By MIKE CAPUTO
Standing beside the Nassau County Firefighter 9/11 Memorial on the morning of Sept. 11, Priest's eyes briefly fixed on the cars cutting through Eisenhower Park, likely headed for work or school.
"If any one of these people in these cars hadn't come by and hadn't seen this going on, would they remember that today is 9/11?" he said. "We are forgetting already."
He reasoned with himself. "I don't know, I think it is just the way life is," said Priest, who was EMFD's second assistant chief on Sept. 11, 2001.
Like many of the fellow firefighters on hand, Priest lost close friends and colleagues in America's worst terrorist attack.
One of the firefighters who shared similar sentiments with Priest was Peter Schmalerberger. Schmalerberger is an honorary chief and longtime member of the Bellmore Fire Department, which lost two of its own -- Adam Rand and Kevin Prior -- on Sept. 11.
"Yesterday when I was working on the monument, people stopped to say, 'What is going on?" he said. "Here it is, seven years later: the patriotism has left us and the enthusiasm has left us, I think."
But for those who were there, or saw their loved ones and colleagues storm toward the burning towers, the memory remains.
"We don't forget," Schmalerberger said, "We will never forget."
The ceremony was the second annual tribute sponsored by the Nassau County Fire Commission. Lou Milone, immediate past chairman of the county fire commission and director of the firefighter memorial endowment, said he was unsure what to expect at this year's ceremony. Hundreds attended the memorial's opening ceremony in 2007, including family members representing all of the deceased honorees.
A handful of family members were on hand this time, but nearly a hundred firefighters attended. Beforehand, most were catching up and reflecting on the events of Sept. 11.
Mark Ulsheimer, a member of the Lynbrook Fire Department, was a student at the time of the attacks and expressed remorse not only for the fallen, but for not being there. "I wish I was there," he said. "You wish you could be there to help, wish you could be there and give a hand." Ulsheimer lent an important hand four years later, when he spent two weeks as an EMT in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
For some, like Jim Minor, a longtime member of Franklin Square-Munson Fire Department, there was not much to say about that day. "It was so bad, you can't express it in words," said Minor, who was on hand to honor Tom Hetzler, a Franklin Square firefighter who died on Sept. 11.
Milone, who is also a member of the Rockville Centre Fire Department, was attending to his son at an Albany hospital that day. He followed the governor's caravan down the New York State Thruway and witnessed an image that sticks in his mind. "I remember crossing the Verrazano Bridge and seeing the devastation and the smoke," he said.
Like Milone, most firefighters immediately responded to the call without hesitation, wherever they were at the time. "The thing I remember is firemen didn't have to be asked to come to the firehouse," Priest said. "They knew that was where they were supposed to be, and they just started showing up. We never set off the radio saying, 'You better get here in case something happens.'"
Comments about this story? MCaputo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
