15th annual Stephen Siller Tunnel To Towers 5K Walk/Run draws record numbers
Participants From All Over U.S. Help Commemorate Hero’s Ultimate Commitment
“They fought the first battle,” First Sergeant James Card explained, gesturing toward the front of Red Hook’s Ladder 131. Although the group calls themselves “The Happy Hookers,” their station’s façade features a picture of five firefighters who answered the call on that September morning, and didn’t come back. “We’re just continuing it,” Card added.
Card, of the 22nd Infantry, 10th Mountain Division, had gathered, along with a dozen or so soldiers belonging to various units of that famed division, to take part in the 15th annual Stephen Sillers Tower To Tunnels 5K Run/Walk. Command Sergeant Major Robert Fortenberry, also of the 22nd, gave last-minute instructions before the soldiers headed off to the starting line.
The race, held annually on the last Sunday of September, commemorates the actions of firefighter Stephen Siller, of Park Slope’s Squad One, who, upon learning of the first plane striking the towers, drove to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to try to render aid. Discovering it had been closed already to vehicular traffic, Siller took his 60-pound ready pack and ran the rest of the way into Lower Manhattan. He did not return.