“3-4-3”

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It’s funny how people remember us

From that fateful day

As the heroes who climbed the towers

Passing workers on the way

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They see the footage of us in the lobby

Preparing for the haul

The look on our faces, they say

Surely says it all

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“They knew they were going to die“,

They tell each other

“You can see it in their eyes as they

Greet a fellow brother”

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They fail to realize it’s not uncommon

For us to show our fear

But we never allow the fear to stop us

We just keep each other near

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We may be proud, we may be brave

But suicidal, we’re not

We take many risks to do our jobs

Giving all we’ve got

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They think we know it’s a death sentence

As we enter the lobby door

Unaware that not a man here among us

Had not been here before

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As we walk through the valley of death again

That old familiar place

We can’t accept that we’ll leave our souls

And feel death’s cold embrace

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If we had known we would never come out

We’d have never gone in

Fearing and knowing are two different things

So we hold our doubts within

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As we climbed up the stairs floor by floor

Searching zone by zone

It was saving lives that was on our minds

Not giving up our own

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The Angel of Death is our frequent companion

A feared and lethal foe

But when he’s here for one of our own

How are we to know

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We’re trained to push things to the limit

On each and every call

We’re well aware that lives are on the line

And we may sacrifice all

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We live with this throughout our careers

Through every single shift

It hangs in the air like a shroud of fog

Which we can never set adrift

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Some think it’s merely words when we say

We risk our lives for you

But we take this fact into account

In everything we do

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That day in September in 2001

Was no different in our eyes

We could not have known what devastation

Was raining from the skies

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We look down from above as our brothers

Desperately search “the pile”

They have no idea that we’re finally at rest

They’re still in denial

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Our bravery that day seemed beyond belief

In the eyes of humanity

But the fact is we’ve faced our mortality before

Though you may question our sanity

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We were merely men doing the job we loved

Down to our last breaths

We remain merely men in the scheme of it all

Even after our deaths

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Copyright 2007 - Tom Kenney