ROCK ISLAND, Ill.-Soldiers, sailors and family members from Rock Island Arsenal carried half a ton of bricks for five miles during a Sept. 9 pre-dawn march around the island honoring the victims of 9-11 and servicemembers and civilians who have died since in the Global War on Terror.
Command Sgt. Maj. Stephen D. Blake, the senior enlisted member of the Army Sustainment Command, called the extra weight carried in the Soldier's and sailor's ruck sacks "a shared load."
"That little bit of weight symbolizes the burden of the servicemembers that are not here to carry their load any longer," Blake said. "It symbolizes how it's all of our responsibility to remember that it's our duty to pick up their load and carry it with us."
More than 60 marchers trod a circuitous route that took them past the historical sites of the Arsenal. They marched past the Rock Island Confederate Cemetery in which 1,950 Americans are buried. They continued the march through the 66 acres of the Rock Island National Cemetery, the resting place of more than 24,000 veterans and family members. Among them, two Medal of Honor recipients.
"I want you to think about all those who served with [the] dignity, honor, character, and courage that all these monuments honor. [I want you to] think about the families who have served when you go to Rock Island National Cemetery; who lived their lives for others first," Blake said. "That's what that little brick symbolizes."
Once they reached the Arsenal's Constitution Square, marchers stacked 192 bricks into a ceremonial model of the World Trade Center. The two brick towers flanked a ceremonial monument dedicated to those who perished in the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon. The model's inner and outer pentagon-shaped rings were painted white while a miniature American flag hung in the same fashion as the famous photographs depicted during the days following the attacks. Large posters overlaid with the names of those who died at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom provided a backdrop to the monument.
"When they lay that wreath in front of those two towers that you will build with those tiny little bricks on your back," Blake said at the outset of the march, "you remember why we fight, why we do what we do, and why we continue to soldier on; that's what today is all about. It's not how much it weighs, but it's how much of the burden that we all carry on for everybody else."
Representing their comrades who persevered in the attacks, Arsenal firefighter Ron Richardson and Police Capt. Chris Oliva, along with Blake and Maj. Gen. Yves J. Fontaine, the ASC commanding general placed a wreath at the newly built memorial.
During his remarks, Fontaine asked those in attendance to remember the heroism shown by the first responders at the World Trade Center.
"They courageously entered a place of extreme danger as others fled from it - and, as a result, more than 400 of them gave their own lives," said Fontaine.
He reflected on the heroes aboard United Flight 93 and those at the Pentagon. Fontaine passionately asked that everyone remember that, though tragic, these events inspired Americans.
"Let us remember this - we may have been shocked, we may have been saddened, we may even have been frightened - but we were not terrorized," he said. "We were, instead, inspired to act - just as we had seen so many of our fellow Americans immediately respond to the attacks with acts of unbelievable heroism. We, as a nation, responded to the attacks with renewed resolve, and unity, and pride. We responded with determination that the perpetrators of the attacks would pay for their awful deeds, and that we would bring the fight to the terrorists and continue the fight until their capability to attack was brought to an end once and for all."
As the fight continues, nine years later, Fontaine reminded all in attendance that we remain at war and why we must continue to fight.
"We must carry out the difficult and dangerous work of defending freedom - we must remove the scourge of terrorism from the world - we must devote ourselves to doing all we can to ensure that the awful events of September 11, 2001, are never repeated - and never forgotten."
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