(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Firefighters in Palatine gathered Monday morning to pay tribute to their fallen comrades killed in the World Trade Center attacks 22 years ago.
The memorial began with firefighters marching from Station 85 as a lone bagpiper played. Retiree Mark Hallett wiped away tears with his white gloves as he led the ceremony.
“It seems like yesterday.”
He said the hurt comes back every year firefighters as they reflect on Sept. 11, thinking about the first responders in New York who ran into the Twin Towers in hopes of bringing occupants to safety. Three hundred and forty-three firefighters and paramedics perished.
“That would have been us, if those towers would have been here and the planes hit here,” Hallett said.
“We would have been in there. We wouldn’t have looked and said, ‘No, I don’t think I’m going to go in today.’”
Hallett says he didn’t recognize many of the faces of those who came out for the remembrance on Monday. He thinks that is a reflection of new generations who were very young or not alive when the attacks changed the country forever.
Resident Ron Warnstedt wants to make sure young people know about the sacrifice firefighters made that day. He’s been to nearly every memorial ceremony in Palatine.
Both he and Hallett reflected how the New York City Fire Department keeps losing firefighters, as the number of those who’ve died from exposure to chemicals afterward nears the number killed in the terrorist attack.
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