By NANCY HILER
The Macon District Volunteer Fire Department erected and dedicated a flagpole in honor of Adam Rand on the two-year anniversary of the tragedy in 2003, then another in memory of Kevin Prior in March of this year. Both young men were New York City and Bellmore firefighters who lost their lives in the 2001 terrorist attacks.
When the Virginia firefighters set out to put up a flagpole with an American flag to demonstrate their patriotism, they found out about a program offered by Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Company, which provides flags. An insurance agent told Charles Spence, a volunteer with the Macon department, that the company would fund both flag and flagpole if it was in remembrance of a Sept. 11 victim, and gave the fire department Rand's name.
The flagpole bearing the U.S. flag in tribute to Rand, who was just 30 when he died in the 9/11 attacks, was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2003.
When Spence discovered that a second firefighter from Bellmore, Prior, then just 28, had also died in the attacks, he set about adding another flagpole to the site. Work on that pole began last summer. The second flagpole, this one displaying the Virginia state flag, was dedicated to Prior on March 12 of this year.
"Several dozen people, including the parents and other relatives of Kevin Prior, attended the ceremony," said Bellmore Fire Department spokesman Al Hickey. "It began in the rain and ended with the sun shining for the presentation of an American flag to the Prior family."
At the base of the flagpoles are plaques engraved in tribute to Rand and Prior. "Both Adam Rand and Kevin Prior have been named honorary members of the Macon Fire Department," Hickey added. The men's pictures hang on the Powhatan Company 3 firehouse wall.
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