Fort McCoy firefighter-EMT honors emergency responders of 9-11 during post event

Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician Brandon Perron with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department completed the 2025 Fort McCoy 9/11 Memorial Run and Stair Climb wearing his full firefighter suit along with carrying more than 100 pounds of gear.

This was the second year straight that Perron volunteered his Patriot Day morning to complete the event in a way that memorialized the firefighters and emergency responders from their response on Sept. 11, 2001.

The 2.975-mile run/1.34-mile walk started and ended in the parking lot of one of the new four-story barracks at Fort McCoy — the tallest buildings on post. The stair climb, which also was meant to resemble the firefighters climbing the stairs of the World Trade Center, also took place inside the barracks building.

In 2024, Perron described his reasons for putting himself through such a physically demanding effort.

“It’s to honor the 343 firefighters who perished on 9/11 and those who have perished since because of cancer related issues,” Perron said. “But it’s also just in the totality of the circumstances that everybody who has either fought in the wars following and lost their lives or the civilians who lost their lives. Police officers … everybody who was involved with 9/11 … just to honor and respect them for what they’ve gone through and what their families are going through currently.”

Perron did his effort with “full turnout gear” once again.

“Having a high-rise pack with me, and my New York hook was to kind of emulate what those guys were going through that day,” Perron said. “They had to carry everything that they needed for the fire up on the top of the floor or the top of the World Trade Center. So, they had to pack everything in — extra bottles for breathing air, the hose that they were gonna use to fight the fire, and any other tools that they thought they may need. So, they were packing them on their backs.”

Perron, a native of Sparta, Wis., was in fifth grade when 9/11 happened. And even though he was a young boy, he remembers it well. He said the events of that day were part of what inspired him to become a firefighter.

“I kind of knew at that point that firefighting was something that I wanted to do,” Perron said. “That played a big impact.”

For the 2025 event, Perron repeated how honored he was to be at the event with his fellow emergency responders.

“It’s always a great thing to get the opportunity to remember those we’ve lost and the opportunity to remember the families,” Perron said.

He described how it’s important to stay focused when carrying all the gear through the event.

“Just keeping your mind in it and remembering,” Perron said. “Again that’s the best part … it’s because you get the opportunity to remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. Remembering, taking myself back to 9-11 when I was in fifth grade, and just remembering what these guys must have been feeling, what they were thinking about, and just trying to drive through it. That’s the biggest part.”

Perron is also thankful the installation holds the event.

“I just love the fact that we’re doing this,” Perron said. “I love the fact that DFMWR puts this on every year. It gives me the opportunity to remember and be a part of it, and feel more included with it, as well as feel included with them.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States, history shows. Two of the planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon, and a fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Penn. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”

Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”