'Patriot Flag' Flies Over Daley Plaza On Flag Day
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago is hosting a special flag this Flag Day.
It's the 60-foot long, 30-foot tall "Patriot Flag," which is making a nationwide tour.
It was no small feat getting the flag aloft from the ladder of a Chicago Fire Department hook-and-laddder truck in Daley Plaza. One firefighter fell off a curb and hurt a shoulder, but the flag never touched the ground.
The gigantic American flag is dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and to those who responded and lived.
"That flag right now is on a mission to fly in every state of the United States," said New York Fire Lieutenant Joe Torrillo, who accompanies the flag. "As we stand here right now it's flown in 40 states, 130 cities and it has traveled 120,000 miles."
In fact, said Torrillo, it has been flown at the North Pole, where it was 20 below zero at the time.
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Torrillo earned the right to accompany the flag the hard way. He is the only firefighter who survived being buried beneath the rubble of both of the Twin Towers when they collapsed.
"It's still such a very surreal experience to have lived through it, to having been buried underneath the buildings and taking your last couple of breaths, and closing your eyes and thanking God for the career he gave you, the career you chose, and then being found and waking up in an operating room in another state and thinking you're the only one hurt," said Torrillo, who said he knew as many as 80 of the 343 New York firefighters who were among those who died in the 9/11 attacks.
The Patriot Flag's tour ends this Sept. 11, when it will be flown at Ground Zero, at the Pentagon and in the field where United flight 93 went down near Shanksville, Pa. After that, he hopes to be able to take the flag to Iraq and Afghanistan.
