DETECTIVE TOM McHALE

By Cynthia Brown

One of the nation’s most highly decorated law enforcement officers has just received the prestigious Medal of Honor from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.

Over the course of his 21-year career with the Port Authority Police, Detective Tom McHale has been the recipient of numerous awards and commendations, many coming from outside his own department.

He’s received the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation’s Investigator of the Year award, Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence Director General’s Award, and he’s been a two-time NAPO Top Cop award winner. In addition, Detective McHale received the World Trade Center Individual Acts of Valor Medal for his work following the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the AOH Hanratty Medal of Valor in 1992.

The Port Authority P.D. chose McHale for its top award to recognize his brilliant work with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force following the attacks of September 11. One of Tom’s supervisors, Detective Lieutenant Michael J. Podolak, said there was no one more deserving of the high honor than Detective McHale. “In 1995, Tom was appointed to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark, New Jersey.

Just months after 9-11, Tom, as a member of that group, was sent overseas to assist in the U.S. Government’s investigation into Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network,” Podolak said. “His assignment lasted from January 26, 2002 until April 1, 2002.”

In just a little over two months, McHale accomplished miracles. He was instrumental in locating several Al-Qaeda safe-houses, identified a possible suicide bomber and responded to a bombing at the Protestant International Church that took the lives of several people, including two Americans. In addition, after he was sent to Afghanistan, Tom and his team were successful in finding a biological weapons laboratory.

Working alongside members of other American and foreign government agencies, McHale developed numerous leads in both Pakistan and Afghanistan by conducting painstaking interviews.

His superb investigative skills succeeded in producing valuable intelligence information that resulted in identifying locations where Al-Qaeda and other enemies of the U.S. were hiding.

This top-notch intelligence resulted in several raids undertaken by Det. McHale, members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, the CIA, and the Pakistani authorities. The raids netted numerous prisoners, including several senior Al-Qaeda terrorists.

One prisoner was an uneducated Yemeni national who was arrested by the Pakistani authorities for immigration violations. At the time of his arrest, this detainee was in possession of two other passports.

During the interview, Detective McHale noticed the man had a chemical formula written in Arabic. It turned out to be a blueprint for manufacturing and detonating acetone peroxide bombs.

McHale was already familiar with acetone peroxide bombs from the investigation in New York involving Ramsy Yousef, who was convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The Yemeni man also had a note indicating that he was about to receive a payment of $25,000 in U.S. currency.

Because this uneducated 23-year-old had a recipe for such a highly volatile explosive and was going to be paid $25,000, which at that time was the amount of money being paid to suicide bombers, McHale knew that the chances the man was planning an attack were high.
On March 17, 2002, the Protestant International Church in Islamabad was attacked by a suicide bomber. Detective McHale and a senior attaché from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security were the first American security officials to arrive.

Mike Evanoff, the senior officer with the U.S. Dept. of State, flagged down McHale, who was in a separate vehicle, after hearing the explosions. Mike (who now serves as Condoleezza Rice’s lead body guard) and Tom were the first two Americans at the scene of the bombing just moments after the explosions tore through the Christian church.

McHale remembered that one man they helped – a Brit named Mark – was one of more than 40 injured in the attack.

We found Mark leaving the church covered in blood from his own injuries as well as the blood from other victims,” McHale remembered. “Mark was carrying an American child who had been separated from his family. We got another American family who were en route to the hospital to take the toddler with them.”

Multiple explosions left men, women and children lying in and outside of the church injured and bleeding. Over 40 people were wounded. Five victims lay dead, including an American woman and her daughter.

McHale said that Mark was able to provide the most detailed account of the attack and that he offered up crucial information that there were still unexploded grenades in the church.

“After entering the church I found one unexploded grenade and immediately evacuated the Pakistani first responders,” McHale said. “A CIA EOD team arrived and I briefed them on the situation. They searched the church and found two additional unexploded grenades. The CIA EOD team rendered the grenades safe.”

Commenting from his home in the U.K., Mark said he would never forget that awful day and the image of Tom McHale in his t-shirt running up to the scene along with Mike Evanoff.

“Anyone who runs towards the sound of an explosion is clearly made of the right stuff,” Mark said. “The only U.S. officials at the church in the immediate aftermath of the explosions were Tom McHale and Mike Evanoff. They arrived even before the police, whose station was just next door.”

Detective McHale’s training and experience proved invaluable that day. He quickly got the appropriate personnel to assist the injured and identify people who were already on their way to the hospital. He learned there were at least three additional unexploded grenades in the church. He moved quickly to evacuate the church and called for U.S. Government EOD teams, who arrived quickly and were able to locate and dismantle the bombs. McHale played the instrumental role coordinating the crime scene and writing extensive reports on the incident for the U.S. Government.

During his stint in Pakistan, Tom was sent to Afghanistan. While he was in that country, Operation Anaconda was initiated by American military forces. He was assigned to work with a team of U.S. and Canadian Special Forces. Their mission was to find bin Laden’s biological weapons laboratory in Kandahar.
Random firing into McHale’s base camp was routine at night, presenting additional challenges to coping with the extreme environmental and physical conditions in a war zone in the desert marked by extreme heat during the day and frigid temperatures at night.

To subvert the U.S. efforts, the opposition attempted to plant land mines on the grounds of the unoccupied lab; but the Canadian Special Forces engaged the enemy and were successful in eliminating the threat.

“Detective McHale’s devotion and dedication to duty went way beyond the ordinary as he worked in a challenging military environment with foreign as well as U.S. government intelligence services,” said McHale’s Port Authority Police colleague Det.-Lt. Michael Podolak, who wrote up a moving recommendation for the Medal of Honor for Tom.

“The personal and family sacrifice he displayed is second only to the risks he took to work in such a dangerous environment.”