Sept. 11, 2001, is a day etched in the collective American mind, the kind of day where everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing.
That’s certainly true for Reading Fire Chief James Stoudt Jr.
Stoudt was living in the Northmont section of the city and was doing things around his house when his wife yelled down the stairs to him. She told him firefighters had been called to respond to an incident at the World Trade Center.
Stoudt turned on the television, and with his 3-month-old daughter sitting on his lap watched in horror as the second of two planes slammed into the Twin Towers.
“I just thought, ‘Oh, my God,’” Stoudt told a small crowd gathered at City Park on Wednesday morning.
Stoudt remember thinking about the firefighters — as well as other first responders — who rushed to the scene of the most devastating attack on the U.S. since Pearl Harbor. Those men and women, he said, didn’t hesitate to put their lives on the line in an attempt to rescue survivors and put out the fires that erupted following the attack.
“They did everything humanly possible,” he said. “Not one of them stepped aside, stepped back.”
A total of 343 members of the Fire Department of New York lost their lives that day. And on Wednesday, the 23rd anniversary of the attack, Stoudt led a brief but poignant ceremony to remember them and the others who were killed that day.
“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “And we hope to never forget.”
Toward that end, the Reading Fire Department has held a remembrance on Sept. 11 each year since 19 terrorists hijacked four planes and forever altered the American consciousness. The event features the laying of a wreath beside a 9/11 memorial tree at City Park, the ceremonial ringing of a bell — three sets of five rings to honor the Fire Department of New York’s signal for a firefighter lost during duty — prayers, a poetry reading and the playing of taps.
It also feature remarks from Reading Mayor Eddie Moran, who like Stoudt has vivid and visceral memories of the attack.
“I, too, have a lot of memories I wish I could put aside, could wipe off,” he said.
Moran was living and working in New York City on 9/11. In the hours following the attack, he remembers running to the Engine 279/Ladder 131 station in Brooklyn to check on his firefighter cousin.
He was told his cousin had had the day off, but when he heard about what had happened at the World Trade Center he rushed to respond anyway.
Moran, stopping his remarks often as he became overcome with emotion, said it took days with fear and uncertainty for him to finally connect with his cousin.
While the events of 9/11 took a toll on him, Moran said he also saw plenty of good in the wake of the attack. He remembers people flocking to the city, eager to provide food or prayer or even just a hug to show their support.
“We have to get back to that,” he said. “We have to continue to come together in unity to live a better life, to create a better world.”
And that, Moran said, is a lesson of 9/11 that, much like the sacrifice of so many first responders, can never be forgotten.
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment