and had the same result," he said. "I'm so proud that our 911 operators here acted in their normal, day-to-day professional manner and we could contribute to saving lives in New York," Full said. "The things we know day to day that they do that don't rise to this level of recognition -- the 911 operators, we know, are often the unsung heroes." The 911 Call Center, Tedesco, Lupinacci and other county employees received numerous commendations for their roles in the rescue, including an award from the National Emergency Numbers Association. The NYPD and then-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik sent certificates of appreciation. Most rewarding, those involved said, were the thank-you notes from McLoughlin, Jimeno and David Karnes. "I thank you for helping save my life!" Jimeno said in a card to the Allegheny County 911 staff. "God bless you and you all will always be close to my heart and my family's." McLoughlin and Jimeno did not respond to interview requests through Paramount Pictures' New York public relations firm. David Karnes, now 48 and on active duty with the U.S. Marine Reserves, declined to be interviewed. Joy Karnes, 49, died of breast cancer April 18, said her sister, Christine Karnes-Kearns. She said both her sister and brother are among the heroes of 9/11. Tedesco, 30, of Elizabeth Township, now a lead telecommunications officer, and Allegheny County 911 Manager Bob Harvey saw "World Trade Center" last week at a press screening. Both said they liked it. "It was nice to see what went on -- to see what we did put into action. I was disappointed they didn't put more of what we did in there. It was a small part of the story, but that's where it all started," Tedesco said. "I thought (the movie) recognized the people who really needed to be recognized -- the rescuers, the Marines. Our part was a small part -- passing on information," Harvey said. "As long as he got the thank-yous from the officers, I don't care about the movie," he said. "We know in our hearts we did the best. ... I don't think we care if anyone in the United States knows about it, but we care that our own residents know about it."

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