PAULA ZAHN NOW TRANSCRIPT
People Whose Lives Were Touched by 9/11 Share Their Experiences
Aired September 10, 2004 - 20:00 ET
ZAHN: We're looking at a live picture of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., tonight.
There is a long tradition in the New York City Fire Department that bagpipes are played when a comrade falls. Those piercing notes by the pipers, a reminder of the sacrifice a brother in uniform has made.
This is a story about honor, of how the band played on and on and on.
Here's Maria Hinojosa.
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MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The New York Fire Department's bagpipe band members had never faced anything like this.
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HINOJOSA: Three hundred and forty-three firefighters died on September 11, and the band wanted each to have a traditional farewell.
In one year, the band played at nearly 450 services. Sometimes, a memorial service would take place. And sometimes, the firefighters' remains would be found later and the band would play again at the same firefighter's funeral.
(on camera) Is there some good that all of us as Americans can learn from what you guys did, playing over 400 memorials in the year after September 11? What do we all learn from that kind of tenacity and commitment?
FIREFIGHTER JIM MCENANEY, FDNY BAGPIPE BAND CHAIRMAN: Dedication, commitment. Just love of our fellow firefighters and their families.
HINOJOSA: It's the kind of music that sends shivers up your spine. In New York now, when you hear the bagpipes playing, you know something has happened.
KERRY SHERIDAN, AUTHOR, "BAGPIPE BROTHERS": A hero has died. That's what the sounds mean. And that's why we cry, because we realize, from hearing that music, we've endured a very special and deep loss at the same time.
Everybody lays everyone to rest. You never -- you don't live alone as a firefighter and you don't die alone.
HINOJOSA: Kerry Sheridan spent a year with the bagpipers, going to the funerals, and wrote a book about her experience.
SHERIDAN: I wanted a document to exist about what happened, and what the men went through so that people who lose family members or friends in tragedies would understand that there is a greater strength that you can tap into in yourself.
You may not think that you have it, but you may find that you do. That was the great test of September 11.
HINOJOSA: The 70 men of the bagpipe band were tested that year after September 11. They played in wealthy suburbs. They played in poor New York barrios. They played in the rain. They played at Ground Zero. They played through tears for the victims and for those left behind.
Firefighter Bill Woods was there.
FIREFIGHTER BILL WOODS, FDNY BAGPIPE BAND: I didn't think we would ever do something like that now. But, you know, I was confident in the guys, and we have done it, you know. It's been done. Nothing like this will ever be done again, and -- hopefully.
HINOJOSA: And so men trained to rush into burning buildings took slow, deliberate tests. No need to hasten the good-bye. Their drums, covered in black, summoning rhythm from the spirits, providing comfort. You are present, even though you're gone.
SHERIDAN: Of course, they're a symbol but really they're heroes in the -- the absolute meaning of the term. They're humans. They make mistakes. They have questions and doubts.
And that's what's beautiful about it to me, is not that they were icons and one-dimensional. They were people that suffered a great deal to do this. Certainly wasn't easy. But they did it.
And I think that really, that's where people should draw strength is knowing that sometimes the people we look up to are just like us. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: That report from Maria Hinojosa.
