This past Memorial Day also fell on September 11, the 20 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in NY, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the plane crash in Shanksville, PA.
To commemorate the anniversary, Ewing Township held a ceremony at the Municipal Complex, hosted by the Ewing Patriotic Committee.
The memorial was held outside, allowing those in attendance to observe The Firefighter Memorial behind the Municipal Building. The statue contains a piece of the towers, an honorarium gifted to municipalities that lost community members. Ewing Township lost three of its own that day, and these citizens lives were memorialized.
Richard J. Guadagno, who grew up in Ewing, graduated from Rutgers in 1984, and worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, was aboard United Flight 93, returning from a visit to his parents. His badge and credentials were identified among the debris.
Joshua Scott Reiss, 23, was in the North Tower at the time the plane crashed into it. Reiss grew up working in his father’s clothing store, Suit World, on Olden Ave. He was a graduate of the University of South Carolina in 2000, and was working as a bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald at the time of his death.
Colleen Fraser, 51, was the Director of the Progressive Center for Independent Living, a Ewing-based non-profit advocacy group fighting for the civil rights of the disabled. She served on the New Jersey Developmental Disabilities Council, and helped to support the Americans with Disabilities Act. Fraser was also a passenger on United Flight 93.
The opening remarks of the 9/11 service were given by Ewing Mayor Bert Steinmann. He was followed by guest speaker Scott Strauss, a retired NYPD detective who was one of the first responders that answered the call to help at Ground Zero on 9/11. He spoke about what he witnessed that day.
“The things we saw and had to do are forever burned deep within us and will haunt us for the rest of our lives,” Strauss said.
He went on to describe leaving work for the day, hearing on the radio that a plane struck the Trade Center. When he got home and turned the TV on he saw the second plane hit.
“I immediately knew we were under attack, and I knew I had to get back to work,” Strauss said.
He got back to the Trade Center just as the second tower finished collapsing. Strauss said, “We grouped up and began searching for survivors. And then, about 7:30-8:00 at night, we got word that there were two police officers trapped in the rubble.”
Strauss was concerned about the time it took to find survivors, saying, “We didn’t think they’d survive a rescue attempt.”
It took about 4 hours to get the first officer, Will Jimeno from the Port Authority Police Department, out of the rubble. It took until 7:00 the next morning to get the second officer out. That officer was Sergeant John McLoughlin from the Port Authority Police Department.
The ceremony ended on a somber note with the roughly 100 people in attendance giving their respects to the responders and civilians lost in the attacks.
