Memories linger
Service a chance to remember 9/11 attacks 15 years later
Mark Fox still remembers the wet, rusty smell of steel that consumed his senses when he visited New York two months after the 9/11 attacks 15 years ago.
“What I remember most is the smell, being on top of the firehouse and seeing all the damage and destruction that was still there,” Fox said. “I remember watching all the guys working and thinking to myself ‘there are people out there and there are firemen out there.’ ”
Fox, 66, of Mayville, is a retired Milwaukee Fire Department battalion chief. In November 2001, he traveled to New York and attended memorials for two firefighters who died during the attacks.
“I’ve been to a few firefighter funerals in my life,” Fox said. “But it was just, it was almost surreal.”
Fox was one of the many former and current Milwaukee firefighters, police officers, veterans and armed forces members in attendance Sunday morning at the “Milwaukee County Remembers 9/11” memorial service at the War Memorial Center in Milwaukee.
He was working on the day of the attacks and recalled that he was grabbing a cup of coffee in the kitchen of the firehouse when the news program on TV was interrupted with a report that a “small plane” crashed into the World Trade Center.
“We were taking it as . . . OK a plane crashed into the tower, they (New York City firefighters) can handle it,” Fox said. “Then the second one hit the other tower, and I think right away everyone knew what was going down.”
“It was so somber that day,” he said. “I made my rounds with my battalion and every TV in every firehouse was tuned to that.”
Ten years after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Fox was given the opportunity to return to ground zero. This time, he was sent to pick up a 7-foot-long piece of steel from the World Trade Center.
Fox made the journey to New York City with veterans advocate Joe Campbell the week before Milwaukee County’s 9/11 memorial service in 2011 to pick up the 1,566-pound artifact, which has been put on permanent display at the War Memorial Center as a symbol of America’s loss and the country’s resilience.
Police Chief Edward Flynn and Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing discussed the additional training and measures taken since the attacks.
Flynn said it was ironic how perceptions change about the training and equipment police departments have received as Sept. 11, 2001, falls further into the past.
“A few years ago we were overly accused of militarizing ourselves; when for the first several years after 9/11, it was the federal government that was funding the kind of equipment the police would need to respond to terrorism attacks,” Flynn said.
“Everything that occurs ends up being controversial a few years later, and the remedy becomes perceived as a problem,” Flynn said. “I think it’s something that Americans need to understand. We’re not eager to use assault weapons, but we know we have to, given the nature of the threat to this country.”
In the aftermath of the attacks, the Fire Department also added training for urban rescue teams to prepare for an incident like 9/11 in Milwaukee, Rohlfing said.
“Imagine something that’s never happened before and all of a sudden it happened,” Rohlfing said. “It made us realize we don’t stand all by ourselves. As big as the City of Milwaukee Fire Department is, in a major catastrophic incident, we’re going to need help from our partners in the community or from national assets.”