Bucks
Diffenderffer Mumbai Taj Mahal
Dear Friends,
Good morning. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Right there on page one of the New York Times (Nov. 26) was a picture of one of my friends being rescued after terrorists attacked Mumbai, India. “Fire fighters rescued C. Rich Diffenderffer, an executive vice president with Transitional Technologies, from a top floor at the Taj Mahal Hotel with a rescue basket,” the caption read.
“Coordinated
terrorist attacks killed 163 people and wounded more than 250,” the
“Diffenderfer,
of Wilmington, Del. said that after dinner at the hotel, he headed to the
business center on the fifth floor,” the
His business colleague and friend is a former Catholic priest and U.S. Marine Captain who served in Vietnam. G. Dennis O’Brien is one tough fellow. “I wasn’t scared,” O’Brien said, “I’ve been in worse fire fights.” O’Brien and Diffenderffer are not spring chickens…they’re approaching 80.
O’Brien is in excellent shape and swims two miles daily. He told me that he was ready for the enemy. He took a fork and bent the four prongs in different directions in order to gouge an eye or cut a terrorist’s throat if he broke through the door. O’Brien’s plan was to stand on top of the bureau, behind the door and jump on the terrorists if they entered. “No one looks up when bursting through a door,” O’Brien quipped.
O’Brien is a man of many talents. He writes occasional columns for the Washington Post, the Chinese Daily and the Shanghai Star. His language skills are impressive…German, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Italian. O’Brien is a mathematician/ economist and holds many patents specializing in raising the standard of living of farmers in the poorest regions of the world, such as Africa, China, and India.
“The terrorists that attacked our hotel were looking for Americans, Brits, and Jews,” Diffenderffer told me. “Only eight of us 30 survived. Diffenderffer and O’Brien were two of the eight!
“We were just plain lucky,” Diffenderffer continued. “After dinner [in the hotel’s main restaurant], we didn’t stay for desert or coffee but went to our rooms instead. Had we stayed, we’d have been killed.” The terrorists struck 30 minutes later.
“I saw a terrorist with a 50 round clip killing people with a smile on his face,” Diffenderffer reported.
His room was on the fifth floor; O’Brien’s on the third. The terrorists had rooms on the sixth floor. For nine hours, Diffenderffer waited in his bathroom hoping for rescue. Because his cell phone worked, he reached his wife, Tory, and his son in New Haven while mayhem continued in the hall just outside his room.
A half a world away, Tory watched her husband’s rescue on CNN. “Here comes the cherry picker,” she told him. “Don’t forget your prescriptions, your pass port and your tooth brush!”
With his cell phone camera, he took pictures of the firemen breaking the window as they began the rescue. A few moments later, from over 100 feet high, a fireman grabbed Diffenderffer’s belt to safely pull him into the cherry picker bucket. “It was the hardest limbo I ever danced,” he quipped, referring to wiggling under a limbo stick. He said it was like stepping into eternity.
My friend Diffenderffer claims that he still has trouble sleeping at night. I’m surprised that he doesn’t get the shakes. I’d be under the permanent care of a psychiatrist if it were I.
I was
astounded by Diffenderffer’s calmness as he told me this harrowing story. But
he does have stage presence. His rescue photo in the
Some trophy, I’d say.
“The real heroes that night were the firemen,” O’Brien said. “They had no air tanks or protective gear. All they had was courage…plenty of courage. We were rescued in cherry pickers while grenades and AK-47 rounds were bursting everywhere.”
Whether I’m in church or in a fight, I want Dennis O’Brien on my side…and Rich Diffenderffer singing in my ear.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith