San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Climbers salute fallen first responders
Twenty years ago, an 11year-old Christian Davila saw images on TV that would change the world. Planes had struck the World Trade Center.
The boy decided he would go into law enforcement when he grew up.
Last year he became a detective for the Bexar County Sheriff ’s Office.
Saturday, the 20th anniversary of 9/11, he joined hundreds of public servants and civilians at Heroes Stadium on the Northeast Side to pay tribute to those who lost their lives.
Shortly before 9 a.m., they ascended the stadium steps in a nod to the first responders who rushed up the stairs at the World Trade Center to their deaths. Saturday’s participants climbed the six flights at the stadium four times in a row to total the 110-story height of the towers.
Firefighters at the climb used words such as “brotherhood” and “lineage” as they expressed a need to honor the 343 fallen firefighters.
The San Antonio 110 9/11 Memorial Climb has run for nine straight years. This year, hundreds of first responders and hundreds more civilians and members of the military took part. Their nearest and dearest came to support them and snap pictures.
Jonathan Jaimez said he and his toddler daughter were there to cheer on Jaimez’s best friend, an employee of the Fire Depart
ment’s Station 35 on the West Side.
“I know a lot of people who were affected” by 9/11, he said. “Different family members, friends around the United States.”
Footsteps thundered from the metal stands for the better part of an hour.
“We have their memory, and it’s up to us to keep it alive,” said firefighter Michael Poling, who has worked for Bexar County Emergency Services, District 10, since November.
He cooled off against a concrete piling. You’ll need a breather when you’re climbing the height of the towers in several dozen pounds of clothing and gear amid temperatures topping 90 degrees.
As climbers finished each round, volunteers handed them Gatorade and water and draped soaked washcloths around their necks. By the time the last of them descended, clothing dark with sweat littered the concrete of the parking lot.
Exhausted, firefighter Michael Eakes crossed the proverbial finish
line and fell to a squat. He said he had climbed to keep the “memory going so other people don’t forget.”
Officer Kris Salazar, who traveled three hours from Brownwood, put the exertion into perspective.
“Those firefighters rushing in that day, they didn’t care,” Salazar said. “They didn’t care if they were tired or thirsty or anything like that. They had a mission to do.”