Pittsburgh Firefighter Honors 9/11 Victims With Touching Bagpipe Performance
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- We all remember and commemorate 9/11 in our own way.
On this day, the 12th anniversary of the attacks, a Pittsburgh firefighter performed a very special and poignant tribute to the men and women who died that day.
"I want to pay tribute to the people who died, to the people who sacrificed," said Pete Soergel, a Pittsburgh firefighter.
So Soergel, who is also a bagpiper, spent Wednesday morning walking in Downtown Pittsburgh, stopping at various spots to play his pipes. He started at 8:46 a.m.
That's the time when the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m., the second plane hit the South Tower.
"It's very important to me. As firefighters, we lost 343 brothers, and 41 cousins - Port Authority Police and paramedics," said Soergel.
He stopped at the exact times of the day's tragic events, from the attacks on the World Trade Center to the crash at the Pentagon to Flight 93's descent in Shanksville, commemorating each with the beautiful strains of the bagpipes.
"They stir your soul, especially when you play 'Amazing Grace,'" said Soergel.
And at each, people stopped to reflect.
"We can't forget what's happened," says Soergel. "That's part of our national psyche and it makes us who we are."
It may just be one man's tribute. Notes escaping in the air on a September morning, but the pipes are a powerful tribute and stir up memories of a day we must never forget.
Click here for more photos from the memorial service in Shanksville.
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