By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
CAIRO — It’s been 23 years since terrorist attacks toppled the two buildings of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, a third forced down an airplane in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and a fourth plane crashed into the Pentagon.
It was a day that shook the world and for those who lived through it, it will never be forgotten.
Greene County held its annual ceremony Wednesday marking the day and remembering the 2,977 people who died that day.
More have died from cancer and other illnesses related to the recovery efforts and cleanup of the World Trade Center site in the years since the attacks, several of them from Greene County.
Held at the county’s Emergency Services building in Cairo, the somber ceremony drew a crowd looking to honor and salute the fallen.
“Today is a day we will never forget, and we will always recognize,” Greene County Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger, R-New Baltimore, said to open the ceremony. “It is a day for us to remember and to reflect.”
Color guard members from numerous first responder agencies around the county presented the colors, the Pipes and Drums of Greene performed a somber prelude to the ceremony, and Deputy Director of Emergency Services Daniel King led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance, with Meegan Darling performing the national anthem.
Rabbi Zoe B. Zak of Temple Israel of Catskill conducted the invocation.
The event’s keynote speaker was David Kolb, a retired major from the New York State Police and a former member of the U.S. Air Force and the New York Air National Guard. Kolb was deployed to the recovery efforts and cleanup at the World Trade Center site.
He recalled the sights and sounds, and the smell of death, that was pervasive in downtown Manhattan on 9/11 and in the days and weeks that followed. The sight of a simple woman’s shoe found on the ground near the remains of the World Trade Center was heart wrenching.
“I didn’t know who owned it. I didn’t know if she was dead or alive — maybe she was somebody who got out and just said, that shoe isn’t that important. But we also know there were people jumping out of those buildings. I don’t know,” Kolb said. “I stood there and looked at that shoe and then I felt a hand on my shoulder.”
It was a chief from the FDNY. “He leaned in and said, ‘Sergeant, your men are watching you. Just drop that shoe on the ground and keep on going,’” Kolb said. “He gave me a little dose of reality.”
Kolb also remembered a Burger King restaurant near the site that was turned in a temporary morgue, and the smell of death on his uniform.
“It smelled like death, and I knew I had to wear that uniform for another eight days,” he added.
The ramifications of that day still reverberate today, more than two decades later.
“I’ll never forget the sights and sounds and smells of that day, 23 years later,” Kolb said. “In the years since, I have had medical and emotional issues. I have no problem telling anybody that — I don’t sleep well, at times I still find myself angry, anxious, and I don’t like crowds.”
But he also recalled the days, weeks and months following the terrorist attacks, when the United States was united, and the flag flew proudly from every home.
“I remember the outburst of patriotism in the days and weeks after Sept. 11. Everybody flew an American flag. You saw it everywhere,” Kolb said. “What happened? Where are those times now?”
State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-41, also addressed the crowd.
“Twenty-three years ago, on a clear September morning, our world was darkened by incomprehensible tragedy,” Hinchey said. “We stand here in reverence for every innocent life lost and for the brave souls who rose when the world fell. Our very own neighbors, including firefighters, police officers and paramedics from local communities, were forced to make extraordinary sacrifices so we had the guardians and protectors we needed to get us through the unspeakable. As most of us stood paralyzed in disbelief, they ran toward the flames and the chaos, carrying not just the weight and ruin and rubble, but the weight of a broken nation on their backs.”
Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-102, remembered the day the Twin Towers fell and how, like millions of others, he watched on television as the second plane slammed into the second tower.
“It’s a day that I will never, ever forget,” Tague said. “This ceremony that is held every year is a timely reminder of the service and sacrifice of our EMS, our firefighters, our law enforcement and other first responder personnel. My fellow Americans, it is our responsibility to ensure that their stories and their legacies are told to future generations.”
The service honored two fallen local heroes — New York State Trooper Ivan Morales and firefighter Aaron Matthews — and a bell tolled for other county first responders who have died in the line of duty over the years.
