AEDC Firefighters remember 9/11 in Stair Climb

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Sept. 11, 2001 is a date most Americans will never forget, and some Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) firefighters are doing their part to keep its memory alive.

Three hundred forty-three firefighters from around the area will come together Sept. 11 to honor the firefighters who lost their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Center. The firefighters, including 11 from AEDC, will climb the stairs in the Pinnacle at Symphony Place building in Nashville. The goal is to make it to the 110th floor. Each participant will be wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) with an air pack - totaling about 60 pounds.

AEDC Assistant Chief for Operations George DeShields said New York firefighters who died in the World Trade Center climbed toward the top of the 110 story twin towers to help save people and to evacuate them from the building.

"To show our respect for those guys and in remembrance of them, we're going to climb 110 floors in a building in Nashville, wearing our full equipment," DeShields said. "Number one, it's to promote remembrance and, two, for fitness."

DeShields said the participating firefighters have been training in preparation for the Nashville Stair Climb. They are volunteering their own time to participate in the actual event.

"We've been climbing the stairs in Mark 1 [space test facility]," he said. "We start down in the basement and go up 10 floors; we do it over and over again, just walking up and down the steps, just training and practicing."

AEDC firefighters participating, in addition to DeShields, include Charlie Armstrong, Dennis Eggert, Gary George, Brandon Gunn, Anthony Jimcoily, Chuck King, Ken Locker,
Chief Daryle Lopes and Samuel Treat. Jason Armstrong, Charlie Armstrong's son, is a firefighter with the city of Shelbyville but will climb beside his father as an honorary member of the AEDC team.

Chief Lopes is in full support of the effort.

"I have some awesome troops here and I'm thrilled by every aspect of this effort," he said. "They make me proud, tired and sore as heck after we train, but way proud. It's definitely worth it to see them working together as a team to honor our fallen brothers, contribute to a very worthy cause and strengthen our own department in the process."

DeShields said this is the first time the event has been held in Nashville.

"It's been done in other cities," he said. "Denver was the first one to host, I believe in 2005. They've been doing it every year since, but this is the first time in Nashville.

"This annual event is gaining momentum in support of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation," DeShields said. "It raises funds across the country to help support families of firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty. We just wanted to support our brothers and sisters out there across the country who do the same job we do every day."

AEDC firefighters found out early in their training how strenuous the activity will be, according to DeShields.

"It's really tough," he said. After you get going, your legs get burning, you're breathing heavy, and you think 'it's only stairs, one step at time.'

"The way that I get through it, I think about the guys who were climbing those stairs on Sept. 11, the people that knew what they were risking and everything else, and yet they went ahead and did their jobs because that's what we do as firefighters."