Text Box: The following is a reprint from the Denton Record—Chronicle A 9/11 lament Denton firefighters play bagpipes for impromptu memorial 01:44 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer Photo by DRC/Barron Ludlum Firefighter Mark Mason is framed by Fire Capt. Chuck Howell’s bagpipes. The two firefighters played the bagpipes in the Denton County Firefighters Memorial Park to honor the victims of Sept. 11 on the sixth anniversary of the attacks. A woman came outside the Bayless-Selby House Museum and leaned on the porch as the strains of “Honor Our Fallen” resonated from the Denton County Firefighters Memorial Park next door. Another woman and her small son paused in their walk to listen. Two more women walked over from a parking lot as “When the Battle Is Over” began. The bagpipes mourned as only bagpipes can. The city of Denton didn’t have a formal memorial service for the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. So on Tuesday, Denton Fire Capt. Chuck Howell and driver Mark Mason, bagpipers for fire department ceremonies, staged their own impromptu memorial at the park dedicated to fallen firefighters. “We wanted to pay our respects,” Mason said. The trade center attack killed nearly 3,000 people, 343 of them firefighters, who rushed to the buildings to try to save the people working there when two planes with terrorists at the controls crashed into them. Wearing traditional kilts and plumed caps, the fire officers stood beneath the flag flying at half-staff and played the difficult instruments as the city went about its business. Standing near a concrete pedestal that bore a bronze sculpture of firefighter gear and the Bible verse, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” they played “Danny Boy” and “Scotland the Brave.” Sisters Marti Kay Hill and Lana Gay Knox smiled and simultaneously wiped their eyes as they listened. “When we heard the bagpipes, we were drawn,” Hill said. “It’s made our day.” Knox said her son is a Fort Worth firefighter and Hill’s son-in-law is a law enforcement officer. They thanked the firefighters for sharing their music. “Remember the camaraderie the whole country shared right after 9/11?” Hill asked. “That’s gone now, and all the politicians are out for their [political] party or their stance on the war. We need that camaraderie back.” Mason said they had not planned a public presentation. “We just wanted to come up here to the park and play to honor them,” he said. “It’s too easy to forget.”
Denton Fire Department Pipes and Drums

Courage - Honor - Sacrifice

Phone: 940-349-8840

Fax: 940-349-8841

E-mail: webmaster@dentonfirepipesanddrums.com

To contact us:
Pipes & Drums logoMark Mason and Chuck Howell -DRC/Barron Ludlum