Small Town News

Heroes of all kinds ceremonially honored on anniversary of fateful day

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Everyone remembers where they were on 9-11, or so the saying goes.

People recall that they were at work, at the dentist, hanging out at home.

It was a hard day to forget.

On Sept. 11, 2001 a series of coordinated terrorist attacks took place upon the United States. On that morning, 19 members of an organization called Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jets. With deadly intent they crashed the planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Everyone on board was killed, as well as many people working in the buildings, which subsequently collapsed and destroyed or damaged nearby buildings.

Hijackers that day also crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia near Washington, D.C.; a fourth hijacked plane crashed inlo a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania. This last aircraft was also aimed toward Washington and who knows what might have happened if its flight crew and passengers had not lost their lives in a brave attempt to retake control of the plane just before it went down.

Countless members of the police and firefighting profession lost their lives in the performance of their duties in conjunction with these attacks and the aftermath that followed.

That was the "event" remembered and those who perished that day were the heroes and victims honored in a quiet ceremony eight years later at the new fire station in Superior.Located at Mary Drive and Golf Course Road, across from the town swimming pool and the school campus, the fire station seemed an appropriate setting for the 5 p.m. ceremony.' It was a ceremony that also included a salute to our local day-to-day heroes, the police officers, firefighters, armed forces members and others. Those heroes,' like those who answered the call to service on 9-11 are sometimes called to risk or surcender their lives so the community can continue to live its life, educate its children at the school, swim in the town pool.

The Woodmen of the World Lodge 60 of Superior held the ceremony and it was the fifth year the lodge had done this in different locations around town. Called "In Honor and Remembrance, Woodmen of the World Salutes America's Heroes," this project of the Woodmen of the World also provided a commemorative plaque, new flagpole and flag for the fire station and a new flag for the Superior Police Department.

The solemn ceremony took place in the driveway just outside the fire station's vehicle bay, a fitting setting with a fire truck in the background and close by in the yard the new flagpole with the old flag at half mast. Clouds and little drops of rain came and went.

Giving the invocation was Dominique Castillo. This was followed by a rendition of the National Anthem by Frank Rabago.

Mayor Michael Hing gave a welcome speech and discussed the topic of honoring and remembering those who died on 9-11 and those heroes who served currently to keep the community safe.

He also reflected how sometimes



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