The Militant will keep this post short on words.Many people have their various feelings and opinions on September 11, 2001, from the jingoistic, to the mournful, to the shameful, to the conspiratorial. Everyone has a right to their own feelings.
Today, the Militant visited Los Angeles' World Trade Center Memorial at the Los Angeles Fire Department's Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center, just outside of Dodgertown in Elysian Park. The memorial includes an actual piece of the South Tower's second-floor steel column, which was damaged, yet still standing after the tower's collapse.
On the rear of the monument, pieces of the concrete floor can still be seen at the top edge (pictured below).
A plaque at the base of the memorial (pictured below) dedicates the structure to the FDNY firefighters who perished in the line of duty eight years ago today,
The facility itself has a similarly-themed story. It is located on what was formerly the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center. Nearly 29 years ago this month, a fire broke out in the main building and Frank Hotchkin, an LAFD firefighter, was killed while fighting the blaze, which was blamed on an electrical problem. In 1995, the military sold the facility to the LAFD, which turned it into a training center and, most appropriately, dedicated it memory of Hotchkin.A ceremony today, dedicated to the 9/11 firefighters, as well as the first responders of last year's Metrolink disaster took place at the facility today.
A banner in memory of LACFD's Ted Hall and Arnie Quinones was put up just outside the Sunset gate of Dodger Stadium, where the public memorial for both firefighters will be held Saturday morning:
One of the Militant's operatives applied for a job at the LAFD, though he's yet to land the position, the Militant learned that it's not just a job where you just get up and commute to/from the office. You live your job. Your commute is a 3-story slide down a pole. Your office is your firefighter's suit. Whether you're responding to a false alarm or battling a hellish wildfire, the Militant gives massive props to firefighters everywhere.
