The Story of The Flag Raising

[Dakota]

I've never seen this posted here at SG and with all the talk of late of the proposed — and currently abandoned — statue I thought this would be appropriate: The REAL story behind the photo:
The main site is: http://www.bergen.com

[size=Flag-raising was 'shot in the arm' [/size]
Friday, September 14, 2001


©2001 The Record (Bergen County, N.J.). Photo Credit: Thomas E. Franklin, Staff Photographer

By JEANNINE CLEGG
Staff Writer

World Trade Center Building Seven was about to collapse on Tuesday.

Firefighters from Engine 255 and Ladder 157 in Brooklyn had been digging in the rubble for survivors for six grueling hours, when they got the call to immediately evacuate.

Firefighter Dan McWilliams from Ladder 157 headed out with the rest of his crew. It was then that the 35-year-old firefighter spotted a flag flying from a yacht docked behind the World Financial Center. He made his way to the boat, rolled the flag up around its pole to be sure it didn't touch the ground, and carried the pole back to the evacuation area.

As McWilliams passed his buddy and fellow 157 firefighter George Johnson, he slapped him on the shoulder. "Gimme a hand, will ya, George?"

"I knew exactly what he was doing," Johnson, 36, said.

Then Billy Eisengrein of Rescue 2, another Brooklyn fire company, and McWilliams' childhood friend from Staten Island, jumped in, "You need a hand?"

The three firefighters quickly found a perfect spot -- a single flagpole anchored in the rubble about 20 feet off the ground on West Street.

They climbed a makeshift ramp so they could easily raise the flag in its new home. It was at that moment that Record photographer Thomas E. Franklin spotted the three from a distance.

Only two days had passed since that moment. The World Trade Center death and chaos were still fresh in the minds of McWilliams and Johnson as they sat in the noisy kitchen in the Flatbush firehouse recalling how the three firefighter friends -- Johnson from Rockaway Beach, McWilliams from Long Island, and Eisengrein from Staten Island -- acted as one.

"A big part of this is maintaining the unity of the whole team," McWilliams said.

His eyes filled with tears as he remembered the hellish day New York's firefighters experienced right after the Twin Towers' collapse, and their lack of progress in finding survivors.

"Everybody just needed a shot in the arm," he said, pausing to regain his composure.

The photo was the shot seen round the world. It has run on many American newspaper front pages, including the New York Post, the Baltimore Sun, and Providence Journal, and has been shown on network television.

McWilliams and Johnson said they didn't raise the flag to solicit personal attention. They didn't expect to get any phone calls or comments from friends and family. They were unaware they were being photographed. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision that started with McWilliams.

Though few firefighters remained in the evacuation area at that moment, Johnson said he recalls hearing comments after the flag went up.

"A few guys yelled out 'good job' and 'way to go.' "

And although he hadn't given the hoisting much thought, McWilliams remembered, "Every pair of eyes that saw that flag got a little brighter."

Other related URL from the photographer: http://www.bergen.com/news/tomfoto20010913.htm

[Joe]

Here is the true flag raising.

[CiscoKid]

Good story. I hope SOMEONE builds a monument of some kind...

I read an article yesterday about the whole mess...it was ALL miscommunication between the FDNY higher ups and the ment themselves...

[EvilAngel]

So they are not going to let the staue be built? This is outrageous!! WTF is going on in this world? The mother fucing racist bastards claiming we are not including them in every fucing thing that happens and being politically fucing correct can suck my ****

There has got to be a way to get that statue back... there has to be!!

[CiscoKid]

Originally posted by EvilAngel
So they are not going to let the staue be built? This is outrageous!! WTF is going on in this world? The mother fucing racist bastards claiming we are not including them in every fucing thing that happens and being politically fucing correct can suck my ****

There has got to be a way to get that statue back... there has to be!!

Agreed...

[Dakota]

Originally posted by EvilAngel
There has got to be a way to get that statue back... there has to be!!

It's (at least) on hold at least until these people can figure things out. Here's an article from the NY Times that I posted the other day:

Here's the article from the NY Times:
Source URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/18/nyregion/18STAT.html

Firefighters Block a Plan for Statue in Brooklyn
By KEVIN FLYNN

Plans to honor firefighters with a bronze statue depicting a black, a white and a Hispanic firefighter raising an American flag at ground zero were abandoned yesterday in response to complaints by firefighters.

The statue was to have been placed outside Fire Department Headquarters in Brooklyn and was based on a newspaper photograph that showed three white firefighters raising the flag in the World Trade Center debris.

But the design chosen by fire officials and the developer who manages their headquarters drew criticism because it depicted the group as racially and ethnically diverse. The complaints led to a meeting yesterday at which Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and the developer, Bruce Ratner, agreed to scuttle plans for the statue and re-evaluate what kind of a memorial should be placed at the site to recognize the heroism of firefighters, officials said.

"This was to honor firefighters," said Francis X. Gribbon, a department spokesman, "and now firefighters have expressed unhappiness and that is not what this was all about."

Opponents of the statue had collected the signatures of more than 1,000 firefighters who objected to the design, saying it had sacrificed historical verisimilitude for political correctness.

Debra Schwartz, the director of projects for Studio EIS, which helped design and sculpture the statue, said her company never intended it as a historical record but a symbolic representation. Michele de Milly, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ratner, said officials had decided to "take a fresh look at the whole thing." Officials had estimated the cost of the life-size statue, at an upstate foundry waiting to be cast, at $180,000.

Lt. Paul Washington, president of the Vulcan Society, which represents black firefighters, said his organization was not upset by the decision. But he said whatever monument or monuments are now planned should recognize that 12 black firefighters were among the 343 killed on Sept. 11.

Fire officials said one possible approach was to go forward with a statue depicting the flag raising historically and then put up a second one recognizing the breadth of race and ethnicity involved in the emergency response that day.

[EvilAngel]

Fire officials said one possible approach was to go forward with a statue depicting the flag raising historically and then put up a second one recognizing the breadth of race and ethnicity involved in the emergency response that day.



.

Problem solved and the fucing racists can shut their holes

[fastspaz]

i think this whole mess is just rediculous.

[CiscoKid]

Originally posted by PING
Here is the true flag raising.

Thanks for the wallpaper

[arkie]

Originally posted by PING
Here is the true flag raising.

You are so right! That is the one that men fought and give lives for. I hope no one forgets that.