Remembering those lost on 9/11

Thirteen years after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the memory of those who died lives on stronger than ever.

To remember their lives, Baldwin American Legion Post 246 organized its annual remembrance ceremony that featured a motorcycle escort from the post on Grand Avenue to the Miss Freeport on the Nautical Mile.

The ceremony paid tribute to those who died 13 years ago and the military personnel who have died in action since that day. More than two-dozen motorcycles led the way, with help of a police escort, from the post to the Miss Freeport.

“The death of our 3,000 innocent people has affected tens of thousands of families, friends and co-workers in and around New York, New Jersey and the country,” said Al Ficarola, commander of Post 246. “We will never forget. We will fight terrorism at home and abroad and we still stand together.”

Ficarola spoke those words in the presence of veterans, neighbors, parents of military personnel, politicians and friends, in the evening of Sept. 10 in Freeport.

The Rev. Douglas Arcoleo, pastor of Our Holy Redeemer Church in Freeport, blessed the motorcycles prior to their trip to Freeport and spoke to the crowd about learning lessons from 9/11 once there.

He closed out his message by saying we must remember those “who have offered the most ultimate of sacrifices, those unknowingly on 9/11 and those who ever since have willingly laid down their lives in service to this one nation, Under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Following the ceremony, the crowd of about 60 people boarded the Miss Freeport to conclude the remembrance. The names of the fallen were read aloud and flowers were cast into the water.