Remembering 9/11: Alaska Firefighters Pay Tribute to the Fallen

Joe Albrecht, Pipe Sgt. for the Crow Creek Pipes and Drums, plays during the Alaska Fallen Firefighter Memorial Ceremony and 9/11 Remembrance Sept. 11, at the Alaska Fallen Firefighter Memorial. Bag pipes became associated with fire and police departments during the 1800s after in influx of Scottish and Irish immigrated to the U.S. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Chris Mills)

Remembering 9/11: Alaska Firefighters Pay Tribute to the Fallen

Heidi Hegg, a member of the International Association of Firefighters Local 1264, color guard, stands in formation during the playing of The National Anthem during the Alaska Fallen Firefighter Memorial Ceremony and 9/11 Remembrance Sept. 11, at the Alaska Fallen Firefighter Memorial. Participants wore black bands across their badges in remembrance of fallen comrades. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Raymond Mills)

Remembering 9/11: Alaska Firefighters Pay Tribute to the Fallen

Investigator Qualle (left), Investigator Belt (center) and Investigator Brown, all of the 673d Security Forces Squadron, carry the flag near Heritage Park on JBER Wednesday. Squadron personnel marched for 24 hours in memory of Air Force Staff Sgt. Todd Labraico Jr., who died of wounds received by small arms fire Sept. 5 while deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan with the 105th SFS. (U.S. Air Force photo/Justin Connaher)

Remembering 9/11: Alaska Firefighters Pay Tribute to the Fallen

Published Sept. 16, 2013
By Air Force 2nd Lt. Michael Trent Harrington
JBER Public Affairs

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- The late-afternoon sun finally broke through a monochrome day of overcast summer skies, framing the hesitant rustle of stars and stripes against a backdrop of fire engines and city streets. Those gathered stood quietly and listened to the ringing of bells, the slow recitation of names and the sounding of Taps. A low breeze stirred flags flown at half-staff.

Firefighters from throughout Southcentral Alaska, black bands across their badges, assembled before the Alaska Fallen Firefighters Memorial to pay tribute to those lost in the line of duty.

The ceremony marked the 12th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks upon the United States and the nearly 3,000 innocent lives lost in New York, at the Pentagon and aboard United Flight 93, including 343 firefighter and paramedic personnel.

Among those honored was the crew of 19 wild-land "hotshot" firefighters lost to a wildfire in Arizona this summer. Alaska is home to two such groups, the Midnight Sun and the Chena Interagency Hotshots.A ladder truck from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Fire Station 1 joined half a dozen others from Anchorage, the Matanuska Valley and surrounding communities.

Tech. Sgt. Keenan Kelley, Battalion 2 chief, 673d Civilian Engineering Squadron, read aloud the names of the fallen.

"I enlisted on 9/11," Kelley said. "I was in the military entrance processing station, signing my paperwork as the news broke on television of the first plane hitting the tower. I signed up in a time of peace that had suddenly become a time of war, and I knew I had to do it."

A fire alarm bell was rung for each of the 30 Alaska firefighters who have given their lives in the line of duty since 1941.

"'Never forget' means always preserving their legacy," said Chief Edward Athey, president of the Alaska State Firefighters Association. "We it owe it to those who follow to always remember."

Air Force Col. Brian Duffy, JBER and 673d Air Base Wing commander, was among several ranking JBER members in attendance. Duffy grew up near New York City and was stationed a few miles from the Pentagon when the attacks occurred.

"The images that day in the D.C. area and the absence of the former Twin Towers in the New York skyline remain vivid," Duffy said. "I keep a photo on my desk taken from the observation deck of the south tower in 1999, looking down over the East River into Brooklyn, where I was born. It serves as a reminder that I will never forget that day."

As the crews departed in their separate directions from downtown Anchorage, back home and back to the unending business of protecting others' homes, evening light continued to glint from well-shined trucks and the memorial's simple dedication to those lost in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon twelve years ago--two steel ladders, standing side by side, in a green park, under a bath of belated sun.