Yesterday was the Salem County Patriot Day ceremony remembering 9/11. One of the instructors with the local Fire Academy was telling the story of when he went up to NY and it really was moving and i thought everyone should hear it even though I don't remember it word for word I'll do my best:

"On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was at work when I heard that the World Trade Centers were hit. Right when I was told this I rushed over to the nearest TV to see what was going on. The fire company I'm with was dispatched to cover the New York area and help out with the recovery process after the towers had fallen. So we loaded into our trucks, and head over to New York. As we started getting closer we started seeing frozen food trailers loaded the road and everyone thought,"Wow how much food are they bringing us." but to our discomfort the trailers weren't being brought for food. Going down the road to our staging point along the sides of the road were people waving the American flag, and holding up signs that said, "Thank You". We were at our staging area when we got an alarm to go into ground zero for search and rescue and to help out the rest of the companies down at Ground Zero. As we started driving down those New York streets we could see the clouds of smoke, then the ash layered on the road only about an 1/2", then 1", then over 3" deep of ash. We got on scene and did our work and after afew days they released us and said that we could go home. We went over to the fairy station when we saw a NYC Firefighter covered in ash about to make his trip across the river.

He came over to us and asked,"Where are you guys from?"

"South Jersey", we told him and the look on his face was in aw that we came all the way up here to help the guys out.

He then asked about the kind of fire company we were with and when we told him we were all volunteer he starred at us in shock and said,"You guys do this for free?"

As he said that tears started to fill his eyes and he then said,"You guys are the real heros."

He gave us all a hug and made his long trip across the river.

We too started on our way back and the same as 3 days ago, people were still lining the streets with flags and signs saying "Thank You". We all had the feeling that there was more we could have done to help out as we entered the NJ Turnpike, looking back on NY and seeing the clouds of smoke, knowing that there were still many more people that we unaccounted for."

Did the best I could to try and remember how it went but it was truely moving and made me think about what it meant to be a volunteer and Firefighter. Hope it makes you feel the same i did even though its not exactly what he said. God Bless you guys, God Bless America, and Stay safe my brothers and sisters.