The sun didn’t dare break through the gray New York sky on Tuesday afternoon because for some, that equally gray Tuesday morning six years ago still feels like yesterday.
Halfmoon commemorated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at a Tuesday ceremony across from town hall at the town’s 9/11 memorial. Dozens of volunteer firefighters formed a semi-circle around the memorial as about 50 residents stood and remembered the dead.
One of those Halfmoon residents was State Trooper Don Baker Jr., who was shot last August by Ralph Bucky Phillips during the fugitive’s six-month manhunt. Phillips pleaded guilty in December to the murder of Trooper Joseph Longobardo and the attempted murder of Baker, and is currently serving life in prison without parole.
Baker said that he was honored to be asked to light a ceremonial candle at the event.
`It’s very emotional to see everybody gather and knowing the lives that were lost as far as fire and police and to just come out and support each other,` Baker said. `Sept. 11 is such an important day.`
Regarding his recovery, he said that he’s training at a gym and feels great.
`I’m doing what I can do, which is pretty good,` he said. `A little weight training, a little bit of running.`
Also at the event were two fire trucks, one of which hoisted a large American flag 50 feet in the air over the crowd, as well as Boy Scouts Troop 30, which raised and lowered the American and 9/11 Commemoration flags at the memorial.
Halfmoon Supervisor Mindy Wormuth hosted the event.
`We have come together today to remember the victims, the heroes and the ones who lost loved ones on this date six years ago today, to pay tribute to those who paid the price by innocently going about their everyday activities,` Wormuth said. `Let us not forget the price we paid.`
According to the 9/11 Commission Report, that price was more than 2,600 people who died at the World Trade Center, 125 at the Pentagon, and 256 on the four planes ` surpassing the death toll at Pearl Harbor 50 years earlier.
Regina Parker, who is on the Halfmoon town board, has a son in the military. Parker said the ceremony reminded her of a call he made to her on 9/11. Her son had been working at a local armory, and ended up not returning home for almost three weeks after the attack.
`He said ‘I’m sending someone to the house to get everything, all my equipment. I love you. I’m not sure you’ll see me again for a long time,’` Parker said. `It reminds me of him calling me and telling me that he loved me and for me to always remember that.`
Her son, who has served three tours of duty in Iraq, attended the event but didn’t wish to be identified or recognized.
Art Hunsinger is a volunteer firefighter with the Clifton Park/Halfmoon Fire Department. He was chief from 2002 to 2007, and spoke at the event.
`To us, 9/11 of 2001 will never be forgotten. It will always be a part of what we remember,` Hunsinger said. `It’s a day where we lost 343 of our brothers and sisters to a tragic incident.`
A few minutes before he spoke, the radios of two members of the West Crescent Fire Department rang out and the pair of firefighters ran to a nearby fire truck to go on the call, their siren blaring as Hunsinger reflected on Sept. 11.
`We’re embodied by a brotherhood and a sisterhood, just as we are by the engine that we see now,` Hunsinger said. `We in the emergency services are the crazy ones. We’re the ones running inside when everyone else is running out.“