A few thoughts on this 9/11 anniversary...and a link to a great video.

[Beemerguy53]

In my 30 year career with the Baltimore City Fire Department, it was my great pleasure to meet firefighters from all over the world. One of the things that always struck me when I met a firefighter from somewhere afar, was that while our languages were different, our uniforms were different, and our equipment was different...we were all basically the same.

I thought of that when I watched this video. It's part of a documentary about the Rescue Companies of the New York City Fire Department, and it was filmed sometime before September 11, 2001. Members of Rescue 1 and Rescue 2 are shown explaining why they do what they do, and why they love it, and how they accept the risks that come with entering burning buildings for a living...

This could have been filmed in almost any big city in the world. Dedication, love for the job, knowledge of the risks involved....we all felt that. But it was filmed in New York...and every single firefighter you see interviewed in this 9-minute video was killed on September 11, 2001...

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhXF92Jzt8&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

Never forget...

 

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

Unreal! This video puts a human face on the tragedy.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Unreal! This video puts a human face on the tragedy.

The tragedy reached far beyond the deaths of the men in this video.

In the FDNY, there are five Rescue Companies, one for each borough. In most American cities, rescue units are to the fire service what the Special Forces are to the US Army: Elite, highly-trained and specialized units. As one of my friends on Baltimore's Rescue 1 used to say: "We're the firefighters that firefighters call!" It takes a long time, and lot of training and experience, to become proficient at being a Rescue firefighter.

On the morning of 9/11, all five FDNY Rescue Companies, with a total of 40 men, responded to the World Trade Center, and they were all killed. The effects of that loss of experience and talent hurt the citizens of New York for years.

Of the 343 FDNY members who were killed, 84 were officers, including 17 Chief Officers. The senior leadership of the FDNY was virtually wiped out, hundreds of years of experience gone in an instant. The casualties included Special Operations Deputy Chief Raymond Downey, who was one of America's foremost authorities on highrise building fires, and Chief of Department Peter Ganci. (This was the only time in modern American history that the Chief of a big-city fire department was killed in the line of duty. It's analogous to the US Army Chief of Staff being killed in battle.)

As a sad postscript to the video, you'll recall FF Joseph Angelini, from Rescue 1, mentioning that his son was at Ladder 4 in the Theatre District of Manhattan, and that they would occasionally catch fires together. On the morning of 9/11, they worked their last fire together...and they were both killed.

When I think about this day, many things come to mind. I am always proud of the dedication and courage of my FDNY brothers, and I think of them working to save trapped civilians, even as they knew what was about to happen...

I think of the evil monster who planned this outrageous attack, and how just it is that he's eating dinner with Satan right now...

And I think of the need for us to be vigilant, and strong, and never let anything like this happen again.