Photo By Mark Getman | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Madison Baldwin, a vocalist with the U.S. Military Academy Band...... read more read more
Soldiers, veterans, first responders and families gathered at the Fort Hamilton Memorial Sept. 9 for a ceremony and wreath-laying marking 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, joined by elected officials and leadership from the New York Police Department and Fire Department of New York (FDNY), closing a month that carried the garrison from Antiterrorism Awareness observances into a week of remembrance.
Col. Raul Medrano, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hamilton, welcomed the crowd to the only active-duty Army installation in New York City, recalling how the garrison became a secure command post within hours of the attacks. “The bond forged between the U.S. Armed Forces and the FDNY in the rubble of Ground Zero is a brotherhood built on a shared foundation: duty, honor, and a willingness to run toward danger so that others might live,” he said.
Medrano introduced FDNY Assistant Chief Joseph Duggan Jr., a 33-year veteran who commands the Brooklyn borough and also served in the U.S. Army, calling him “a true hero” and “a brother-in-arms.”
Duggan spoke for FDNY leadership and Brooklyn’s 2,391 firefighters, marking 25 years since what “60 Minutes” called the greatest act of gallantry on American soil: the FDNY’s response to the Trade Center attacks.
“Many gathered here today weren’t even born,” Duggan said. “All this underscores the importance, and even the necessity, of what we do here today: honoring the victims that were taken from us, and recognizing the service and sacrifice of the responders that day.”
Borrowing a line from the Marine Corps, Duggan said “uncommon valor was a common virtue” among FDNY members that day, telling the story of Lt. Timothy “Timmy” Higgins of Brooklyn’s Squad Company 252.
Those actions, Duggan said, reflected values the FDNY shares with the Army: loyalty, duty, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.
Months earlier, Higgins had failed to reach firefighters trapped by an explosion at a Queens hardware store, and vowed never again to miss a Mayday. On Sept. 11, with Rescue Company 1 trapped and burned in the North Tower’s 44th-floor sky lobby, Higgins chose to climb rather than evacuate.
“He chose to risk everything and advance into Tower One to rescue brother firefighters,” Duggan said. Squad 252 was still climbing when the tower collapsed; none of its members were recovered.
Duggan described his own morning as a young firefighter with Ladder Company 176 in Bedford, Brooklyn — crossing the Brooklyn Bridge as both towers fell and reaching a scene of collapsed facades and burning vehicles along Fulton and Church streets, where his unit found a crushed apparatus identified as Squad 252’s.
“We did not know the whereabouts or condition of the company,” he said, “but we could only hope for the best.” Higgins and Squad 252 were among the 343 FDNY members who died that day.
Duggan closed with a warning that as Sept. 11 recedes into history, efforts to distort what happened have grown, invoking Franklin’s warning that a nation is one generation from losing its republic.
“Twenty-five years is one generation,” Duggan said. “If we don’t teach our children the values our country was founded on, we will lose the country we’ve been entrusted with. Today is still September 12th. God bless the FDNY, God bless the United States Army, and God bless America.”
Fort Hamilton’s mission has only grown since 2001, hosting the city’s Military Entrance Processing Station and supporting Joint Task Force Empire Shield’s citywide security patrols — work aligned with the Department of War’s 2026 homeland-defense strategy.
Editor's note: Compiled from material by Donald Murray, Antiterrorism Officer, USAG Fort Hamilton, and remarks by Col. Raul Medrano, Fort Hamilton Commander, and FDNY Assistant Chief Joseph Duggan Jr. at the Sept. 9 ceremony.
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 09.09.2026 21:22 |
| Story ID: | 574235 |
| Location: | BAY RIDGE, NEW YORK, US |
| Hometown: | FORT HAMILTON, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 16 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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