Lee ielpi with his fire vantage

Searchers at the site managed to find the remains of his son who had responded to the disaster as a member of the FDNY. Then, as he was preparing for retirement, Lee was diagnosed with cancer, most likely caused by his time at Ground Zero. Lee has four children, two boys and two girls. That morning, Lee got a phone call from his son Jonathan.

Jonathan was in a special operations company called Squad They are highly trained above and beyond the regular engine and truck companies. There are six such squads in the FDNY. Now I felt like I was stuck because nobody was allowed to go into Manhattan. But eventually, Lee found an escort who recognized him, and made his way to the site, where he would begin his nine months of searching at Ground Zero.

COOPER: That's Lee Ielpi, one of the fathers of the firefighters lost here at ground zero.

We became known as the band of dads. There were about eight of us that just met every day at the same spot, hoping this would be the day. We were given carte blanche by the fire department, and we all had our own handy-talkies, walkie-talkies, and we went to work. If somebody called that they found the remains of firemen, one of the band of dads would go over, god willing it would be one of the sons.

He said Lee we have Jonathan. So I went back into the site with my son Brendan.