| On Friday morning August 7, TSFRS was visited by John Martin and became part of history.
John Martin is a retired fire engineer from the San Bernadino (CA) Fire Department and is riding his bike across America in commemoration of the upcoming 25 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The trip has been 6 years in the planning. He embarked on September 11, 2025 and will arrive at the Twin Towers on September 11, 2026.
The trip covers just under 2981 miles, one mile for each victim, including a police K9. A major part of the trip is that John has assembled a collection of dog tags on chains, each one bearing the name of one victim. At mile intervals along the way, John hangs one of the tags on a road sign or some other object. The exception is that those of the 343 deceased FDNY members who perished that day are dropped off at fire stations that John encounters along the way.
TSFRS was honored to be one of those stations, 179 so far. On Friday morning August 7, John stopped by the 85 House and gave us a description of his odyssey and how he would like the tags to be handled. At the conclusion, the tag bearing the name of Daniel J Brethel was formally given to Capt. Jeremy Conner on behalf of all TSFRS members in a brief ceremony in our day room. Daniel Brethel was a Captain on Ladder Company 24 in Manhattan.
At John’s suggestion, Capt. Brethel’s tag will be carried in Engine 85 so that he might be able to run calls with us, as he was unable to finish his last response. As such, the tag is now suspended from the air circulation fan in the cab so that he might be riding back in the officer seat again. As a matter of note, approximately 36 hours later, E85-- with Capt. Brethel riding up front-- was first arriving engine at a working fire in neighboring Wyomissing.
Thank you for the honor, John. We are proud to be a part of your salute to the fallen. |
