Two-hundred people came for a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony on the USS Yorktown last Friday to remember the lives lost in the terrorist attacks on our country 14 years ago. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., along with the plane crash of Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Mount Pleasant Mayor Linda Page officiated the ceremony and remembered the first responders who served so bravely on that day: “They never hesitated to go into those buildings and save lives.” She was joined by the Mount Pleasant Fire Department Honor Guard who presented the colors prior to the invocation by Mount Pleasant Fire Chief Herbert Williams.
Singer-songwriter Michael Allen co-wrote a song, “United Through It All,” after the events of 9/11 to express pride in how our nation came together following the great tragedy. He shared a video at the Remembrance Ceremony featuring scenes from 9/11 and the days that followed along with the song he wrote.
The featured guest speaker was retired New York City Fire Department EMS Paramedic Chevalo Wilsondebriano. A 9/11 first responder and rescue worker at Ground Zero, Wilsondebriano shared his memories of that horrific day, what he witnessed firsthand on the scene, and how he narrowly escaped from the collapse of the second tower.
While in route to the scene from Queens in the MERV (Mobile Emergency Response Vehicle), he kept his eyes on the towers the entire time he sat in traffic. He watched as the first tower collapsed and on the phone his now-wife begged him to turn around and not go to the scene. Wilsondebriano never hesitated to do his job. He said, “I have got to get down there to my guys.”
After the two buildings collapsed, he continued to help try to recover any survivors. He was devastated when he was told by someone, “We don’t expect survivors.” Still he worked at Ground Zero hoping to find his coworkers or any survivors. After 28 tours of duty at the scene, he summed up the results with these words: “I found a grand total of zero.” Of the 343 firefighters killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, three were from his station.
In memory of those firefighters and all other victims of 9/11, “Taps” was played as Wilsondebriano tossed a wreath into the Charleston harbor.
See the gallery below for additional photos of the ceremony:
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