Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Ex-Port Authority Officer Will Jimeno says first responders and survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings are ‘beacons of light.’
Will Jimeno knows more about pain, loss and suffering at the hands of terrorism than most. The former Port Authority Police Officer and Chester resident spent 13 hours trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers on 9/11 and still bears the physical and mental scars of his ordeal. The tragedy at the Boston Marathon Monday stirred up many of those old feelings. “It brought out a lot of my emotions,” Jimeno said. “I am mad and sad. Mad because we couldn’t prevent it and sad because of the people who were hurt and lost their lives.” Jimeno — whose story was told in Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" — had a planned appearance Tuesday at the Black River Middle School in Chester to talk to students about his experience at the World Trade Center, …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Township commemorates anniversary of World Trade Center attacks and honors victims of the Pan-Am Flight 103 Lockerbie bombing.
Montville Township commemorated 11 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks with a somber and small gathering at the municipal building Tuesday night. The program was led by VFW Post 5481 Commander Frank Warholic, who spoke to a crowd of victims' relatives, men and women in uniform and Montville residents about what it means to be an American and what the tragedies of that day meant for the country. "Our awakening should have been on September 11, 2001 for the citizenry of this nation," he said. Warholic asked the crowd to reflect on where they were on that date and to reflect on the values of hope, freedom, strength and liberty. The Rev. Mark Olenewski, of St. Pius X Church, delivered the invocation and invited audience members to not …
Monday, September 10, 2012
Parents of Paul Skrzypek to visit son’s grave Tuesday.
Eleven years have passed since the attacks on the World Trade Center took the life of Montville resident Paul Skrzypek and thousands more. But to his mother, Edith Skrzypek, Tuesday’s 9/11 anniversary feels as painful as the day she lost her son. “It’s no different than the day it happened,” she said. “You do get over the initial shock, but it stays with you forever.” Skrzypek’s father, Albert, agreed. “I’m still bitter mad,” he said. Paul Skrzypek was 37 years old when he died while working for Cantor Fitzgerald. His father said he was a bachelor living in an apartment on the upper West side of New York City at the time. “He thought he was on top of the world,” he said. “That was a mistake, I guess, but he lived the city he loved, living …
Former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco delivers keynote address.
Former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco delivered the keynote address Sunday night as Morris County remembered those who died in 9/11. The names of the 64 Morris County victims were read aloud at the county's 9/11 memorial in Parsippany where the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the attacks are engraved in a stone walkway around the memorial.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Service to be held at Montville Township Municipal Building.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Montville Township will be hosting its annual 9/11 Memorial Service on Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the municipal building. Last year's ceremony was held at the Freedom Plaza in the Montville Community Park and was hosted by the township and VFW Post 5481. During the event, a tolling bell was struck for each of the township's eight 9/11 victims. See photos from last year's 9/11 ceremony here. Victims of the World Trade Center attacks were: James Martello, James Romito, Paul Skrzypek, Dennis Taormina and Gayle R. Green and Thomas V. Linehan. Victims of the 12-21-88 Pan-Am Flight 103, Lockerbie, Scotland bomber attack were John P. Flynn and Wiliam Giebler Jr. For more information on the township's upcoming 9/11 event, contact Township Clerk …
Sunday, September 11, 2011
VFW Post 5481 recognizes 10-year anniversary of terrorist attacks.
VFW Post 5481 held a ceremony Sunday at the Freedom Plaza-Community Park on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. Remembrance and commemoration of Montville Township's victims were read with the tolling of the bell for each person. The victims on the 12-21-88 Pan-Am Flight 103, Lockerbie, Scotland were: John P. Flynn and William Giebler Jr. and the victims at the World Trade Center were: Gayle R. Green, Thomas V. Linehan, James Martello, James Romito, Paul Skrzypek and Dennis Taormina.
Laura Kingsbury plans to bring her oldest son to Ground Zero for first time to remember her brother.
There's a huge difference between seeing a list of names of those who died on 9/11 and hearing each name read aloud while standing at Ground Zero, Montville Township High School graduate Laura Kingsbury said. With a list, you can turn the page. But to actually hear almost 3,000 names being read, the time alone it takes to read the names—about two hours—is immense, said Kingsbury, who now lives in Denville. This year, for the first time, she plans to have her oldest son, David, experience what it's like to hear the names. She said she is taking him to the ceremony at Ground Zero for the first time because she feels he is old enough to take something away from it. It has always been important to Kingsbury to commemorate the lives of those …
'We were attacked for being American. ... I just happened to be in the building,' Ian Bernstein said.
Ian Bernstein was on the 60th floor of the south tower working for Morgan Stanley when the first plane struck on 9/11. The Montville resident was having breakfast at his desk. "You heard a loud noise and looked outside and you could see lots of paper kind of flying through the air and one guy came around and said he watched an American Airlines plane going into a building," he said. A security guard started evacuating employees to the 44th floor. There, another security official said the safest place would be back at their desks. The second plane hit. Glass came flying in and the building shook. They continued going downstairs, meanwhile passing firefighters running into the building. Both security guards later died in the attack, he said…
Saturday, September 10, 2011
The new 9/11 memorial in Jersey City's Liberty State Park drew hundreds Saturday.
Nearly 10 years to the day, hundreds gathered on the northeast waterfront of Liberty State Park in Jersey City Saturday afternoon to pause for a moment of silence in remembrance of the 2,977 people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That moment was part of an hour-long ceremony to unveil a new memorial titled “Empty Sky” that names the 746 New Jersey residents killed on that clear September morning. Unlike the hours and days following 9/11 when the New York City airways were eerily quiet and the Twin Towers in pieces, the sky above lower Manhattan on Saturday seemed anything but empty. Helicopters buzzed to and fro beneath marbled gray clouds. The Freedom Tower at One World Trade Center, still under construction, soared …
The Meehan family still struggles with grief 10 years after terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
"This is the hour of lead Remembered if outlived, As freezing persons recollect the snow — First chill, then stupor, then the letting go." —Emily Dickinson Colleen Meehan Barkow and her mother JoAnn Meehan spent the weekend before Sept. 11, 2001, happily shopping for towels and linens for the 26-year-old's new home in the Poconos. Colleen and her husband Daniel, married less than a year, were planning to move into the house at the end of October. It meant a long commute into New York, where Colleen worked as a facilities director for Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 103rd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. But as JoAnn Meehan was helping her only daughter load the items into her Nissan SUV, she was …
Michael Smith
2:34 pm on Wednesday, April 17, 2013
What an incredible story. God bless America! more ›