Backstory: Heroes

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor those folks who have given their lives for the protection of our country. I thought it would be an appropriate day then to give you the backstory of one of my favorite images:
My friends, Joe and Beth, live in Montgomery, New York. It's a small town up in the Hudson Valley, about an hour north of Manhattan. Every year, on the weekend after Labor Day, the town hosts 'General Montgomery Day' (GMD) to honor their founder. It's a great celebration full of all kinds of small-town events: soapbox derby, carnival rides, arts and crafts, and one of the best parades you could imagine! You see, in the Northeast, the public safety tradition runs strong and deep - generations of fathers and son (and daughters, too!) choose to serve their community as firefighters and police officers. And the parade is the perfect time to put on the Class A uniforms and show their stuff. Almost every firehouse has some sort of antique fire apparatus, and they polish it up and bring it out to the parade.

My first GMD parade was in 2001 - September 8th to be exact. I spent the weekend with Joe and Beth. Thoroughly enjoying myself, it was time to head back to Atlanta. So on September 10th, 2001, I boarded a flight from New York and returned to Atlanta. Of course, we all know where we were the next day. For the guys in the picture, they were quietly hanging out in their firehouse in one of the small towns around the Hudson Valley when the call came in to head to Manhattan and help their firefighter brothers and sisters. When it was all said and done, 343 brave souls lost their lives in the line of duty - many of whom came from the small-town departments.

Fast-forward one year, to September 9th, 2002. It's time again for another GMD parade. The mood is obviously more somber, though much more patriotic. Virtually every firehouse gets a standing ovation worthy of the honor. I tried in vain to capture as many images as I could with my digital camera. After getting back to Atlanta that year, I took some time to review what I captured. And I found these two guys. Dressed in the same call-out gear they wore into the Twin Towers, in scorching end-of-Summer heat, they proudly marched with their flag about 3 paces ahead of their firehouse. You see, they were the survivors of their house - everyone else was new with less than a year of service.

There's no doubt that the men and women of our Armed Forces deserve Memorial Day for all their sacrifice. The men and women of our domestic public safety - firefighters and police - deserve the day, too. So the next time you see a cop or a firefighter, thank them for all they do.

Happy Memorial Day.