John Carmichael is the President of the Church of Scientology of New York, and he earned his Freedom Medal, coordinating Scientology rescue efforts at ground zero.
As the New York Times put it:
September 20, 2001
Religious Leader Takes His Calling to Ground Zero
By AMY WALDMAN
Amid faces gray with grief and grime, theirs are fresh, even smiling. Among blackened uniforms and sooty equipment, their yellow T-shirts are bright buoys. They are clean.
At any time, well over 100 volunteer ministers from the Church of Scientology mill around the remains of the World Trade Center.
Rev. John Carmichael, president of the Church of Scientology of New York on West Street near Chambers.
On the day of the attack, they took in food to workers. Since then, they have taken the mind-altering techniques developed by the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
When rescue workers stagger from the wreckage, the ministers, identified by their T-shirts, try to focus the workers' minds and revive their bodies. In "locationals," workers are told to look at the sky, or at water bottles on a table — anything to ground them in the present, the outside world, rather than the horror within the rubble.
"They bring people back, so to speak, so they are in control of their mind and environment," said the Rev. John Carmichael, the president of the Church of Scientology of New York.
The full text of the article can be found here: Volunteer Ministers at Ground Zero
