By JESSIE KRAUS-LAVY
I woke up at 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning to attend a Sept. 11 memorial. Although most others attended as another member of the crowd, I was lucky enough to be in there as a member of the First Aid Squad of Marlboro and Morganville New Jersey.
Upon arriving on Wyncrest Road, the site of memorial, I was stunned to see a sniper perched atop my local recreation center, dressed entirely in camouflage apparel and holding a gun, as if he had been taken right out of any war movie.
Standing on the grass before the ceremony, I chatted with other squad members, but I found myself looking past them and to the line of fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency response vehicles that arrived on the scene, each with their sirens flashing and wearing stickers saying “September 11th Never Forget.”
Though I didn’t have one of my own, I noted each first responder wore a black strip of fabric over their badges. “The mourning bands signify that the squad members remember and mourn for those who perished on Sept. 11,” weekend shift coordinator Travis Lamerbson said.
As rain began to slowly fall, the families of the 14 Marlboro residents who lost their lives filed into the seating area while the Marlboro police force, the Township Fire Company, and the First Aid Squad fell into their respective formations behind the memorial.
Several first aid squad members standing next to me commented that the weather seemed befitting of the occasion, a remark I agreed with.
Marlboro Township Councilman Jeff Cantor, an Army Reserves lieutenant colonel himself, began the ceremony and alerted the audience that throughout the memorial service, Township fire trucks would be blaring air horns to signify each important event as it happened throughout the day.
Cantor was deployed from 2009 to 2010 and relayed his story of flying a beam, the twin to the one that was unveiled in Marlboro, over Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan in two Chinook helicopters.
“To me (including a beam in the memorial) was important, because not only was I able to (fly a beam) where the attacks were planned, but I was able to bring something like that home to my community, where so many great people live,” Cantor said.
The first air-horn rang out at precisely 8:46 a.m. as Assemblywoman Amy Handlin addressed the memorial. The noise lasted several seconds, and sent a chill straight through me as I saw the first impact replayed in my mind, and thought of those who had been in the plane, and what they must have thought about in their last few moments. The air-horn did not lose its chilling effect as it blared again at 9:03, 10:03, and 10:28. Each time I felt rattled to my core.
The memorial was finally unveiled by Mayor Jon Hornik and Cantor as the Marlboro High School Chorus sang a rendition of “God Bless America,” accompanied by the Marlboro High School Orchestra.
“We haven’t shared any birthdays or holidays,” said Suzan Cayne, whose son perished in the World Trade Center attacks, “We just don’t celebrate things anymore. Without our son, time just goes by. To see all of this, it’s an amazing tribute to my son, I’m really overwhelmed.”
As I stood at attention, saluting the American colors, children of each of the 14 Marlboro residents who were lost brought flowers and an American flag to rest at each of the 14 stars mounted on the memorial. Yet I was most moved when friends and family were brought up to speak about the victims, and two neighbors of New York firefighter Alan Feinberg spoke.
“I wasn’t there, so I can’t say Alan was first into the building, but I knew Alan, and I know that he would have run the furthest and the fastest to get into that building,” one neighbor said.
“I nearly lost my composure at the thought of a man who was safe, heading directly into one of the most unimaginable and the darkest abyss any of us could have imagined,” he said.