SHANKSVILLE, Pa. - Frank Siller walked the 2.7 miles between this small Somerset County borough and the Flight 93 National Memorial on Saturday to honor his brother, Stephen, a New York City firefighter who died Sept. 11, 2001, while trying to save others in the World Trade Center.
It was part of Mr. Siller’s 537-mile walk from New York City to visit all three sites — including the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. — that were struck by terrorists who had hijacked planes. The 20th anniversary of those attacks is next month.
After his brother died in the collapsing towers after running nearly three miles from Brooklyn, through the Battery Tunnel, into Manhattan with 60 pounds of fire gear on, Mr. Siller and his family were inspired to create the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. It has raised more than $150 million since 2003 to support family members of fallen first responders and veterans, including buying homes for some of them.
As dramatic as his brother’s effort to help people was, Mr. Siller, the foundation’s CEO, said during a ceremony at the Flight 93 memorial Saturday that the story of the passengers on Flight 93 who decided to strike at the terrorists, knowing they would die, “is simple. But it has to be told.”
“Think about it. Think about what they did,” he implored a crowd of about 300 people that included 25 retired and active New York City Fire Department members who support the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and cooked breakfast for those in the walk. “It speaks about heroism, heroism I don’t know if I’ll ever know myself, but I do through my brother.”
The nearly 100 people who joined Mr. Siller on the walk to the memorial, and the hundreds more who took part in the ceremony, were moved by the story.
“It’s the least we can do to come out and pay our respects” to the 343 New York City firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11, said Holly Eisler, a member of the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department’s finance committee as she walked behind Mr. Siller and the New York City firefighters who joined him.
But as moving as the day was, it was under a cloud of what some called “concern,” others “disturbing,” “horrible” or “disgusting” over last week’s rapid collapse of the government in Afghanistan and the takeover by the Taliban, the group that harbored Osama bin Laden, who planned the 9/11 attacks.
Jack Oehm, a retired New York City Fire Department battalion chief, summed up what many at the memorial felt about what has happened in Afghanistan: “All these soldiers who signed up to fight for our freedom [in Afghanistan], they joined because of what happened to us on 9/11.
“To see them suffer through this” while watching the collapse of the country after the United States decided to pull out, “all because of political decisions. It’s horrible.”
Mr. Siller said in an interview that what has happened in Afghanistan is “disturbing.”
Given the work the foundation does with military families, “I’ve been talking to a lot of Gold Star families” who lost loved ones in battle, he said, “and they’re all so distraught that we couldn’t plan better to make sure all the Americans there were safe before we got out, as well as the Afghanis who worked with us.
“They know their loved ones died over there.”
Many who participated in the walk to the memorial and attended the ceremony afterward said they were not so concerned with the U.S.’s pullout of Afghanistan — “It was time to go,” one woman said -- but with the chaos that ensued.
“They said, ‘We didn’t expect [the Taliban takeover] to happen so quickly,’” said Tom Ryan, a retired New York City firefighter. “Well, they knew it would happen ...”
Mr. Ryan’s friend and fellow retired NYC firefighter Eddie Lineham summed it up: “It wasn’t getting out. Everybody was happy with that. It was how it ended.”
The Rev. Jay Shaffer, pastor of Unity United Church of Christ in Shanksville, offered a prayer at the beginning of the ceremony at the memorial “for the men and women in Afghanistan as they continue to seek to keep people out of harm’s way.”
He said afterward that a stranger had approached him before the ceremony and asked him to mention the troops still in Afghanistan trying to help get people out safely.
Mr. Shaffer said he did not want to comment about the collapse in Afghanistan, but said “hopefully our presence there [over 20 years] has had an impact on the people there.”
Donna Gibson, president of the Friends of Flight 93, an organization that supports the memorial, volunteers about 15 hours a week at the memorial. She said that during the past few weeks, she has heard growing concern about Afghanistan from memorial visitors.
“Just yesterday, a member of the military [visiting the memorial] who said he did 10 tours in Afghanistan said he was very discouraged by what happened in Afghanistan,” she said.
“We try not to get into the politics here because we’re trying to remember the 40 heroes of Flight 93,” she said. “But I do think [Afghanistan’s collapse] is on peoples’ minds.”
Sean D. Hamill: shamill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2579 or Twitter: @SeanDHamill
First Published: August 21, 2021, 9:19 p.m.
Updated: August 21, 2021, 11:16 p.m.