Jamestown community marks anniversary of 9/11

Sep. 11—JAMESTOWN — First responders and other community members paused on Monday, Sept. 11, to remember those lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

The Jamestown Patriotic Council organizes the 9/11 Remembrance event to honor those who died on 9/11 and in the subsequent global war on terrorism. The event on Patriot Day drew about 75 people at Zonta Park, where a prayer was given by the Rev. Bob Boyar of First United Presbyterian Church, first responders and veterans leaders were acknowledged, and the Star Spangled Banner and Taps were performed.

The program concluded with a Freedom Walk led by Ladder 1 of the Jamestown Fire Department, the American Legion Post 14 Color Guard and Jamestown Boy Scouts, ending at the All Vets Club where a meal was served.

Andrew Berkey was 7 years old on 9/11. He would grow up to become a paramedic and the operations manager for Jamestown Area Ambulance.

"I was 7 years old when our country changed forever," Berkey said, remembering a television being wheeled into his classroom that day, the day when four commercial airliners were hijacked by terrorists. Two commercial airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers and one at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Passengers in the fourth plane tried to get control of the airplane, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

There were 2,997 people killed in the attacks including firefighters and police officers responding to the twin towers.

"And at 7 years old you can never understand the horrors of something like this," Berkey said. "7-year-olds are still living in a world full of cartoons, make believe and crazy imaginations. I was just a kid still watching Batman chase bad guys and Scooby Doo solve mysteries."

He said he wanted to understand how men could act out something "so evil."

"As the anniversaries came and went, I felt I gained more knowledge and understanding," Berkey said. "But what was also happening subconsciously was far more important to my development as a person and the path I would one day take."

He said he learned through the years about 9/11 and about the actions of real-life heroes.

He became an EMT in 2014.

"I had a newfound perspective and appreciation for the first responders who rushed into the smokes and the flames of 9/11," he said. "I had now joined a brother and sisterhood of people who were trained to run towards chaos while others fled it. I learned the intricate details of the challenges faced that day such as the constant communication problems that arose at ground zero. Firefighters being forced to communicate face to face across a massive scene because radios, radio boosters and phones were not working. The challenges of hundreds of different agencies, thousands of different responders, trying to coordinate any level of an organized response to such a large scale and unprecedented disaster."

He learned about the men and women who rushed to the scenes even though they were off that day, responders who were injured, received care and went back to work, dispatchers who prayed with victims over the phone and the 400 first responders who woke up that morning in New York not knowing it was going to be their last day.

"The more I grew in my profession, the more I realized how incredible their sacrifices are," Berkey said.

Berkey moved to Jamestown in 2018 to lead Jamestown Area Ambulance, saying he wanted to be in a position that could inspire others. The ambulance service began participating in the 9/11 Memorial Climb in 2020, he said.

"EMTs and paramedics come together to be part of something larger than themselves and to preserve the memory of those who sacrificed it all," he said.

Berkey said that though first responders do not wake up mentally prepared to respond to an event like 9/11, they are built and fortified to respond to whatever challenges may face them. "The mentality of any first responder is to be prepared for everything and that is the ultimate commitment made by anyone who wears the uniform," he said. "That is what unites all first responders together. The agreement among us that we will endure and step forward when we are needed."

Berkey said the life of a first responder is about resiliency, perseverance and the ability to adapt to the situations around them. Changes occurred after 9/11 with response tactics regarding mass casualty situations, training and better communication systems were created.

"It may have been evil men that crashed two planes into the twin towers, a plane into a Pennsylvania field and another into our Pentagon but good men and good women responded and prevailed," he said.

He said first responders will always respond no matter the circumstances or sacrifice.

"I think the hope of every first responder is to know that they have made a difference," Berkey said. "That they have made their mark in this world, that their continued and consistent sacrifice has served a larger purpose than themselves. And we can bring honor to those responders by keeping their memory alive and never forgetting the sacrifices they have made."