My trip to the IAFF Memorial
Well just as I thought, after realizing that I did not post picture or a Blog about the Yarnell 19, I did not post about my trip to the IAFF memorial in Colorado Springs either. So here goes!
My mother and I got on a plane in Boston flew to Colorado Springs, Colorado spent a week and left. Ahhh that definitely does not capture the trip and the emotional roller coaster one experiences when they go to the IAFF memorial. So, lets try again!
Yes we got on a plane and we flew from Boston to Colorado Springs making a transfer in Florida, some 7 hours of flying. But when we hit the ground in Colorado Springs that when it started to become more then 7 hours of flying and some ok sight seeing it was when you stepped into the world of the IAFF memorial and Local 7.
What do I mean by this is exactly how it sounds, as my mother and I stepped off the plane we where greeted at the end of the flyway by members of the IAFF Brother & Sisterhood, members of the Local 7 who took our bags. Who escorted us to the collection area to get our checked luggage. Who walked us to a waiting van. Drove us to the guest hotel. Who helped us check in. The list of hospitality from the IAFF members and Local 7 goes on and on.
With the bags in the room and a short moment or two to relax from that 7 hours of flying, it was off to check in with the IAFF and get the rundown for the week and our name tags. Little did I know at the name the significance of these name tags; but; before the end of the week I would!
Ok, I am now in a unfamiliar city in an unfamiliar hotel without my many scanners and radios, the inability to grab my camera and chase the next big incident, what do I do?!?
Maybe I will look around in the IAFF shop which was set up in the hotel. Shirts, hats, gloves, long sleeve tees, hoodies, the list goes on and on. Way cool!
Or maybe I could pock around in the Local 7 shop area, same thing, shirts, hats, gloves, long sleeve tees, hoodies, yes their list is just as cool!
But, just like a bad infomercial "There's more!" I meander the hallways and if you read my previous Blog about the Yarnell 19, you would know that this is where a friendship was born as I discovered Rhonda Synder and her very sad, emotionally moving store of how she dedicated her time to photograph and make ash wood frame for the 19 men who lost their life in a horrible situation.
And just beyond her memorial there was a hallway outside the IAFF onsite office, with photos and patches. Each photo or patch having a story of a fire fighter somewhere who has lost his or her life on the job and who have moved on to man God's house.
So, of course we got to it at sometime, right!? Well of course the IAFF and Local 7 got that covered too! So, after a wash up in the room Mom and me where off to this massive ballroom, lined with 2 wonderful buffet spreads in the middle of the room, with an amazing ice sculpture of a fire truck.
And this is where I met Mary Beahan which was that start of another friendship and a companion to travel to the many different excursions with.
The following morning the IAFF did it all over again for breakfast. Then it was off sight seeing with the new friends. Seen above was us at one of the many stops we would make during the course of the week, these two photo where at the Air Force academy (bottom) and Garden of the God's (Top.) We made our way to the top of Pike's Peak downtown Springs all over the place and each and every time we where escorted by members of Local 7 or their family who would shuttle us around. Totally amazing the support by that Local!
So, of course this trip was about going to the memorial. I could not describe the experience of stepping onto the ground of this amazing memorial. As one walks up to it your eyes are drawn to the center monument which is of a fire fighter climbing a ladder carrying a child. Then as you get closer you find yourself standing in front of smaller tributes with meaning like a fire fighter siting with his head in his hands or a granite IAFF logo or the empty set of boots. And with ever step you are pulled towards the walls, the walls with name after name of FF's who have passed. For my first trip there is was nice; but; I knew that during the week I would be returning so I did not spend to much time there.
The there was the parade of motorcycles and apparatus. Breath taking.
But as I said I knew that I would be back to the wall and one of the nights prior to the ceremony I felt moved to return and what a different experience. It was what some might call a cool night, the sky was clear and as you walked up everything was bathed in light. And this time it was a little bit more lively with families and friend finding loved ones name and tracing them with paper and pencils.
So, if day trips and fancy buffet where not your thing, there is all way a block party like no other! Picture this hundreds filling the streets of downtown for about 5 blocks, with bars on each side; if you are so moved; talking and laughing telling their stories, when two rigs make there way down the street with there strobe lights lighting up the night sky, with the echos of Pipes & Drums coming from behind them. The rigs parting the crowds as they make there way down the street, then you see them the Pipes & Drums hundreds of them filling the air with sweet sounds. They stand there playing several song before they begin the bar hop!
And I will end on the ceremony, no words can describe the feeling and thought that one experience while hundreds of members of the IAFF file into the memorial cite dressed in their class A's while the sounds of the Pipes & Drums echo through the air. Then having name after name read with a flag being present to a family member while the tolling of a bell occurs. Then if that just hit you, you see something like two young men standing with their father on top of a rig with their head bowed. The whole thing is just breath taking, somber, uplifting, depressing and many, many other feelings wrapped up in one; but; in the end if you did not or do not walk away from this week feeling happy and knowing that the love one who you now miss has been honored then you missed something something really big called the Brotherhood & Sisterhood of the IAFF, Local 7 and the bond which being part of the Fire Fighting community brings.
May God bless and speed the fallen and thier families.
