Heroes Remembered: A 9/11 Legacy

On this episode, we bring you a powerful interview with Kevin, David, and Rich, three retired firefighters who served during the events of 9/11. They share their experiences from the day the towers fell and reflect on the lasting impact it has had on them and their community. We also dive into their involvement with the Tunnel to Towers project, which honors the memory of their fallen comrades. They discuss the challenges they've faced, including the toll of 9/11-related cancers, and the significance of the Tunnel to Towers run held every year to keep the promise of never forgetting. 

Transcript

Who a lot of people don't realize the amount of people we lost on on nine over 11, over 3000. And then we're already past. More people have died from all the cancers already, so we're already past us. We're over 6000 people. Right now, there's over 30,000 people with certified cancer from nine over 11. And 30% of those people have two, two or more forms of cancer.

So that's what we try to make aware of. There's just constantly like even last week before, I'm getting ready to come down here. Two firefighters passed away from 911 cancer just, you know, within a week of each other.

Welcome to the We Share podcast I'm Julie, I'm Alex. We share ourselves and we provide a platform for others to share. We believe everyone has a purpose and a story to tell. In part three of our three part series on remembering the tragedy of 9/11. We are bringing you an interview conducted with Kevin, David and Rich, all retired firefighters who are serving the day the towers fell.

Take a listen to Neil Larson and me talking with these courageous gentlemen. As always, we are forever grateful for their service. Julie, we have some heroes in our midst this morning that we're very excited to introduce to our audience today. Yeah, we have chatted about the 911 tribute dinner that happened over the weekend with Travis Snowden. We talked with him last week, and then today we're going to focus a little bit more on the Tunnels to Tower project.

That actually is a mobile unit that made its way to Idaho Falls. And so we have three former, firefighters and Chief captain lieutenants, captain, captain and lieutenant that are joining us today. Good morning, gentlemen. Good morning. If we could, we'll bring you around the microphone. Here we have Rich, Kevin and Dave. And it's it's currently on display at the waterfront at snake River landing.

So tell us about this display. You had a lot of people that came through yesterday, but there's still plenty of opportunity for people to come and see it. Yeah, the Tunnel to Towers exhibit. It's free. It's open to offer to the public from 4 to 7 today, 4 to 7 tomorrow, 3 to 7 on September 11th. During the day today.

It's not open to the public because we're doing all the public schools to educate them about the the events of that day. When you go into the museum, there'll be, there'll always be a minimum of 2 to 4 firefighters there, those of firefighters dressed in New York City, uniforms were all active on September 11th. We are all retired firefighters who donate our time to go around the country with tunnel to towers to educate, teach, and to keep the promise that we gave to our brothers and their families that we'd never forget them.

And we that's what we do. What an amazing effort. And I, I when I think about the this just the spirit of first responders and what they've been through, it is just heartbreaking is the wrong word. But it's a very emotional thing and so would like to bring in others here. Maybe you were there on the morning of 911.

Share a little bit of your experience and what what you went through on that morning. Rich. Yeah, I was there. I was actually home, the night before was Monday Night Football game. Broncos, against the New York Giants. So I had a little get together at my house. So my wife said, go ahead, sleep and I'll put the kids on the bus.

Woke up to the first plane, hit the north tower, saw the second plane, hit the south tower and went right in. You know, by the time we, got our guys from Brooklyn and made a way to downtown Manhattan, the buildings that already collapsed. So, yeah, we just became part of the rescue effort. Pretty much right away. Okay.

It was really surreal being down there and here in Nyack. Dead silence from all the, all the debris and the dust and the paper that was around. There was nobody in downtown Manhattan on a Tuesday morning in September, and you could hear a pin drop. It was kind of very surreal. It had already kind of cleared out of that.

Yeah, except for the huge pile. Yes. Yeah. So we started a rescue effort. And, you know, basically from that day for the next few days, it was like work until you couldn't find your way back to your firehouse because we didn't have rides. We commandeered busses to get there. So we'd have to figure out a way to get back to the firehouse.

Oh, wow. So you didn't even return home? You just slept at the firehouse for the next several days? I think I was at the firehouse for five days. Yeah, well, by the time I got home, I crash. I just fell asleep right away. And I woke up to my daughter running up the stairs just here in the.

You know, she saw my car and got very excited. Yeah, yeah. Very emotional. I can't imagine it's been 23 years. Yeah. Does that feel like a long time or is it gone quickly? Like what? What how have you processed that? How do you process that? It kind of the scratching at you gets reduced over time, you know, it feels like yesterday.

Every time I think about it, it's the those details of those couple of days will never go away. Just etched in my mind forever, you know, so it's it's never going to fully go away. The pain of it just kind of dwindles a little bit this time of year obviously comes back. And like Kevin said earlier, September 12th is kind of a day of relief for us every year.

Yeah, it's kind of all gone on the other side of it. You get there. Yeah. Okay. On a personal note, how's the health of you three? There's been a lot of, those who responded suffer, dramatic health, decline because of of being down there. How are you three doing? I'm I'm doing okay. I have a little bit of, diminished lung capacity.

Nothing too severe. I did develop, a melanoma in my eye this year. So I'm told melanoma in the eyes, very rare, like one over 100,000 people. But in first responders, it's closer to one in 5 or 600. So the numbers are, really insanely high for first responders since 911. Okay. We've lost more people after nine over 11 than we have on 911 because of 911 diseases.

Okay. So that's just the reverberating body collateral damage. Yeah. Yeah, it's good to. Yeah. And what what he was saying is, exactly true. A lot of people don't realize, the amount of people we lost on, on nine, 11, over 3000, and then we're already passed. More people have died from all the cancers already, so we already passed that.

We're over 6000 people. And right now there's over 30,000 people with certified cancer from 911. And 30% of those people have two, two or more forms of cancer. So that's what we try to make aware of. There's just constantly like even last week before, we were getting ready to come down here. Two firefighters passed away from 911 cancer just, you know, within a week of each other.

They had one that died yesterday. Another lieutenant, another died yesterday. Okay. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Give us a brief overview of what? Tunnel to towers. Who? Who benefits from all of these volunteer efforts that you guys have put together? So it started, when Stephen still. Is it? Well, we go back to the beginning where, when, Stephen was leaving the firehouse, he was getting off that morning to go play golf with his brothers, and he heard caught wind at the, towers got hit.

So he turned around and, went back to his firehouse. Contacted wife to tell his brothers he's going to be late. He then proceeded to drive to, the Brooklyn Tunnel. He couldn't couldn't get through. They had shut it down already. He went to Woodward Ladder Company, 202 and one on one. He went to engine 2 or 2 to pick up gear, and he put it on, and he ran the whole distance of the tunnel.

And we know this because there's actually a photograph of him running in the tunnel. Unfortunately when he made it through to the other side, he he perished with his, with the brothers when the towers came down. But his family wanted to do something, so he started, five K race. You know, they just started out the first year, I think there was, how many people?

It was just the first year as the family just walked through it. They just. And a bunch of them, they were very religious family. And they had a lot of, a lot of interest from from that, from their friends. So they closed one lane of the battery tunnel down, and about 150, 200 of them took a walk through the tunnel.

And from that the tunnel to towers was really born and resurrected it. It just happened. Now, the last Sunday of September is a Tunnel to Towers run. This year they'll have 30 to 35,000 people registered that pay to do it, and they have it all over the world. Now, the yeah, the tunnel to towers racing. And what they do with it is they if there's any, first responders that die in the line of duty, they pay off their mortgage and they even stepped it up.

Now it's going to be cops farm. And then they went even to the military. If any military members, killed in action, they pay off the mortgage. If there's a, military member that's maimed, lost any legs, you know, because causes people that lost leg or their legs and both arms and both legs, they'll build them a smart home.

And they'll. And it's amazing. They've already paid off over a thousand mortgages. That's amazing. The charity. This. We talk a lot about charity on here. It's a conservative radio station. And when you turn it over to people and and remove it from the government, the charity is immense. People will give and give and give because they have an emotional tie to what you gentlemen have experienced.

And it's to me, it's one of the greatest charities because it's so transparent and, and they it's, it's it's out there. It's $0.95 of every dollar goes towards the fund. It goes to what it's designed to do when the people attend, the mobile unit down at, the snake River landing, can they donate their. Yes, yes, there's a of donate.

There's a donation box at the end of the tour. They want to donate it. It was this was brought to your, you know, Idaho Falls are the heroes, heroes Defense Foundation, which Travis and Garrett, run there started out as a also as A5K run. And as has grown almost in the same footsteps, they're like the baby of of the tunnel, the towers, you know, from that, from that it's grown, tunnel to towers continues to grow.

We've started doing building home, basically taking over motels, making them homeless, homeless shelters for, homeless veterans, bringing them back into society. They go in there, they have a they have an actual apartment, they have a they have their own bedroom, they have their own kitchen. They have their own living room. They own shower. They try to assimilate them back into get them back, get them in, get them back into society to functioning as they should.

They have their peer group peers of all the all the other, all the other homeless vets, so they can work with each other. That's something, Travis and Garrett are kind of trying to work for, to get something in your community. So they have a place basically to talk and, you know, we can talk amongst ourselves about things that we did and we saw we can't talk about things that to I can't tell you what I did.

Okay. But and they can't tell you what they did or what they saw. But I can tell these guys. So it's a relief for them and a place where they can take community. Yeah. Yeah. You know and you don't feel alone anymore. And that's mostly with these vets homeless homeless vets are they have no way to release their inner feelings.

Yeah. What what a great cause. Again, it's, tunnel to towers. Their mobile exhibit is available now at the waterfront at snake River landing. And over the next couple of days, Julie, I would encourage your audience to make time to go see that. Absolutely. It's a wonderful way, to teach a younger generation about something that they weren't really aware of.

I know that I talked with Travis about this. It's about, age 37 and younger. Don't have a grasp of what happened that day, which is a a large portion of our community. So this is a good way to introduce and teach children about that event. Really? Oh, yes. Go ahead. Rick. Yeah. You bet. I learned yesterday, from one of the other guys at the Tulsa Towers event that at their website T2 org, they have, age appropriate, educational stuff on 911.

So you can take your kid there if you don't think your kid's learning enough in school, you want to teach them something else. They've broken it down for you. Age appropriate. Yeah. And it's T2 talk, T2, T2. I just went to it. It's a great, great site. So. Yeah. Thank you for that. Website heroes defense.org. Does that have all the info?

Travis. Is that where people want to go? Yeah. You can find it on on heroes defense.org. It's on the Tulsa tower site as well. Okay. So and what's on Facebook okay. Well gentlemen thank you all for well first of all for coming in this morning, but thank you for your sacrifice and your, your vow to never forget.

I see that on your your baseball cap. Never forget. And that's super important. And and you guys are carrying that water. So thank you very much for coming in guys. For support. All right. Thanks for joining us today on the We Share podcast. If you've loved what you've heard, please give us a five star rating. Tell your friends and share this show.

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