Community Police & Fire

Firefighters honor lives lost 20 years ago in 9/11 attacks

The pipers played a mournful rendition of “American the Beautiful.” The flag was raised, then lowered to half-staff as men and women in blue saluted. The occasion was solemn, thoughtful, a fitting tribute to the 343 firefighters and 16 police officers who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

GHFMO Chief Dennis Doan speaks at the department’s 9/11 memorial ceremony honoring the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Behind him is a relic from the World Trade Center. Charlee Glock-Jackson / Gig Harbor Now

On Saturday morning, Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One hosted a memorial ceremony to honor the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. On that day, 19 men directed by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field outside of Shanksville, Penn. A total of 2,977 people were killed — 2,753 in New York, 184 at the Pentagon and 93 in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to retake control of the plane.

Nearly 100 people joined GHFMO firefighters in the memorial garden at department headquarters where a large, rusty relic stands. It’s a piece of one of the twin towers that were destroyed in the attacks. GHFMO Chief Dennis Doan noted the importance of the occasion.

“This is such an important day to me and to our town and to our nation,” he said. “I want to make sure I give our brothers and sisters who fell in the line of duty their due, the full respect they have earned, because each and every one deserves the absolute best we can give.”

GHFMO bagpipers Mike Metters, left, and TJ Freeby open the 9/11 event. Charlee Glock-Jackson / Gig Harbor Now

Doan recalled Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and that Lincoln “… honored those who willingly and knowingly put themselves in harm’s way by talking about the soldiers who perished in the battle. He offered that ‘the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.’”

Those words, offered 158 years ago, are as true now as they were then, Doan said, because the first responders who died on 9/11 “will never be forgotten. Those brave men and women who were united by one cause — the defense of others and a commitment to respond to those in need — share a unique bond with each other that is different than a friendship, and which comes from this profession, this calling we all call ‘the job.’ It’s a bond that those outside of our profession can’t fully comprehend or appreciate.”

He described how the fallen heroes of 9/11 were also ordinary people who read to their kids at night and helped them with homework, led scout troops and raised money for those in need.

“They were fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, friends, aunts and uncles — and their parents’ children,” he said.

Firefighter Paramedic David Hughes rings the bell to symbolize that the fallen heroes are “going home.” Charlee Glock-Jackson / Gig Harbor Now

Before the bell was rung, Doan talked about its traditional meaning — that when firefighters began their shift, the bell signaled the beginning and end of that day’s work. The bell also was an alarm, calling firefighters “to fight fires and to place their lives in jeopardy for the good of their fellow citizens.” A ring of the bell also announced the completion of that call. And when a firefighter died in the line of duty, the bell solemnly announced their comrade’s passing with five rings.

“And so,” he said, “to those who have selflessly given their lives for the good of their fellow man, their tasks completed, their duties well done, to our brothers and sisters, their last alarm, they are going home.”

Then the bell was rung five times and the pipers played “Amazing Grace.” Many of those in attendance wiped away tears.

City Council member Robyn Denson has a deep personal connection to firefighters because she was once an EMT.

“I was touched by Chief Doan’s words, by the bagpipe players, by the flag bearers and by all of the community members who came out to support our firefighters and to remember the first responders who were lost,” she said. “Events like this memorialize their sacrifices and ensure that, as a nation, we never forget what happened on that dreadful, pivotal day in history.

A relic from the World Trade Center is the centerpiece of the 9/11 memorial garden at GHFMO headquarters. Charlee Glock-Jackson / Gig Harbor Now

“I’m so grateful to Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One for giving us this opportunity to remember, mourn and come together as a community.”