HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

How 9/11 brought PCa into my life...

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 9/13/2021 3:05 PM (GMT -8)
Brothers All,

This article takes you through parts of my life. It comes to a peak, discussing my six-month role at the 9/11 rescue/recovery operation following the heinous attack on Lower Manhattan.

Latest PSA is 1.2. Life is good.

God is great. So are the courageous people who post hereon.

9/11 - - Never Forget.

NJ Fred

https://www.jerseyshoreonline.com/southern-ocean/veteran-survived-9-11-helped-at-ground-zero/
Posted 9/13/2021 3:13 PM (GMT -8)
https://www.jerseyshoreonline.com/southern-ocean/veteran-survived-9-11-helped-at-ground-zero/
Posted 9/13/2021 7:29 PM (GMT -8)
Fred--This was a wonderful article about heroism. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Post Edited (Tim G) : 9/14/2021 1:10:59 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/13/2021 7:33 PM (GMT -8)
Fascinating story!
Posted 9/14/2021 5:50 AM (GMT -8)
Thank you, Fred. Never forget!

Fred, I assume you are the Fred in the story?

Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 9/14/2021 7:54:47 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/14/2021 6:23 AM (GMT -8)
Fred, thank you for your service at that horrific time in our history.
Posted 9/14/2021 7:59 AM (GMT -8)
Whether it be taking part in rescue and recovery, or simply the daily battle against PCa or other demons, we never know what we can do until we step up and do it! You are a shining example, Fred! G'mar Chatima Tovah.
Posted 9/14/2021 8:29 PM (GMT -8)

Hello, New Jersey Fred ----

Your life experiences ---first as a Vietnam War veteran --- and later your work searching for survivors and victims at the World Trade Center site --- are interwoven threads in the TAPESTRY of your life story.

Growing up, I remember my older family cousins ---- heading off to service in the Vietnam War.

They were specifically trained as medics. They were trained to save lives --- and you did the same.

I was so thankful when they returned home --- and all of us were together again for Christmas Eve celebrations at my great-grandparents' house, once again.

Years later, in my travels, I had been to the World Trade Center towers several times.

Growing up in a smaller Midwestern town, the towers in New York City were a sight to behold --- shining steel and glass --- rising up above the New York City skyline. Up to the top I went ...

One of my best friends had just left the World Trade Center towers, following a business meeting, shortly before the September 11th attacks ...

Your work there --- in your valiant and relentless search for survivors and victims -- amongst the debris and rubble and gray ashes --- is part of the story of that day.

In very recent days, a more specific DNA test was used, and two more sets of remains from the September 11th attacks were just identified, bringing a measure of comfort to two more families.

More identifications are expected in the future. One thousand sets of remains still await definitive identification. Those families await ...

DNA technology has also been used just lately on some unidentified victims from the Pearl Harbor attack, as well, from the World War II era.

A few more soldiers lost in the Pearl Harbor attack have recently been identified and given full military rites and burials --- right here in their hometowns in Iowa ---after being on the Missing In Action lists for eight decades.

I know the comfort that can bring to a family ...

My great-grandparents lost their oldest son in World War II.

My uncle Bud & his closest comrades were killed in a horrific explosion, planned by the enemy, when they entered an empty cottage to bunk down for the night.

After the war, my uncle's coffin was eventually returned to Iowa for burial and a full military funeral.

In my time, years later -- I went to the cemetery many times with my great-grandparents, and learned early in life that FREEDOM ISN'T FREE.

After the war, my great-grandparents turned their backyard Victory Garden into a flower garden, and delivered countless bouquets of flowers to the graves of soldiers buried in my hometown cemetery.

Their loss ... turned into acts of remembrance ...

As years went by, as they got older, I helped them walk the rows of gravestones in the cemetery, delivering the "soldier bouquets" from their flower garden --- which eventually covered their entire backyard.

The work you did, New Jersey Fred, has NO DOUBT brought untold comfort to families who lost loved ones on September 11th.

At the September 11th memorial sites, loved ones still bring flowers ... and this grandson knows the healing and hope this brought to my grandparents, in the decades following my uncle's death in World War II.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, New Jersey Fred.

Your military service in Vietnam at the age of nineteen surely helped prepare you for the recovery work you did, years later, following the September 11th attacks.

With my best to you ~~~
CYCLONE - # Iowa State University

Post Edited (Cyclone-ISU) : 9/15/2021 5:57:04 AM (GMT-6)

✚ New Topic ✚ Reply