Firefighters Ride To Honor Fallen Colleagues For 9/11 Anniversary
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Riding to remember – that's the focus of one motorcycle club this week. Its members are all firefighters from Illinois and across the globe.
As CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports, the bikers leave Chicago Tuesday on the "Chicago to New York 9/11 Memorial Ride." They will head to all three 9/11 crash sites – the site of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville, Pa., where passengers forced hijacked United Flight 93 to crash.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger reports
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Chicago Fire Department Lt. Tom Maloney went to Ground Zero in New York after the attacks brought down the World Trade Center towers and the experience changed his life.
That's why he started this ride nine years ago and his passion is why so many fellow firefighters have joined him.
"I just can't ... I cannot forget," Maloney said. So he doesn't try to forget what he saw in the rubble of Ground Zero in the days following the terrorist attacks, but it's clear some images still haunt him.
"There were shoes, literally shoes everywhere. You just knew that this shoe or that shoe, it belonged to somebody – every person that was in there," he said. "It touches you. I mean you're digging through the rubble. ... The entire site is literally taken down, moved away by buckets -- five-gallon buckets -- by hand, using a garden shovel, your hands, gloves."
Maloney was one of dozens of Chicago firefighters who headed to New York to help that city's fire department search for remains of victims killed when the towers fell - including 343 New York City firefighters.
"There were shoes, literally shoes everywhere. You just knew that this shoe or that shoe, it belonged to somebody – every person that was in there," he said. "It touches you. I mean you're digging through the rubble. ... The entire site is literally taken down, moved away by buckets – five-gallon buckets, by hand, using a garden shovel, your hands, gloves."
Every year since, Maloney has gone back on his motorcycle. Hundreds of fellow firefighters now go with him.
"It's just something that evolved, rather than took place or that I ever planned or aspired to do," Maloney said.
"We go for the memory of the people that passed away, their families and, you know, you think of the people that you work with, too," Chicago firefighter Kevin O'Grady said.
Retired Hinsdale firefighter Tom Sener said he believes so many local firefighters feel compelled to take the trip because, "we share the pain of the New York Fire Department."
Most of those gathering downtown on Monday are members of the American Firefighters Motorcycle Club, but membership now stretches across oceans, too.
"We've got 32 people from the British Isles – that includes England, Scotland and Wales – spread right across," said Tony Smith, president of the British club. "We wanted to do something, to come over and say, 'Look, you know, we're with you on this. And we understand.' And we just want to show some support and solidarity."
That solidarity is what drives them halfway cross country to three places that still make most of these grown men cry.
"It's a bond. I mean, you have such a good group of people and we get together and we all go for a common cause," O'Grady said. "In the end, it's just beautiful."
Two firefighters from New Zealand will also be joining the ride this year. The group - about 100 firefighters to start - will leave at 9:11 a.m. Tuesday from U.S. Cellular Field. They will pick up other riders as they head east.
