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By Army Pfc. Jaime D. Mial
Task Force Spartan Public Affairs
JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – The plumes of smoke may have settled years ago, but the memory of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, will never go away. For some, the memory is closer than for others -- some lived it very personally.
For some special New York City firefighters and their families, the emotions they still feel about that day sparked a generous outpouring of school supplies to help children in an Afghan town that used to be home to the very man that caused them so much pain.
"It started when some of the firefighters heard that the Taliban was burning schools and they wanted to help," said Navy Cmdr. John Gormley, the regional adviser for Combined Joint Task Force-82 to the ISAF commander. Gormley is a reserve sailor. In civilian life, he serves as a fire captain in New York City.
Gormley and colleagues discussed sending donations to Afghan children.
"I told them that if they sent the stuff to me, I'd get it there," he said. "When I talked to my best friend, Lt. Patrick Neville -- he's a firefighter with Ladder Company 42 in New York. He said, 'We got the same people that affected our lives on 9/11 affecting these young children's lives too. This is an opportunity to help those young children who have suffered from the same element that hurt us on 9/11.'"
With good intentions, willing hearts and now a way to make their vision happen, the firefighters of New York and their families prepared to send love to a place that had once been home to so much hate.
"They sent books, pencils, paper, crayons and the love from the spirits of the brothers that were lost on 9/11," Gormley said.
An opportunity to distribute the assembled supplies presented itself during a meeting. Gormley coordinated with the provincial reconstruction team at Jalalabad, a major northeastern Afghan city and the capital of Nangarhar Province.
"When I saw the PRT commander at a conference and told him what we were trying to do, he told me he had a really deserving school," he said.
From his base at Bagram Airfield, the fire captain began to collect items for distribution. At one point his room was so full of boxes filled with donations he could barely find a path to his bed. When the day came to load those boxes up for delivery to the Hada Farms School in Jalalabad, the dozens of packages bearing "FDNY" in bold black marker were ready for the final leg of their long journey. As the convoy rolled into the schoolyard dozens of eager little eyes peered out from the windows. In one building, a mass of little boys sat on a large rug, no longer paying attention to the neatly dressed teacher in front of them. Their eyes, instead, fixated on the procession of uniformed men walking behind them and into their principal's office.
Once the identities of those who donated the supplies were revealed to the principal, he expressed his deepest condolences for the families and thanked the servicemembers for their support. The school supplies, all neatly packaged into large plastic bags, were then distributed to the waiting children.
The mass of tiny boys were the first to receive their gifts, hugging the servicemembers and thanking them in Pashto.
In the next building, the young girls were learning school lessons, with the youngest outside under a tent. Some initially shied away from the large men offering them gifts. But soon they were all singing for them and smiling.
"It might have been 65 little kids squashed into a tent, but in their eyes you could see the promise of hope in the future," Gormley said.
"The children really loved it," said Danny Hall, a State Department representative serving with the Jalalabad PRT. "I think it's very moving that people who were so touched by tragedy themselves can still reach out to others."
As the convoy rolled out to return home, the children waved their goodbyes, gripping their packages close to their hearts.
"It says a lot about the healing process and Americans' ability to forgive," said Army Master Sgt. Kevin Daugherty, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the 405th Civil Affairs Team, which belongs to the PRT and participated in the aid "drop."
"These families and firefighters back home have not forgotten what happened on 9/11 and I think it's a good way to honor those who died on that day and to reaffirm that we will never forget," said Gormley.
| Date Taken: | 04.11.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 04.11.2007 09:42 |
| Story ID: | 9860 |
| Location: | JALALABAD, AF |
| Web Views: | 881 |
| Downloads: | 575 |
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