MILWAUKEE— Milwaukee firefighters reflect back on 9/11, 20 years later.

Two decades after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, almost everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news that the first plane hit the Twin Towers. For two Milwaukee firefighters, it’s the memories each of them made later that stick with them the most.

During the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 300 first responders lost their lives when they ran into the smoke and flames at the World Trade Center and Pentagon to try and help people inside. It was that same calling to try and help that's brought first responders from Wisconsin to New York after the smoke had cleared.

Chief Aaron Lipski and Lieutenant Matthew Bryant, with the Milwaukee Fire Department, were both in the early stages of their careers 20 years ago. Lipski was recovering at home from an injury he got while fighting a house fire, and Bryant was on shift at the department when the towers were first hit.

But as they watched everything unfold on that fateful day, both knew they eventually needed to go to New York and support their fellow first responders. 

Lipski made the trip to New York about a month after the attacks with around 20 other Milwaukee firefighters.

His goal was to go to as many funerals as he possibly could.

“We just ran from borough to borough, just trying to find a way to get there. I have never seen anything like it— people having to pick which of their friends' funerals they would be able to go to because they were occurring at the same time,” Lipski said.

Chief Lipski attended ten funerals in four days.

“Our contribution to the entire solution was to just be present— to just be there for whatever value that brought,” Lipski said.

In 2006, Bryant had his chance to get to ground zero and mark the five-year-anniversary of the attacks.

“The ground zero itself was still in cleanup mode. They were pretty much done with it— things were all fenced off,” Bryant said.

While Bryant was there visiting one of his friends who was on the FDNY, he took in all the stories and pictures his friend had collected during that fateful day. He even held the very key his friend from the FDNY had that was once used for the World Trade Center.

In their time visiting the city paying their respects, the one thing they both noticed was the sense of togetherness they saw and felt throughout the city, and the country.

“You were walking around in this unreal environment of togetherness and despite this tragedy and this sorrow, there was an enormous sense of coming together and positivity in that moment,” Lipski said.

That feeling is something they will hold on to for the next 20 years, at least.

In all, 343 first responders lost their lives Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, more first responders have died due to illnesses related to the attacks and continue to deal with sicknesses today.