by Mitchell Sasser | WeINSPIRE Contributor

9/11

“September 11, 2001, was actually a beautiful day. I remember it distinctly.”

Tim Sullivan had the day off of work, and his wife, Colleen, a 9-month pregnant school teacher, had just gotten up. Sullivan was reading the newspaper when the phone rang. His brother, Dennis, was on the line and said:

“Oh, thank goodness you’re home.”

Sullivan turned on the TV and was met with the sight of the first tower of the World Trade Center burning.  

He jumped in the car and turned on the radio. On his drive to Ladder Company 28 in Harlem, he heard that the second tower had been hit. 

Sullivan was going 100 mph in his Chevy Cavalier, and being passed on his left and right by other firemen and police officers racing into the city.  When he arrived at the station, teams were being assembled to head downtown. Sullivan arrived at the World Trade Center between 30 - 45 minutes after the second tower had come down. 

“It was mind-boggling to see just the absolute devastation; to see the guys that had survived stumbling out, covered in dust. We didn’t know really where to begin. It was so overwhelming that we just started where we were, started picking up pieces of rubble,” Sullivan said. 

Around 4:00pm that day, Sullivan managed to get some cell service. He called his wife to let her know he was ok. In their conversation, Sullivan knew the amount of work that lay ahead, and how the world would change going forward.

“Life as we had known it had changed dramatically,” Sullivan said. 

Their son was born exactly two weeks later, on September 25. 

The Foundation

Tim Sullivan lives in Pleasantville, New York, and is a retired New York City Fire Department Lieutenant. He worked at Ladder Company 28 in Harlem from 2000 - 2004, and then as a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 from 2004 - 2009. 

“Rescue 1 responded, over the years, to basically every single significant emergency in the city of New York, whether it’s fires, subway emergencies, building collapses, airplane crashes, scuba rescues on the river, and of course, the world trade center on September 11, 2001,” Sullivan said. 

Sullivan said that working at Rescue 1 was the highlight of his career, and that he worked with some of the best firefighters that have ever worn the uniform in his time there. 

In December of 2006, Sullivan was on duty when Travis Manion, an officer of the Marine Corps, knocked on the door of Rescue 1. It wasn’t unusual- many firefighters and military members came by to visit and get a tour of the station. Sullivan spent more than an hour with Manion, where they shared their experience in the Marines. 

Manion asked if he could buy a hat or a t-shirt from the firehouse. Sullivan happily said, “Nah, you’re not gonna buy it; I’m gonna give it to you.” They parted ways, and Sullivan wished Manion luck in his deployment. 

In 2013, Sullivan was reading Brothers Forever by Tom Manion and Tom Sileo, a book given to him by a friend. 

“I was reading the book and when I got to the section where Colonel Manion wrote about Travis coming to New York and visiting the firehouse, I stopped in my tracks — literally, because I was actually on the treadmill as I was reading the book,” Sullivan said. “And I nearly fell off, and I said, ‘I remember that night.’”

Sullivan sent an email to the Travis Manion Foundation outlining his encounter with Manion on that night in the firehouse, and to express his condolences after finding out that Manion was killed in 2007. 

“And about a month went by, and I got an email in response from Colonel Tom Manion, and he said, ‘Dear Tim, we’ve always wondered who the firemen were that Travis met. I'd love to have a beer with you someday.’” 

“And I said, well you know I like beer, so this could work out for us,” Sullivan said. 

In April of 2014, Sullivan traveled to Doylestown, Pennsylvania for a memorial golf outing hosted by Travis Manion Foundation to honor their namesake, where he got the chance to meet Colonel Tom Manion.

“It really was a tremendous meeting, and to become a part of this organization, to see what they’re doing for veterans, to see what they’re doing for families of the fallen, to see what they’re doing for our next generation of leaders, it is truly a humbling experience to know that I had a small little part in this,” Sullivan said.

Travis Manion was killed in Iraq by an enemy sniper while aiding and drawing fire away from his wounded teammates in 2007. Travis Manion Foundation (TMF) “empowers veterans and the families of fallen heroes to develop character in future generations.”

“In meeting Travis that night, and giving him that hat, that it made an impact on him,” Sullivan said. “He went home the next day to Doylestown and gave the hat to his father and said, ‘Hold on to this until I get home.’ To know that Tom Manion still has that hat, it’s very humbling.”

Manion lived his life by this ethos: “If Not Me, Then Who…” TMF uses this mantra to help instill and build its mission, vision, and values. Some of their values include ‘purpose begins with a passion,’ ‘out of many, one’, and ‘failure is a bruise, not a tattoo.’

“The guys, the 343 New York City firemen that responded and ultimately were killed that day, it was their, ‘If Not Me, Then Who…’ moment,” Sullivan said. 

TMF hosts the 9/11 Heroes Run 5K Race Series with the goal never to forget the sacrifices of all of our nation’s heroes, from those who lost their lives on 9/11 to those who still serve our country today. Sullivan said he uses the 9/11 Heroes Run events to help honor those who have passed away, and help their families remember they will never be forgotten. 

“And now as 20 years have passed, it seems that we’ve allowed that to erode and to allow petty differences to become priorities,” Sullivan said. “I would just ask that people take a moment to remember what it was like in the days and weeks after 9/11- that we were able to get along; that we were able to work things out; that in the grand scheme of things, taking care of one another was the most important thing.”

“Tell somebody else about it, get somebody else involved in the ‘If Not Me, Then Who…’ movement, and hopefully we can make this country and the world a better place, one person at a time,” Sullivan said. 

WeINPIRE readers who register for the 9/11 Heroes Run can use the discount code INSPIRE15 to receive a 15% discount at all locations, in-person or virtual, eligible on 5K Run and 5K GORUCK registration types. Visit www.travismanion.org to register, donate, or to find more information.