Because it was the 10 year anniversary on 9-11, the fire department was sending one firefighter and one police officer to NYC to represent the service men and women of Orem. Well the sad news is that Wade’s name was not drawn for the completely free trip, but the good news was we still got to go!!! We joined 3 Police Officers and 2 other Firefighters from Orem and headed to NYC. The purpose of this trip was to honor the lives lost and families still grieving at the ceremonies that took place. But because of the heightened security due to terror attack rumors, the government decided last minute that the first responders would not be able to attend the ceremony. Lucky for us however, we had an inside connection with the head of security with US Port Authority. We headed downtown to where the ceremonies were taking place and were escorted 5 blocks south, and 5 blocks west on NY city streets that were completely blocked off to public.
Then escorted into the Freedom Tower where we were able to look down into the memorial pools.
After we were done taking pictures from that location, we were escorted to the memorial grounds where we were able to take a few pictures, listen to names being read and admire the beauty of what was a place of tragedy 10 years prior. What an amazing and humbling experience it was. Words cannot describe what a peaceful feeling and yet a gut wrenching feeling I had standing in that location at that very time. I don’t think all 7 of us said a word to each other for the entire time we were in those gardens. I feel truly blessed to have been there and for the opportunity I had to participate in a world mark event.
After the event we were able to explore the NYC streets and meet many men and woman from all over the world who had just enjoyed everything we did. I hope the pictures share at least a little bit of the beauty we experienced!
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