Lexington honors the lives lost on September 11th

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)-It’s an anniversary you don’t want to remember.

Lexington Firefighter Keaton Reeves says, “I just remember it being more of a I kind of can’t believe this is happening moment.”

Lexington firefighter Brian Johnson says, “I was in school, in class, things could just kind of stood still.”

For many like Reeves and Johnson the years since have gone by fast.

Johnson says, “15 years is a long time but in my head at least it seems like it was just yesterday.”

At an interfaith service at St. Paul’s Catholic Church dozens gather to remember the nearly 3,000 people who died. They then marched to lay wreaths at Lexington’s police and firefighter memorials at Phoenix Park to honor the 72 law enforcement officers who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Rabbi David Wirtschafter of Temple Adath Israel says, “Human instinct is to get away from danger and first responder training is to run into it and we owe such a debt of gratitude to these folks that we can never fully repay.”

They paid tribute to the only known Kentuckian to have died on 9/11, Petty Officer Edward Thomas Earhart of Rowan County who was working in the pentagon when the plane hit.

“We recognize that his loss moves all of us here in the bluegrass and we wish his family and loved ones are deepest thoughts and prayers in what must be a very difficult day for them.”

And for many, it’s a day that forever changed the nation and inspired vigilance and bravery.

Reeves says, “I think that we prepare. I think that we try to understand that there’s anything too big that can happen because no one would have ever thought that those towers were going to come down.”

Johnson says,”just trying to put myself in their shoe in this profession, what I would have done. It’s a legacy that I try to live up to everyday.”