Families, Officers Remember 9/11
Local people took time to remember the events of 9/1 through memorials and events on Sunday. The Pocatello Fire and Police departments worked together to have to separate memorials for the public to take part. Cindy Jensen and her three children did just that.
Jensen works for the police department, and she was there when the world trade center towers were hit.
“I remember going to the lunchroom and watching it televised on the news. And how heartbreaking it was because our brothers and sisters were in the building attempting to rescue people and you knew it was going to be a bad ending,” she said.
Her kids are young, but they remembered the moment, too.
“I was at school in second grade and I remember my teacher turning on the TV and she was crying, and I remember all the smoke coming out of the buildings. But I didn’t really know what was going on,” said Erin Schilk, Jensen’s daugther.
Jensen hoped they took away an important lesson.
“I just feel so blessed that we can live our lives in a free country and these guys everyday sacrifice themselves, time away from family, so that we can go about our daily business and we can be safe,” Jensen said.
One of the men sacrificing is the son of officer Steve Stone. He is fighting overseas as a member of the United States Air Force.
“When he joined and when all these kids are joining the military they know full well that we’re at war in two different regions and that they’ll probably go there. And yet they still, much to their credit, they choose to do that,” Stone said.
As a father of a soldier and a member of law enforcement, Stone said the anniversary hit close to home for himself and everyone.
“We didn’t start getting the numbers and really knowing the whole impact or the amount of loss of life until later. But I think it hit us all watching that. That there were people dying in those towers. We found out until later that over 400 firefighters and police died that day trying to assist other people,” Stone said.
Pocatello Police sounded an alert tone at 7:58 a.m., symbolic of the first World Trade Center tower falling. It was followed by 60 seconds of radio silence.
