The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘VILLAINY MET VALOR’
Middletown gathers to mark 17th anniversary of terrorist attacks
MIDDLETOWN — On a gray day with intermittent rain, one much less bright than Sept. 11, 2001, the city marked the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Nearly 150 first responders, war veterans, state and local officials, including U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, lieutenant governor candidate Susan Bysiewicz, and state Rep. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown; recalled the nearly 3,000 individuals who lost their lives that tragic day.
Seventeen years ago, four airplanes hijacked by terrorists leveled the two towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and into a field in Shanksville, Penn.
In the commemoration held in City Hall, DeLauro recalled Middlefield resident Bruce Eagleson, 53, one of 161 Connecticut victims who died. He was killed during the attack on the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Eagleson was vice president at the Westfield Group and commuted to the World Trade Center on a temporary assignment. He was uninjured after the initial attack, and went back into the South Tower 10 times to rescue his co-workers. The building collapsed as he entered to save another life.
“The loss still is so heavy: for the Eaglesons, the Connecticut families who lost a loved one, the families of the 412 emergency workers, the 343 firefighters, and for every American who still grieves beside an empty chair at the dinner table or at the bleachers at a child’s soccer game,” she said
DeLauro said the nation still grieves with them.
“Let us draw strength from the knowledge that, in the face of evil, we are a nation united. Let us always stand shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors who still mourn. And let us never forget that on this day, 17 years ago, villainy was met with valor, and hate was met with hope,” DeLauro said.
Middletown Fire Chief Robert Kronenberger presided over the morning’s program, Salvation Army Maj. J.R. Fritsch offered the invocation and benediction, and the Middletown Police Department Pipe Band played the bagpipes during the ceremony as the Fire Department color guard stood by, holding aloft various flags.
“There were so many unsung heroes that day, people in the shadows, so to speak — people in buildings, and those who helped out on the ground by carrying a stretcher or helping somebody
injured,” said Middletown police Lt. Paul Maturo, referring to citizens who stepped up to help when tragedy struck. He led a short proceeding at the Connecticut Trees of Honor at Veterans Park, where the ceremonial wreath was laid.
“A lot of people pulled together who aren’t mentioned that did a lot of things. They don’t have a voice. They’re the invisible heroes. The families and loved ones left behind are the true heroes, also. They continue to fight and continue the cause,” Maturo said.
A single clear bell sounded at 8:46 a.m., prompting a moment of silence. Minutes later, another rang out at 9:02 a.m. — both the exact times when the two planes flew into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.
Police Chief William McKenna thanked first responders in the room.
“You ran in when everybody else was running out. Many, way too many, people died that day, yet, as a result, many more warriors were born that day to help fight the war on terrorism.
“You have a wall right behind you,” McKenna said, gesturing to the 21-foot, seven-panel memorial of portraits depicting World War I and II, and Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf and Korea wars at the back of Council Chambers, created by Middletown artist David
Schulz.
“All gave some, but some gave all. You are not forgotten,” the chief read.
Councilman Phil Pessina choked up recalling one particularly difficult task he was charged with following the attacks.
At the time, Pessina was then Chief J. Edward Brymer’s deputy chief. That morning, he was at the police academy conducting field training when word began coming in about the attacks.
Byrmer hadn’t heard from his cousin, New York City Fire Department Battalion Chief Richard A. Prunty. “The hardest thing was I had to go tell him. He was in the tower that collapsed. Chief Brymer was very close to his cousin, and it was devastating to him,” Pessina said.
He and his wife visited the memorial a couple years at Ground Zero and found Prunty’s name. “I will never forget that day and what I had to do. We comfort each other,” Pessina said.
South Fire Chief Michael Howley was only six months into his tenure at South Fire on Sept. 11, 2001.
“In emergency services, it touches our hearts. I’m sure we all remember exactly where we were and what we were doing. I was a new young officer — just promoted as lieutenant,” Howley said. “I was sitting in the kitchen at the firehouse. The skies were as blue as can be,
beautiful day, grabbing a coffee before we started some training.”
Seventeen years later, Howley said, there is an entirely new generation of people who aren’t old enough — or who weren’t even born yet — to comprehend the magnitude of what took place, and its lasting effects.
“I can imagine there are a lot of kids in their teens or early 20s that have no recollection, and it’s hard. So we do this so they understand what this country went through, and the first responders went through, and are still going through.”
Following the memorial service, about 20 city first responders met at the Trees of Honor to conduct a brief wreath-laying ceremony at the site, where a subway double rail — once part of the Port Authority Trans Hudson line — sits in full view of the fountain at the pond’s center.
It was retrieved from the rubble under the World Trade Center after the towers burned and collapsed. Local first responders picked up the relic May 11, 2016, at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The rail symbolizes those who were never found.