National 9/11 Flag comes to Itasca
For Itasca, the timing couldn't have been better.
Just as many Americans are reflecting on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks following the death of Osama bin Laden, the village was chosen as the launch site Tuesday for a motorcade to escort the National 9/11 Flag to the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Forest Park.
Jimmy Sands, a New York City firefighter from Engine 331 in Howard Beach Queens, brought the flag to Illinois as part of the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. It is one of the largest American flags to fly above the wreckage at ground zero, and Sands said it was found hanging from scaffolding at the site.
In 2008, the flag was stitched back together by tornado survivors in Greensburg, Kan., and now it is on a national tour to allow veterans and other citizens to help stitch the flag back to its original 13-stripe format.
In Itasca, police, firefighters and members of the Warriors' Watch Riders, a group of veteran motorcyclists, met early Tuesday to pay their respects to the flag and begin its journey to the hospital.
Itasca police officer Rick Brogan said members of the Illinois State Police and Broadview Police Department also helped escort the flag for part of its route.
“They want to make sure it is escorted in a safe manner, with dignity and honor,” Brogan said.
The flag already has traveled to 19 states, thanks to seven firefighters who do it on behalf of the New York Says Thank You Foundation during their free time. The foundation seeks to turn the anniversary of Sept. 11 into a day of national service.
Sands said the goal is to have the flag restored by Sept. 11 of this year for the 10th anniversary. When complete, the National 9/11 Flag will become a part of the permanent collection of the National September 11 Memorial Museum being built at the World Trade Center.
He said bringing the flag from state-to-state and interacting with veterans, disaster survivors and others is “a kind of medicine.”
“If anyone ever thought patriotism was gone, I get to see that it is really more alive than ever before,” Sands said.