Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WORLAND — Spearheaded by retired firefighter Mike St Clair, a committee began working last week on a program for the 20th anniversary of 9-11.
On September 11, 2001, four commercial airplanes were hijacked and sent to various targets in the United States. Two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane crashed into the U.S. Pentagon Building near Washington, D.C., and a fourth plane was intercepted from the hijackers and crash-landed in rural Pennsylvania. There were 2,977 people from across the globe killed in the four attacks, along with the terrorists.
The 9-11 program will be at 10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2021, at Pioneer Square and will be a similar program to the one in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks.
Mike St Clair, who is a volunteer emergency medical technician, said the main reason he helped organize the service 10 years ago and again this year is because he wants to do it.
“When it [terror attacks] happened, I was a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a firefighter also. My oldest son was in Casper going to school for fire science. He was going to be a firefighter. My first thought was where was he, was he OK. I knew he wasn’t in New York City, but I needed to know he was OK,” St Clair said.
He then thought others might be feeling as he did and need a place to go or something to do so he contacted the fire chief at the time and asked if he could park the ladder truck at 10th and Big Horn. He put a large American flag on the side. He then went to work and when he came back into town later that day he found people had left flowers, stuffed toys and other mementos. Others were stopping to pray.
He said he contacted the chief and told him he couldn’t move the truck so the ladder truck came out of service for a few days. The stuffed animals were sent to New York to be donated to the families of the firefighters who died when the Twin Towers collapsed.
He said on the 10-year anniversary he knew there were students writing poems about an event that happened before they were born.
“Now it’s 20 years, a lot of people weren’t around back then and it needs to be in our history books,” St Clair said.
Details for the 20th anniversary service in Worland are still being finalized by the group. There will be a keynote speaker and live musical performances.
Members of the committee include representatives from the Worland Fire Department, Worland Police Department, American Legion, Cody Regional Health ambulance service, Washakie County Sheriff’s Office, Washakie Museum and the media.
During the 10th anniversary the museum had a display from mementos people donated. Anyone with items to donate to a 20th anniversary display is asked to contact Victoria Frisbee or Rebecca Brower McKinley at the museum, 307-347-4102.