September 18, 2021 in River Bend, NC
Sponsored by Rhems VFD
Apparatus Staging at the basketball court on Wildwood at 8 a.m.
0759 Flight 11 takes off from Boston
0800-0830
Apparatus Lineup See below
0814 Flight 175 takes off
0814 Flight 11 is highjacked
0820 Flight 77 takes off from Washington-Dulles
0842 Flight 175 is highjacked
0830-0845
Safety brief and welcome from Sean Yates
0846-Flight 11 crashes into the North tower
Bell ceremony
0850 Flight 77 is highjacked
0903-Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower
Begin Walk
0928 Flight 93 is highjacked
0937 Flight 77 crashes in The Pentagon
0959 South Tower Collapses
1003 Flight 93 crashes in Shanksville Pennsylvania
Walk crosses finish line between 1000 and 1030
1028 North Tower Collapses
Apparatus staging will be by the River Bend Public Works and basketball court on Wildwood. There will be a Rhems member staging the equipment. Apparatus should enter Wildwood Drive by way of Rockledge Road. Each Departments walkers will be followed by their truck. A medical truck will bring up the rear for anyone unable to complete the walk. There will be a water station about halfway thru the course. The route is approximately 5 kilometers long on flat mostly shaded terrain. The route will be from the River Bend Basketball court out to Shoreline drive near the Police Department. Then we will proceed down Shoreline past the Golf course to the entrance of Plantation Drive. We will loop around Plantation to Channel Run and back to Plantation for the final push back out to the Police Department on Shoreline.
The walk is in Remembrance of the 413 first responders that perished that day. Since this will be on an active roadway with police escort, The walk itself for insurance reasons is only open to any and all active First Responders and their departments in the area. Fire, Police, and EMS are all welcome. The public is welcome to join us for the Bell Ceremony at 0846 near the Basketball court. And to line the route and help us honor those we lost.
We are a small town in a small community. But Firefighters and all first responders the world over are a Brother and Sister hood. During hurricane Florence, FDNY was in River Bend assisting Rhems with water rescues. They came and helped us when we really needed it. As volunteer firefighters, Rhems VFD wanted to do something to honor the sacrifices made on 9/11. This is the way we chose as firefighters to do that. The route is just over 5 kilometers long. It was not chosen at random. This is the exact distance that FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller ran in full turn out gear from Brooklyn tunnel to the towers on his day off. Stephen did not survive.
343 firefighters, 37 Port Authority Police Officers, 23 NYPD officers, 8 EMS workers, 1 New York Fire Patrol and 1 Port Authority K9 were lost. It is estimated that over 90 thousand people in the towers were saved that day by their actions.
For more information, contact Sean Yates at 252-671-0613.
By Sean Yates