Hear the last call for Gregory Sikorsky.

When the second tower of the World Trade Center fell, Gregory R. Sikorsky was on 43rd floor doing the job he had always aspired to do.

He was 34-years-old. He left behind his wife Marie, their son Steven, 3-years-old at the time, as well as his parents, George and Luzia, his three brothers, George Jr., Ken, and Perry, and well as numerous other relatives, friends, and colleagues.

Greg lived a life of service to his country and to his community. He was born on October 5, 1966 to George and Luzia Sikorsky in Manhattan, New York. He graduated East Ramapo High School in 1985 and worked as a mechanic with his oldest brother George Jr. and his younger brother Perry in his family’s automotive repair shop, Sikorsky Auto Repair, on Route 306 in Wesley Hills. He also began volunteering with the Hillcrest Fire Department. He later joined the Marine Corps Reserves and served in the Persian Gulf War. In 1996, Greg dedicated himself to firefighting by joining the FDNY which assigned him to Engine 46 in the Bronx.

Greg had numerous adventurous hobbies. He was a licensed pilot and enjoyed skydiving and scuba diving. Greg used his skills as a mechanic for a special pet project: restoring a 1939 Mack fire truck he had purchased. Greg also had a soft spot for kids and for dogs. He volunteered as a Big Brother and played an active role in his company’s fire prevention program. When a scrappy Dalmatian named Dominic was left with the Hillcrest Fire Department and proceeded to wreak havoc on the firehouse furniture, Greg held out hope for the dog and adopted him as his own. Eventually, Dominic became so obedient that he had been seen off-leash following Greg to church, waiting patiently for his master outside St. Boniface until mass was over.

On September 11th, 2001, hijackers flew planes into the two tallest buildings of the World Trade Center. Gregory Sikorsky, now part of Squad 41, responded to the call. The tallest buildings in New York City were on fire. The rational thing to do was to get as far away as possible, but there was no such luxury for Greg, nor was it his instinct. Innocent people were trapped, so there was only one option for him: He charged inside.
An elevator full of people was stuck near the 43rd floor, the shaft having caught fire. Greg and five other members of Squad 41 were doing whatever they could to rescue them. Greg tried to gain use of a nearby water pump to douse the flames.

And then the building fell.

In the days following, Greg’s family, friends, colleagues, and his dog held out hope that he was still alive. Greg’s Dalmatian, Dominic, after having been brought to Ground Zero by Greg’s father, frantically climbed over the wreckage and twisted metal searching for this master. Despite becoming dehydrated and his paws bleeding, he would not stop. Eventually, too tired to climb anymore, he was passed around the firemen to continue his search. Returning home unsuccessfully, Dominic coughed for two days straight. In spite of the devastation of a missing family member, Greg’s brother Ken was unable to return home since he was a U.S. Army Captain who was serving in Germany at the time, his return date put off indefinitely because of the attack.

It wasn’t until Sunday, March 17, 2002, over six months later, that any sign of those missing from Squad 41 was found. Squad members then dug in the area by hand and, that Tuesday, a piece of Greg’s helmet was found. On Wednesday at 1AM, seven of Greg’s family members along with Dominic arrived to see an American flag-draped stretcher containing the helmet piece being brought out of the pit where the Twin Towers once stood. “He can finally be brought home to be buried in the veterans cemetery as a Marine, as a true Marine, doing his job,” his father said. The flags at the Sikorsky family automobile repair shop, having been at half-staff since September 11th, were finally raised.

For his funeral, Greg’s flag-draped coffin was brought to St. Boniface Church by his 1939 Mack fire truck, its restoration having been finished by the local community.

Four hundred mourners came to pay their last respects to Greg. Rev. Robert Saccoman held up 3-year-old Steven Sikorsky so he could see and told him, “I want you to look out there, because it’s a love story, a love story that all these people had for your dad, and it’s a story your mother will continue to tell you.” Every young boy sees his father as a hero, and for Steven, he will only know his father as that legendary hero.

The goal of the terrorists was to murder as many people as possible, and Gregory Sikorsky fought against that goal simply by doing his job. While the enemy died taking the lives of other, Greg was of the first to respond to that attack by dying saving the lives of others. His name should never be forgotten, and his courage – the courage that allowed him to rush into a burning building while most of us simply watched in horror – should always serve to inspire us.

Greg’s son Steven in the restored 1939 Mack fire truck.

Last Call for FF Gregory Sikorsky (memorial page)
His Legacy.com Tribute Page
His Guest Book
Hillcrest Fire Department
The Squad 41 Website
Pictures of His 1939 Mack Fire Truck (including pictures of his son, Steven)

Over at Townhall.com, Alan Sears has a great post titled: Five Years After 9/11 the ACLU considers Christians the Terrorists. It’s a great article and deserves a read.
This got me to thinking: Did Progressives learn anything from 9/11?
Of course they did. If they learn nothing else they can walk away having learned these valuable lessons.
There are some things in this country that are important to always remember. These are the things that make America special.
Progressive Lesson # 1: Racism is bad. Let’s learn to be more tolerant…

*
Progressive Lesson # 2: Let us not judge by the color of one’s skin…

*
Progressive Lesson # 3: Let us remember to keep separate things separate…

*
Progressive Lesson # 4: Let’s take care of the earth…

*
Progressive Lesson # 5: Let’s remember to include everyone…

**
As always, I hope you folks walk away with a deeper appreciation of someone else’s perspective.

James Joyner notes the odd tendency of the left to make 9/11 all about President Bush. It’s pretty sad. When Bush leaves power in 2009 and the terrorists are still around, will they finally focus on the real enemy or find another American politician to get hysterical about?
American has never been its president, and the terrorists would have attacked no matter who was President– and we all would have rallied just the same. These guys really have to get out of the little box of BDS and see there’s a whole world out there that doesn’t all revolve around their cartoon caricature of one man.
Confederate Yankee has more on liberals’ responses to 9/11. One of these days they’ll grow up.
UPDATE:
Here’s what Kos had up when I first checked his site this morning. He had enought sense to later change the image, but Kos still commemorated the day by the exact sort of the commentary you’d expect from the little turd any other day.

John Hawkins has a Moderate Muslim sighting. I wish we saw more stories like this. If they only Muslims we see on the news are the terrorists and CAIR, many Americans (including me at times) are going to doubt whether Islam really can co-exist with a civilized society (and, to be clear, by civilized I mean countires that don’t sentence women to death for being raped or have teenagers hung for being gay).

It’s been five years since the attacks of 9/11, so where is Osama bin Laden? Five years ago, he helped orchestrate a large-scale terrorist attack on US soil, and today we don’t even get some threatening video. We expected more from a “terror mastermind.” It seems the only thing he aspires to today is to die alone in a cave instead of in a US prison.
So, was it worth it, Osama?

the 2,996 Project site seems to be down from all the traffic, and I don’t know of any backup site to link to that has the links to the other tributes. If someone could help me on that, I’d appreciate it.
Here’s one tribute, though, to one of the younger victims of the 9/11 attack: Zoe Falkenberg
UPDATE:
The 2,996 Project site looks to be back up, and just as I was about to write their hosting company an angry letter.
UPDATE 2:
Here is a mirror site.

Happy Birthday Cadet Happy (a.k.a, Kevin the IMAO photoshop guy)! I hope you have a great time with your family today.
Tomorrow I expect double output from you, though!

It’s funny for a date by itself to have so much effect. When I got to work and saw “September 11” on the digital display to my work phone, it sent a slight shiver through me. A moment later I was back to untangling my ear buds so I could listen to mp3s off of my PDA.
Some of my best memories from that day and the days immediately following were good ones. I talked with coworkers I only had known from passing in the hallway like we were old friends. I remember seeing Jerry Nadler on TV, a NY liberal politician who I had always despised for his views, and I cheered him on when he spoke against the terrorist in a way I can’t even imagine cheering any politician these days. I guess, in extreme times, we’re stripped down to our most essential. We’re not liberal or conservative, introvert or extrovert, or any other of those labels that get thrown on to us; we’re just human, and we care for each other.
There were notable exception, though, of those who just couldn’t let go of their tiny view points no matter how much tragedy surrounded them. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were some of the first to lay the blame on us, saying this was God’s punishment for whatever moral issues they was currently their focus at that time. I can hardly imagine something more profane than trying to tell people what is the mind of God, and especially forcing it to fit your own politics.
Then there was Michael Moore and his letter on the day after. He later removed the part wondering why the terrorists didn’t only target Republicans, unable to understand that the murdering terrorists hated Moore even more than any Republican ever did. They would have loved to kill him the same as any one else just because he’s an American who speaks his mind (well, maybe they don’t hate him anymore since they’ve been using parts of his movies in their own propaganda films). Even with the frustration about the terrorists not targeting his political enemies removed, the letter is still quite damning. When most others reacted to the attacks with sympathy for their fellow man and hatred for the murders, Moore’s instincts were to rant on about his piddling political issues such as the Kyoto treaty and America not attending the Durban conference on racism (which was basically another UN conference about the threat of Israel and the joooos). That a tragedy the size of 9/11 wasn’t enough to wake him from his myopic political views shows a huge break between him and basic humanity, something that should have been an issued addressed by his therapist years ago. (Moore’s Letter Official version and the original)
And, while most countries put down their basic anti-Americanism (and, we are quite arrogant, so let’s not pretend we don’t invite it), there certainly were notable exceptions – and not just in the Middle East where we would expect it. Best of the Web at OpinionJournal.com was nice enough to put up links to foreign papers in the days after the attack to help people get a more international perspective. It was then I first checked out the out the British paper The Guardian and found the huge difference between American and British liberals. While most traditional liberals in America initially reacted the same as everyone else, only a week after the attacks the main editorials in The Guardian were to warn people to not feel to sorry for America. “A bully with a bloody nose is still a bully” I remember was the title of one opinion piece. Another one, like Moore’s screed, talked about how America didn’t participate in the Durban conference (does anyone even remember that now?). When tragedy hit, these people clutched to their tiny world views like a security blanket, sucking their thumbs and hoping the world wasn’t going to change. It seemed to me at the time like these people lived in another universe, just physically unable to see the world as it is.
As for myself, I remember how frustrated I was to return home the night of September 11th and sat alone in my apartment unable to do anything. I was hoping there would soon be a call for people to join the military for a huge counter-attack (I even gave my boss notice the next day that, if there was any talk of needed people to join the military, I’d have to resign and do so). The desire wasn’t so much out of a want to kill people, but just because I wanted to do something while I watch so much suffering on TV. I didn’t have a blog at the time, but I got an e-mail from a friend at my college that he wanted editorials about the attack for the conservative college newspaper he published, so, that night, I sat down and wrote this:

September 11, 2001. It won’t sink in for days. When things change this quickly, it will take a good amount of time for the mind to catch up. But, when the dust settles, our world will be forever changed.
Our first priority is to recover. There are thousands injured, and it is up to everyone to do their part, to donate blood, money, or whatever is needed. We need to restore as much normalcy as we can as quickly as possible. Our enemies are gloating at the disarray they caused, so we to show strength by simply getting back to our business unhindered. But, make no mistake; it will not be business usual. Not now.
Once shock subsides, anger is sure to replace it. It’s not a emotion well suited for decision making, but it is unavoidable at this time. Efforts to subside it will be futile, but it can be directed.
I’ve already heard plenty of people decrying the abilities of our intelligence community, how they should have seen this coming. Intelligence probably does need improving, but this should in no way be the main focus. No matter how good we make our intelligence, we can’t always prevent something like this. The only way is to remove any desire to commit acts of terror.
It’s seems hard to rationalize with people who would do something like this. They poke a tiger with a sharp stick and somehow expect some good to come of it. But our actions can put this in simple unmistakable terms. Our response to this must convince all those who witness it that acts of terror will do nothing but herald the perpetrators destruction. To simply apprehend and arrest those involved is not enough at this point. Those who hijacked the planes were not the only terrorists who committed suicide with today’s actions.
It’s a terrible thing to call for vengeance, but if our response falls even slightly short, we will only encourage more acts like this. We must take the terror to the terrorists, hunting down all we can find and punishing anyone who would harbor them to the point that a country would fear even the possibility of terrorists resting in their borders.
It will be easy to overdo our response, to add to the evil, but it is war. We will have to make decisions of life and death that lie beyond the wisdom of man. We just have to pray to God to lead us in our action to as good a solution as exists. It was a dark day today, and it will be dark for some time to come.

So five years later, where are we? As for airline security, the new ban on liquids makes it seem like we still don’t know what we’re doing. Then again, today marks five years without an organized terrorist attack on American soil… and you know they’ve been trying.
We’re also more timid about fighting. The wars didn’t go as smoothly as we hoped… both on the field and in the media (and don’t pretend the second one isn’t important; the enemy has known to attack us there since the Vietnam War as it’s where we’re much more vulnerable). Those who don’t think terrorists are a threat needed to be dealt with are still a small minority, but few think it’s a priority worth any risk.
As for our politicians, we have the Democrats who only fear terrorist attacks in how it may kill their politics. The tiny people at DailyKos (the site today so far being dedicated to mocking Bush and their new enemy Disney) would be small things that we should ignore were it not that one of our political parties is so weak as to actual listen to them. That leaves the Republicans as the only hope to get anything done, but they’re timid knowing the public is wary of the ever looming “quagmire” (I notice I wrote “Republicans” and not “Bush” since I, unlike the deranged people on the left, don’t see everything in this country in terms of our temporary president).
Are we a changed people? Most definitely, but I don’t know if it’s in primarily a good way. Were there to be another huge terrorist attack, I fear the reaction by most (including myself) would not be the huge bond between all people we had in 2001, but instead we’d immediately wonder how things we would be affected politically. We’d all wonder whether we would finally commit to eliminating our enemy like we need to, or would instead the hawks finally be sunk.
So, five years later, I feel jaded. Still, I remain hopeful that we will rise up to the challenge again, and it won’t take another attack and death beyond imagine to motivate us. What we need are people stand at center stage who we can root for again. They need to be serious people with convictions – convictions enough to motivate us all – to lead the way. I know I’m not one of them, but I might as well try to be one of those people – as should all of you – because it’s what we owe those who died… not just those on September 11th but all those who have died fighting for the betterment of mankind throughout the world and throughout history. The enemy may seem insane — even silly at times — but the terrorists are a creeping threat to our way of life and grow in strength whenever we act weakly. Our civilization is not assured, and it never will be. The fight against evil is one that we will have to continue until the day we die, as that battle only ends if we surrender.
And we will never surrender.

If you subscribe to Yahoo News or any other Breaking News message alert system, you’re probably getting a series of messages marking the moments of silence for the planes hitting the Towers and the Pentagon, the crack of flight 93, and the collapse of each tower.
I’m sure that some sick and deranged Daily Kos or IndyMedia or Al-Jazeerah types are sending out parallel messages marking when the Jews got their text pages warning them not to go into work, when the Bush Administration secretly planted the charges in each of the towers, when the Air Force jets shot down the flights, Michael Moore going to Dennys for three Grand Slam meats, Cheney returning to his docking station for a recharge, and when Bush was finished reading “My Pet Goat” to the kids in the classroom.
What sticks out in my memory? The Palestinians danced on 9/11, passing out candy with joy and delight while Arafat lay in a couch filling up a sack with his AIDS-infected blood, wishing it wasn’t just a symbolic gesture so he could spread his decay on to the dust-covered walking wounded of Manhattan.
Flash to today, and the old bastard is just so much filler in a parking lot. Yet “Unity” government or not, terror is terror, so bomb them all and let Satan sort the dancing, candy-passing bastards out.

Never forget.