Courtesy International Association of Fire Fighters
Speech by Harold A. Schaitberger, General President
International Association of Fire Fighters
Address to IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial Service
Colorado Springs, CO, September 16, 2000
Honored guests, family, friends, and brothers and sisters. Thank you for coming to the IAFF Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial Observance to help us remember the bravery and the selfless dedication of our fallen fire fighters.
The line-of-duty death of a member of the International Association of Fire Fighters is a grave matter to myself, to General Secretary-Treasurer Bollon, and to all of our International officers. That is why I am here today and why our entire International Executive Board and our International Trustees are here today. We pay homage to the families of our fallen brothers and sisters.
Most importantly, to the spouses, to the children, to the parents, to the loved ones, and to the friends of the 59 men and women added to our memorial's wall of honor this year, we are privileged to have you with us. This must be very hard for you. You are here for the first time and you may not know what to expect or what is expected of you. You have recently lost a loved one who can never be replaced. We can only imagine your grief and your sorrow over your tragic loss. We can only imagine the emptiness and uncertainty you must feel.
I urge you to look around you here today. Look into the eyes of the hundreds upon hundreds of faces in this audience. They share your grief and they share your sorrow because they have had to work their way through the tragic events that took their loved ones and heir comrades from them.
Many of the spouses and families… and many of our union members… come back to this hallowed ground year after year. They come back to remember their fallen heroes, to honor their courage, to celebrate the enormous contribution their loved ones have given to our nations, and to offer support to you in your greatest time of need. Draw strength from them throughout this weekend. Reach out to them and I promise you they will help you through your trying times today, tomorrow, next month, and for years to come.
Don't hesitate to lean on the members of your local IAFF union in your community for support whenever you need to. And always remember that the International Association of Fire Fighters makes a compact with every one of our members and every one of their families. Once you are part of our union you are a part of our family and we are a part of yours. We are one in good times and bad.
You must view the wall of names behind me not only as a wall of honor but as a wall of support for you and all those who visit this memorial. Take comfort in knowing that the brothers and sisters who were added to the memorial this year and the hundreds before them were engaged in the most honorable of professions. They didn't shrink from their awesome responsibility, or the grave danger, and the seemingly insurmountable challenges that professional fire fighters and paramedics must face every day they come to work.
While some outside of our extended union family may question why the hundreds of our brothers and sisters enshrined here took such risks, and why the 240,000 members of the IAFF are willing to put the lives of others ahead of their own, we ask no such questions. If you are not one of us, you just wouldn't understand.
Fire fighters understand, and their families have to accept, that dedication, courage, service, and unfortunately at times sacrifice, are expected of the men and women who choose our noble profession. Society expects it from them and they expect it of themselves.
It takes a special kind of person to become a fire fighter; a person who values and treasures every life above all else. Time after time, the stories behind the names on this memorial are defined by the fire fighters' quest to save others. Some of their heroic stories make headlines, some don't. But that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things because there is a special story behind every name of this wall. Big city or small town, in the United States or in Canada, they all made the ultimate sacrifice for the citizens of the communities they served.
Yes, we have suffered tragic losses. Yes, each of the families of these fallen fire fighters has suffered tremendous personal loss and we will never forget that. But our society has gained because the sum total of the lives saved by these brave individuals exceeds their loss by a hundred-fold. Our world is far richer for the time we had these unselfish heroes among us, but there is no doubt, that their families, their friends, and our union are much poorer without them.
But our brothers and sisters did not die in vain. They are enshrined as heroes on this wall and their memories will spur another generation of heroes to do what we must do in our profession. The memory, the spirit, and the honor that they have brought to this profession, and to all they touched throughout their lives, is seared forever in soul of our Union.
I know in my heart that our fallen brothers and sisters are watching over us today. "Don't weep for us," they are saying, from their glorious perches in heaven. "Celebrate our lives. Celebrate our service. Celebrate our triumphs. We gave our all for the greater good. We are at peace because we did our jobs the best we could. If we had the chance to do it again we would because we loved our jobs. That is what we were trained to do, that is what we had to do because as fire fighters that is what we are committed to do."
Mother Teresa once said that a life not lived for others is not a life. Every IAFF member on this wall truly lived their lives for others, doing something that matters. We will never forget them. God bless the bravest of our brave, but most of all, God bless their families and their loved ones who miss them so much here on Earth.
Thousands Attend IAFF Memorial Service
