WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A group of Kansas firefighters climbed 110 flights to honor the lives of the nearly 3,000 killed during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
“I am halfway done,” said Melanie Miller with the Harper Fire Department.
But she and others feel it is a mountain worth scaling.
“We forget about what happened, and then, there events like this that make you remember,” says Richard Barnett, Assistant Chief of Operations of the McConnell Air Force Base Emergency Services.
As a new generation lives without having gone through the attacks, these firefighters and emergency personnel hope to pass the legacy of the victims on.
“It is going to be quite the task,” says Barnett.
Each step upward brought another memory of a victim.
“We have to educate our young ones and let them keep the legacy going,” urged Shane Davis, who is a Captain alongside Barnett at the McConnell Air Force Base.
These firefighters also had to keep going to reach their goal.
“If we can do things like this throughout our time here, that is going to help our younger people who may not even have been born yet to remember,” Barnett adds.
“That is why we are all here,” Davis adds. “We got 12 of us today so we are going to go honor the fallen.”
The task proved difficult.
“I am wiped,” Miller said halfway through the climb.
Though they are fully geared up with heavy pounds of equipment, the men and women know who truly gave all.
“They sacrificed their lives for us,” Miller says.
Even when the climb ended the mission still continues.
“This is so their memory lives on,” Miller explains.
