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GOD BLESS AMERICA - 343!!!!!!
I would like to tell you all a quick story. It has nothing to do with basketball officiating and all to do with 9/11. On 9/11 I was involved in firefighting and emergency medicine in NH and got the call from the academy that they were sending people to NYC to help with the aftermath. I immediately put my name in. It took nearly two weeks before I was called to respond to NY, but when the call came, I was ready to go!
I remember the first day I got there like it was yesterday. I remember seeing NYC Firefighters and NYC Police and Port Authority Police and people from all walks of life at the pit volunteering to help anyway they could. I remember seeing people just crowded around the barriers and emergency workers so tired they could barely walk, but they weren't leaving.
Smoke was still coming out of the wreckage, especially when a crane or other piece of machinery would move some debris. It was an awful sight to see. I was young, probably too young to be there, to see that distruction, but I didn't want to be anywhere else.
I specifically remember looking at the faces of the men and women who had been there for days without rest. The firefighters and police officers who would take a couple hours off after a long 20 hour shift, only to return for another. It was amazing!
The thing I wanted to tell everyone though, was when I got there, when I finally reached Ground Zero, they had just recovered a NYC Firefighter and were removing his remains. What has left of his station house were called down to Ground Zero to carry out their BROTHER our HERO! Everyone stopped what they were doing. Everyone took off their hats and held them over their hearts or stood at attention and Saluted America's Heros!
Everyone who died on 9/11, from the PA field to the Pentagon to the World Trade Center are heros. We Will Never Forget!
GOD BLESS AMERICA - 343!Official99
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I want to thank you for all that you did at the WTC.
Today is not as rememberable to me.. My brother-in-law was a Battalion chief in NYC, Ladder 8 Engine 2, he was one of those heros that never made home to his family. sorry for bringing everyone down with that thought.