Click on the picture to see a panorama of the field
Monday, October 3, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
SEPTEMBER 11 TEN YEARS LATER
WHAT WERE YOU DOING THAT DAY?
THANKS, BRAVEHAVEN
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU HEARD THE NEWS?
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS THEN?
WHAT ARE THEY TODAY?
WHATS YOUR STORY?
LEAVE US SOME COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Great touching story
The very first night we were there, we went below ground and came out with a piece of elevator door probably about the size of a football. Stuck in the door was the full left hand of a woman with her wedding ring, and part of her right hand with her keys dangling from it. To this day we don’t know whether she was trying to get in the elevator or was on the elevator trying to get out. That was probably the defining moment for me, realizing what we were going to see, what we were going to do.
I haven’t been into a doughnut shop in 10 years. There was a doughnut shop at the World Trade Center, and one of our first assignments was to remove bodies that had burned to death there. The combination of rotting doughnuts and dead people, the smell stuck with me. When I came home, my family stopped on the way to church and walked into a doughnut shop and my wife said I turned as white as a ghost. I was shaking. There are smells, there are sights, and there are sounds for all of us, I think, that trigger something, that make you remember.
On Sept. 21, we recovered the bodies of two Port Authority police officers. They were evacuating people when the towers came down. They were below about five stories of rubble, about 50 feet below ground. One of the officers, I had to amputate his right leg so we could get his body free.
We got a letter later from the officer’s family, and I was able to meet them in 2003. They knew what we had done: we’d cut off his leg to bring him home. They were grateful because they were able to say goodbye. I met that family, and for somebody to tell you that (his voice wavers and his eyes fill with tears) — there aren’t any bad days. Not anymore. Not after that.
My wife and I don’t go to bed angry at each other now, not ever. Before, every once in a while we’d have an argument and go to bed and still be a little mad. That doesn’t happen anymore. Both our faith and this experience made me realize how important it was for me to let her know how I feel about her every single day. And how I feel about my son. I have a grandson now. He just turned 1 in June. It makes me realize how important my family really is.
You know, it’s routine to go to work and it’s routine to come home. They did the same thing on the morning of the 11th. They expected to go home. They didn’t. So there are no routine days anymore. Any day could be the day that you don’t come home. Look at that San Diego cop who was shot and killed a few weeks back. And the other San Diego cop who was killed before that.
On the day we recovered the two policemen’s bodies at the pile, on the way out, we came to what is like a snow bridge in a crevasse. I stepped on about a 45-degree slope and I went through up to my armpits immediately and my legs are just swinging free below me. I teach confined-space rescues. We tell you, if a guy goes through, let him go. You try to reach him, the hole gets bigger and everybody goes.
The three men who were with me, Capt. Ron Edrozo, firefighter Ed Cardenas and firefighter Dave Tegardine — they didn’t do that. They knew the risks they were taking. They turned around and grabbed my arms. They pulled me to the point where I could crawl out. I looked down the hole: It was 65 feet to active flame and rubble below me. I would have died from my injuries, burned to death or died on impact. They risked their lives to save mine.
Probably 70 or 80 percent of our team came back with what we call kennel cough. It’s a dry cough, comes up every two or three months, lasts three or four days. I’ve had pulmonary function tests, I’ve had lung X-rays, nobody knows the cause. The primary cause of death for people who worked at the pile has been respiratory related. So we’re all wondering.
For me, the lesson of 9/11 is, as prepared as we were, we weren’t prepared. Our national psyche, we weren’t prepared. It always happened to somebody else. The last major attack here was Oklahoma City and that was homegrown. I think it made us realize how dangerous the world really is and how fanatic the other side is. I don’t know that we understood that before.
I think for a brief moment, like Pearl Harbor did, like Oklahoma City did, it brought us together as a country. There weren’t political parties. We realized we were truly Americans. I wish that moment was still here today. I really do. I see the divisions that have happened. Whether I disagree with what the president has to say, he’s still my president. I wish that civility was still here.
Brian Kidwell, 55, is a San Diego city firefighter. When the twin towers fell, he was a volunteer with an urban search and rescue team from San Diego County, one of 28 in the nation. California Task Force 8 spent 13 days combing what came to be known as “the pile.”
Story was written by: John Wilkins of the Union Trib
Monday, September 5, 2011
HOPE RISING EVENT IN SANDY UTAH
| September 8-13, 2011 |
COME AND JOIN US FOR THIS GREAT EVENT!
BRAVEHAVEN MEDIA
WILL BE AT THE FIELDS ON WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 7 & 10, 2011
WE WILL BE CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS AND ENJOYING THE ATMOSPHERE OF
PATRIOTISM, REMEMBRANCE AND HONOR.
COME AND LOOK FOR US, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS.
Monday, August 15, 2011
THREE HUNDRED AND FOURTY THREE
Please do not let their sacrifice and the loss to their families be forgotten!
God Bless America, and to all those that have served and will yet serve her.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
A fitting message for us today
"But in a larger sense we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow this ground. The brave men,(*and women) living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
May we remember, honor and not desecrate the work of all who have and are giving to make this nation great!
*the following text was added by Bravehaven (and women)
God Bless America.
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
May we remember, honor and not desecrate the work of all who have and are giving to make this nation great!
*the following text was added by Bravehaven (and women)
God Bless America.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Please Remember
I hope that you can remember the emotions, feelings and sense of being the United States even if for a short time. Please watch this video Pass it along and leave uus your thoughts..
May God Bless America... Bob
May God Bless America... Bob
Thursday, July 14, 2011
ARCHIVES - News stories from utah
Written by Pat Reavy, Deseret news
WEST VALLEY CITY — Almost like a band hitting the road, a group of Utah firefighters left for a 16-city tour Saturday, complete with T-shirts to sell in each city.
But rather than playing a concert in each city, the firefighters will be raising money for the families of New York City firefighters who lost their lives in the World Trade Center attack. Money will also be raised to help replace the 60 pieces of fire equipment lost
The 10 firefighters making the trip held a kickoff event Saturday at the E Center and left immediately after the women's hockey game between the United States and Canadian National teams.
The group will head to Appleton, Wis., first to pick up the fire engine they will be driving cross-country. After stops in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver, the firefighters will be back in West Valley next Saturday to raise more funds.
From there, it's off to Portland, Ore., and a trip down the West Coast before making their way to New York City to make a presentation of their collected funds Nov. 12, said West Valley Fire Capt. Bob Fitzgerald. The tour is sponsored by Dodge. It's expected to take about 3 1/2 weeks to complete.
In each city, the firefighters will be selling T-shirts, asking for donations and auctioning off items. The goal is to get each individual to donate $9.11 and each business to donate $350, or one dollar for every rescue worker lost in the attack.
Locally, Utahns can make donations to the "Fallen Fund" through Zions Bank. All the merchandise being auctioned off was donated by fire departments across the Wasatch Front.
Fitzgerald is optimistic about the success of the tour, noting the firefighters have already raised $20,000 just in Utah. "Hopefully we'll do quite well," he said.
As for the tour bus, or in this case the fire engine, Fitzgerald admits it's not the easiest way to travel across the country. "(The truck) can be measured in gallons per mile rather than miles per gallon," he said half-jokingly.
9/11/01 pulled us together
By Lee Benson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004 12:00 a.m. MDT
It was the darkest chapter of our generation, and yet, as the third anniversary of the Day of Infamy was observed Saturday, there were plenty of remembrances of a time when the country pulled together in response to the destruction and dying that was 9/11/2001.
In West Valley City, Fire Department Capt. Bob Fitzgerald remembered a country flooded by flags. From sea to shining sea they waved, on the sides of barns, hanging from porches, attached to clothes lines and antennas of pickup trucks.
And he should know. He drove from sea to shining sea to see them.
This isn't the first time the story of Bob Fitzgerald's 10,000-mile journey has been told, but its retelling should be mandatory at this time of year, especially as time threatens to erode the memories of all the good produced by the 9/11 tragedy.
Bob remembers that it started as "this hare-brained scheme."
He saw a report on the news just days after the terrorist attacks in New York about the firefighters who had lost their lives in the rubble and about the many fire engines that had been destroyed.
He went to bed that night and couldn't sleep, his mind racing with the nagging thought that there must be something the Utah fraternity of firefighters could do to help.
As he was tossing and turning, he came up with the idea of driving a fire engine cross-country to raise funds for the fallen.
The next morning, he was on the phone to Pearce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wis., one of the companies West Valley City buys its firetrucks from. When the Pearce people enthusiastically offered a new fire engine for the trek, the idea suddenly had wheels.
Next came a donation of two vans as support vehicles from West Valley Dodge and a motor home from Ardell Brown R.V. In short order, Dodge dealerships across the United States offered their parking lots as locations where the "Fallen Fund" crew could set up to sell their T-shirts, badges and commemorative coins and solicit outright donations.
For 30 days from mid-October to mid-November in 2001, the Fallen Fund caravan, staffed by a rotating group of Wasatch Front firefighters taking time off without pay, crisscrossed America, stopping in 16 major cities. They were in Phoenix the day Game 7 of the World Series was played. They were in West Hollywood, Calif., for Halloween. They were in Nashville the night of the Country Music Awards Show.
And, finally, they were in New York City with $140,000 they had collected from caring, selfless Americans who chipped in fives, tens and advances from their Visas and MasterCards along the way.
Not only that, by the time they got to Ground Zero, Pearce Manufacturing agreed to donate a brand new $240,000 fire engine, on behalf of the Fallen Fund Tour, to the firefighters in Manhattan.
It is almost surreal now for Capt. Fitzgerald to remember back to a time when people put regular life on hold and rushed to the aid of others.
It was an event he wishes had never happened and an experience he hopes he'll never forget.
"We put that whole trip together in about nine days," he said. "We saw the country really pull together. It was almost like there were no classes. The rich were nice to the poor, and the poor were nice to the rich. It was a real education, that trip. Everyone wanted to help, and I know I've never seen so many flags."
The fire captain paused before adding, "There for a while, we were the united states."
WEST VALLEY CITY — Almost like a band hitting the road, a group of Utah firefighters left for a 16-city tour Saturday, complete with T-shirts to sell in each city.
But rather than playing a concert in each city, the firefighters will be raising money for the families of New York City firefighters who lost their lives in the World Trade Center attack. Money will also be raised to help replace the 60 pieces of fire equipment lost
The 10 firefighters making the trip held a kickoff event Saturday at the E Center and left immediately after the women's hockey game between the United States and Canadian National teams.
The group will head to Appleton, Wis., first to pick up the fire engine they will be driving cross-country. After stops in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver, the firefighters will be back in West Valley next Saturday to raise more funds.
From there, it's off to Portland, Ore., and a trip down the West Coast before making their way to New York City to make a presentation of their collected funds Nov. 12, said West Valley Fire Capt. Bob Fitzgerald. The tour is sponsored by Dodge. It's expected to take about 3 1/2 weeks to complete.
In each city, the firefighters will be selling T-shirts, asking for donations and auctioning off items. The goal is to get each individual to donate $9.11 and each business to donate $350, or one dollar for every rescue worker lost in the attack.
Locally, Utahns can make donations to the "Fallen Fund" through Zions Bank. All the merchandise being auctioned off was donated by fire departments across the Wasatch Front.
Fitzgerald is optimistic about the success of the tour, noting the firefighters have already raised $20,000 just in Utah. "Hopefully we'll do quite well," he said.
As for the tour bus, or in this case the fire engine, Fitzgerald admits it's not the easiest way to travel across the country. "(The truck) can be measured in gallons per mile rather than miles per gallon," he said half-jokingly.
9/11/01 pulled us together
By Lee Benson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004 12:00 a.m. MDT
It was the darkest chapter of our generation, and yet, as the third anniversary of the Day of Infamy was observed Saturday, there were plenty of remembrances of a time when the country pulled together in response to the destruction and dying that was 9/11/2001.
In West Valley City, Fire Department Capt. Bob Fitzgerald remembered a country flooded by flags. From sea to shining sea they waved, on the sides of barns, hanging from porches, attached to clothes lines and antennas of pickup trucks.
And he should know. He drove from sea to shining sea to see them.
This isn't the first time the story of Bob Fitzgerald's 10,000-mile journey has been told, but its retelling should be mandatory at this time of year, especially as time threatens to erode the memories of all the good produced by the 9/11 tragedy.
Bob remembers that it started as "this hare-brained scheme."
He saw a report on the news just days after the terrorist attacks in New York about the firefighters who had lost their lives in the rubble and about the many fire engines that had been destroyed.
He went to bed that night and couldn't sleep, his mind racing with the nagging thought that there must be something the Utah fraternity of firefighters could do to help.
As he was tossing and turning, he came up with the idea of driving a fire engine cross-country to raise funds for the fallen.
The next morning, he was on the phone to Pearce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wis., one of the companies West Valley City buys its firetrucks from. When the Pearce people enthusiastically offered a new fire engine for the trek, the idea suddenly had wheels.
Next came a donation of two vans as support vehicles from West Valley Dodge and a motor home from Ardell Brown R.V. In short order, Dodge dealerships across the United States offered their parking lots as locations where the "Fallen Fund" crew could set up to sell their T-shirts, badges and commemorative coins and solicit outright donations.
For 30 days from mid-October to mid-November in 2001, the Fallen Fund caravan, staffed by a rotating group of Wasatch Front firefighters taking time off without pay, crisscrossed America, stopping in 16 major cities. They were in Phoenix the day Game 7 of the World Series was played. They were in West Hollywood, Calif., for Halloween. They were in Nashville the night of the Country Music Awards Show.
And, finally, they were in New York City with $140,000 they had collected from caring, selfless Americans who chipped in fives, tens and advances from their Visas and MasterCards along the way.
Not only that, by the time they got to Ground Zero, Pearce Manufacturing agreed to donate a brand new $240,000 fire engine, on behalf of the Fallen Fund Tour, to the firefighters in Manhattan.
It is almost surreal now for Capt. Fitzgerald to remember back to a time when people put regular life on hold and rushed to the aid of others.
It was an event he wishes had never happened and an experience he hopes he'll never forget.
"We put that whole trip together in about nine days," he said. "We saw the country really pull together. It was almost like there were no classes. The rich were nice to the poor, and the poor were nice to the rich. It was a real education, that trip. Everyone wanted to help, and I know I've never seen so many flags."
The fire captain paused before adding, "There for a while, we were the united states."
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
September 11 2001 a day to remember
Do you remember where you were? What you were doing? How you felt? All of us were changed that day, each American regardless of race, creed, or faith. On this site we hope to catch your feelings and thoughts. We hope that you will share with us your comments. All we ask is that you keep your comments clean so that we may share them with our children and in turn our children's - children.
On this site we will post your pictures and stories. We will share interviews with anyone that would like to be interviewed. The end project will be a blog and video capturing the emotions ten years after that fateful day.
We ask that you pass this blog on to as many as you can. We want a diverse perspective. you may comment on this page at will. Other pages will follow with interviews, your stories, pictures and emotions.
Thank you in advance for contributing.... May God Bless America, you and your families.
BHM
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