VERO BEACH – Events Tuesday at Riverside Theatre to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks left the audience with an important message to endure into Sept. 12 and beyond.
In an emotional journey of video, music and recitation, a talented group of normally reserved uniformed military and public safety personnel truly wore their hearts on their sleeves.
Families of firefighters, police officers, veterans and active-duty military came together in solidarity and fellowship to remember and to continue the grieving process. Families who don’t know firsthand the burdens and anxieties of having someone in uniform got a glimpse of what it’s like to send a loved one into harm’s way.
It was an occasion for Class A dress uniforms, polished brass and black bands over badges. An evening which started out with tears turned into pride and even joy before the last standing ovation erupted.
“It’s fantastic to have the community come together,” said Vince Nelson of Vero Beach.
“I’m so proud of our first responders and the people who put this on,” Nelson said, adding kudos to the management of Riverside Theatre for the venue and event coordination.
Organized by the Vero Beach Firefighters Association and countywide public safety agencies, the ceremony and concert by the United States Navy Band Southeast not only honored the New York City firefighters and law enforcement officers who perished while working the 9/11 attacks. The remembrance also gave Americans and especially Indian River County residents so many reasons to be proud of the brave men and women who protect them every day.
From the Honor Guard to the entertainment, the ceremony showcased a slightly different side of local public safety professionals than residents usually see.
Sgt. Terrance Nelson of the Vero Beach Police Department belted out the “Star-Spangled Banner”as local residents from tots to seniors held hands to hearts and sang along. After a video montage of television news footage of the attacks offered a somber reminder of the collective shock of Americans on that morning 11 years ago as the twin towers and the Pentagon was struck by three planes and a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania, Indian River County Fire Medic Sean Gibbons played guitar and sang Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning.”
At that point in the ceremony in the darkened theatre, many were fighting back tears or wiping the saltwater from their cheeks.
Then keynote speaker Col. Len DeFrancisci reminded the audience that freedom is not free, but he added that safety doesn’t come cheap, either.
In a political climate where governments are facing massive cutbacks at every level and public safety employees are fighting to keep their salaries, benefits and pensions, there was a message that wasn’t directly spoken but definitely implied. The undercurrent of the evening was to remember to show gratitude for those who put on the uniform.
The audience was reminded of how serious local first responders take being “ready to serve” by the performance of an inspection of arms with members of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office and Indian River County Fire-Rescue. Sheriff Deryl Loar also led a somber moment of the ceremony as he rang a bell four times to commemorate the four attacks. Bagpiper Michael Hyde also played the bagpipes to honor the fallen.
The performance by the U.S. Navy Band Southeast began to elevate the crowd as the music turned from traditional patriotic tunes to a light-hearted display of some lively music born in the U.S.A. A jazz ensemble within the group called T.G.I.F. had toes tapping and hands clapping with their animated Dixieland renditions of “Rock Around The Clock” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
The audience was blown away by performances of “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” from Navy Band member Laura Kelly.
Indian River County Fire Rescue Capt. Joe Earman has coordinated the area’s 9/11 memorial events for a decade now. He said it takes several months to organize, from working with the venue and booking the Navy Band to finding sponsors like Publix Supermarkets who fed the band members, firefighters and police who performed or were part of the honor guard between the 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. performances.
“The firefighters could have been us, they were just working in a different area,” Earman said. “But they’re our brother firefighters.”
He said the ceremony started out small, but has grown and changed venues and formats. Some years there is a daytime event at Memorial Island in Vero Beach. This year the decision to host two concerts at Riverside Theatre was due to Patriot Day being on a Tuesday and not being a paid holiday for most people.
The idea, Earman said, is to make sure people “remember to never forget” and then to lift them up and give them something to be immensely proud of as they exit the theatre and walk past the swirling lights of emergency vehicles and the massive American flag draped from a fire department crane in the parking lot.
“We want you to remember and be sad about what was lost, and then when you walk out, we want you to feel like you live in the greatest country in the world,” Earman said.
Many hours before the concert at Riverside Theatre, the morning of Sept. 11 started with a remembrance timed to commence just before the first attack 11 years ago.
About 125 people gathered around the Four Chaplains Memorial in Sebastian’s Riverview Park at 8:40 a.m. Tuesday for a reverent remembrance of the events on that fateful day.
Speakers at the event included Sheriff Deryl Loar, Sebastian Mayor Jim Hill and Sebastian Police Chief Michelle Morris.
Sheriff Loar spoke about “intelligent policing” and urged citizens to be on the lookout for suspicious activity. He said the 9/111 attacks came at a time when the Cold War had ended and Americans by and large felt very safe and were pretty complacent about national security.
“Eleven years later, not only are we in a lull, we are not vigilant,” Loar said.
Mayor Jim Hill relayed his personal experience on 9/11 hearing about the first attack on the World Trade Center. He said he called his wife, who hails from New York, and that they were on the telephone when she saw the second attack on the television.
“We’re here today to talk about a day that will be etched in my soul,” Hill said.
Hill called Osama bin Laden a “desert rat who hates America” and he praised the first responders and the military personnel at home and abroad who protect the homeland. He thanked them, calling them “heroes that put their lives on the line so we can go to bed knowing that we’re safe.”
Chief Morris said she remembered “the terror that day brought into our homes” and said the events of 9/11 made her want to get her children out of school and hold them.
The keynote address for the ceremony was delivered by retired Brigadier General Dudley James Gordon of the United State Army.
Gordon said 9/11 was “A day that, if he were alive, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt might have described it as the nation’s second day of infamy.”
He remembered the heroes of the day, and those victims who were just about their business, either in the World Trade Center or in the Pentagon or in one of the planes.
“My favorite definition of a hero is one who runs toward the danger when everyone else is running away from it,” Gordon said.
Then he reminded the audience — about half of which was dressed in some kind of military or public service uniform — that even more brave men and women died in the coming decade as the terror attacks “thrust our nation into war.”
After the speeches, one dozen different organizations laid large wreaths at the foot of the memorial site while bagpiper Michael Hyde accompanied the somber proceedings.
Nearly 20 organizations and agencies came together to make the Sebastian event happen, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10210 and its Ladies Auxiliary and Mens Auxiliary; the 82nd Airborne Division Association, Space Coast Chapter; Marine Corps League of Barefoot Bay and Sebastian; Sebastian River High School Naval JROTC; Sebastian Area Veterans Honor Guard, American Legion Post 189 and its Auxiliary; Indian River County Fire Rescue Battalion; Jewis War Veterans, Stanley Steyer Post 506; Knights of Columbus, 4th Degree; Roseland Women’s Club; SOS Cookies; Sebastian Italian-American Social Club; Sebastian Elks Lodge 2714; Sons of American Legion, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office and the Sebastian Police Department.
Also Tuesday, there was a Vero Beach ceremony and concert.
The public was invited to attend one of two events at 4 and 7 p.m. at Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach, on the barrier island just over the Barber Bridge. The U.S. Navy Band Southeast from the Naval Air Station Jacksonville is scheduled to play for both ceremonies.
Vero Beach event organizer Capt. Joe Earman said in an announcement that the reason why these ceremonies to mark the day, which is now officially Patriot Day, are so important is “so that we all remember what happened 11 years ago.”
The Vero event was presented by the Vero Beach Firefighters Association and Indian River County Fire Rescue Department.