The Day the Towers Fell

September 11th-What does this day mean to me?

I have been an EMT-Basic since August 8th 2000. As an EMS provider this day is a sacred holiday to me. I am not going to promote the standard flag waving vitriol that many will do today. I will not remember just the 343 FDNY or the passengers of all the flights. I want to have people remember the uncounted EMS personnel that were there loading people into rigs when the towers went down.
Those people were Heroes’ as were the Firefighters that died that day. The most notable thing is that they don’t wear 50 pounds or more of protective gear. They had no SCBA’s to help them breath in the dust and they sucked down more of the crap in the air. EMS crews and often called ambulance jockeys and meat hauling monkeys, but without us helping to stabilize the patient the hose dragger's would not be heroes. It is a system. Emergency Medical Services, all one team with many players.
So on this day of days, remember all those who fell that fateful day, those who were there doing the job, and those who have always been here before 9/11 became a term associated with the worst American attack on American soil since December 7th, 1941. For me as an EMS provider there are those of us who did the job before 9/11 and everyone else now doing the job. Those doing the job now do so with vim and vigor but don’t totally understand us old timers who were on the job back in the day.