DAY TO REMEMBER
Police, firefighters honor victims of 9- 11 attacks
TROY, N. Y. » Community members, elected officials and first responders gathered Monday morning at the city’s 9- 11 memorial to mark the 16th anniversary of one of the most tragic days in American history.
Led by city firefighters and police officers, a solemn ceremony was held in 9- 11 Memorial Park at the foot of the 112th Street Bridge to remember the thousands who died Sept. 11, 2001, when planes hijacked by terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda crashed into the two towers of New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington, D. C., as well as a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Monday’s emotional servicewas highlighted by the solemn ringing of a bell to remember the 343 firefighters and 158 police officers who died while trying to rescue those trapped in the twin 110- story buildings in lower Manhattan. In all, 2,606 people died in the New York attacks, and 125 more were killed at the Pentagon, as well as 265 people on the four planes. The fourth plane never reached its intended target, the U.S. Capitol in Washington, after a group of passengers fought with hijackers and crashed the plane about 150 miles northwest of its intended target.
After the Rev. Christian Lam-bertsen, chaplain for the Troy Fire Department, and the Rev. John Tallman, chaplain for Albany and Troy firefighters, read the Firefighter’s Prayer, those gathered — including firefighters who lined the walkway in the small park at the corner of 1st Avenue and 112th Street — stood in silence for several minutes.