Wednesday, September 11, 2024

9/11 Ladder 118

There are 100s of iconic photos from 9/11 but this one remains forever as the image that haunts me. 

Ladder Company 118 crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. As these six courageous firefighters navigated their truck across the Brooklyn Bridge, they did not know that they were en route to what would become the most infamous tragedy in American history. 

The final sighting of these heros was as they ascended a staircase in the Marriott Hotel near the World Trade Center, endeavoring to find survivors amid the terrorist attacks on September 11. 

Less than an hour following this moment, the South Tower fell, severing the 22-story Marriott in half and claiming the lives of firefighters; Vernon Cherry, Leon Smith, Joey Agnello, Robert Regan, Pete Vega, and Scott Davidson.


The photo Aaron McLamb took of Ladder 118 racing toward the Twin Towers.

Footnote: Scott Davidson is the father of actor comedian and SNL alumni Pete Davidson. 

Cedar Bonus:

In my desk drawer there is a fax I received on September 14, 2001. It details one man's escape from ground zero and that same Marriott hotel on this September 11th morning. A morning much like today. 

The fact that  I won't, maybe can't discard it, is perhaps one of those indications that now more than two decades later I've still not recovered. 

9/11 September 11, 2001 One Man's Story

No comments: