LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In remembrance of those lost on Sept. 11, The Louisville Fire Department held its annual ceremony honoring the first responders who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
“Attention all companies. Attention all families. Today we lower our flags to half staff and pause for a moment of silence to honor the memory of the fallen firefighters and first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice. Responding to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.”
Twenty-two years later, the department’s newest recruits and leadership stood at attention as the American flag was lowered to half mass.
The department holds this ceremony each year.
“Over 15,000 people were saved from those towers because they got them out. That was the largest rescue incident in the history of the fire service,” Brian O’Neill, Louisville Fire Chief said. “And that’s what I choose to focus on.”
Chief O’Neill joined the fire service shortly before 9/11 after a career in the Marines. He says he had friends who were later deployed to the Middle East and died in the line of duty. O’Neill adds he remembers all who lost their lives because of the terror attacks.
Three hundred and forty-three firefighters were killed in New York after the World Trade Center collapsed.
“Because of their lives that they were given and because of their love for their fellow men and women, thousands were saved. So remember that. Hate cannot drive out hate,” O’Neill said.
The yearly ceremony also includes the playing of Amazing Grace on the bagpipes, performed for over a decade by fire sergeant Tamara Stewart.
“The ability to give through music is something very special. It’s very rewarding,” Stewart said.
Steward adds sometimes the somber tones of the bagpipes can bring a sense of heaviness — reflecting the weight of memorials like today’s.
“It’s obviously not the happiest of occasions to remember tragedy that was 9/11,” said Stewart. But it’s important to be there and represent, in a small way, it’s my way to honor all of those lives that were lost on that day,” she added.
Still, O’Neill says this yearly moment of reflection must continue, so that future generations can understand what this day means.
“We don’t want our memory to be thought of with just tears. We want to be remembered with smiles. We want to be remembered fondly, and I think that they would want us to focus on all the good that they did that day,” O’Neill said.