GETTYSBURG, Penn. — This is not just a cross-country motorcycle trip.
This is a pilgrimage, a sacred journey. A thunderous, rumbling cross-country ride to hallowed ground that offers proper time for private reflection.
Firefighters and bikers from all over the country — Nebraska, South Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C — and as far away as England, Scotland and New Zealand — began the journey from Sox Park on Tuesday behind a police and fire department escort bound for New York City to mark the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Along the way, the ever-growing band of bikers has been greeted by the blare of semi-truck drivers blaring air horns and hardy handshakes from strangers at rest stops.
By the time we arrived Wednesday in Shanksville, Pa., the crash site of hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, the caravan of bikers was 200 strong and stretched more than a mile and a half.
Thirty-two firefighters from the United Kingdom were among the pack.
“We come over to join the ride to stand with the 343 brothers who fell with the towers. We just think it’s important. They are our brothers. We wanted to come and say well done mates,” said Peter Cowland, a retired firefighter from St. Albans, England.
“There’s a spiritual awareness of what happened at those sites. We must remember. We can’t let terrorism beat us, but on the other hand, we must not forget what they did. That’s where I am.”
Rod Johnson, of Central Scotland Fire and Rescue, said the contingent from across the pond comes as a sign of respect.
“I’m a fire officer, have been for 25 years. And I’m a hard-core biker. But I wouldn’t come across here to go for an ordinary ride,” Johnson said. “It’s a long way. It’s a lot of expense. It’s special. We all remember very much that day. We remember where we were. For a fireman, this is supporting the guys by just being part of a bigger brotherhood. That’s why we’re here.”
Ride organizer Chicago Fire Lt. Tom Maloney, who has lead a caravan of bikers to New York City every year since terrorists attacked America with hijacked airplanes — crumbling the World Trade Center towers, devastating the Pentagon and scarring a barren field in Shanksville, Pa. — thought about his mom, Ann Maloney.
She recently suffered a brain injury after a violent fall down the stairs. Maloney thought she might die. He found her bloody and lifeless in the basement. Chicago fire paramedics rushed her to the hospital.
“The fire department saved my mom,” Maloney said. “I’ve been thinking about that. I really didn’t plan to go on the ride. I didn’t tell anyone, but there was no way I was going to leave her. There were a couple times that I thought I would never see her again.”
Over the weekend, Maloney’s pal, Chicago police officer Dominick Kearns, offered encouragement.
“Think of what the victims of 9/11 might say,” Kearns, who didn’t make the ride this year, told Maloney back in Chicago. “They’d say be with your family. That’s more important.”
But Ann Maloney had other plans for her son.
“I told her that I wasn’t going. She was smiling, saying. No, go. Don’t you not go,” Tom Maloney said. “I got choked up. She knew how important this is to me. It was very tough leaving her. But I listened to my mom.”
In a stiff, stinging rain, Tom Maloney led the band of bikers east toward the Flight 93 crash site Wednesday morning. “Sometimes, I feel like a tour guide. But I always want to be respectful,” he said. “You can’t forget what we’re here for. All these memorials are honorable places.”
On Thursday, Maloney’s biker caravan heads to the Pentagon.
Editor’s note: Mark Konkol has been riding his 2007 Harley Ultra Classic alongside Firefighter Tom Maloney on the journey to Ground Zero. Look for updates on Twitter @KonkolsKorner.
No comments:
Post a Comment