Job Talk: September's Story

Submitted by Anonymous FF

At the start of my career as a firefighter, I signed up for a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

When the ceremony was starting for the initial ascent, I happened to meet a gentleman that was there to support but unable to participate due to health issues.

He had a picture of his friend, Firefighter Gary Geidel, who was killed on 9/11. He told me he was one of his childhood friends and that Geidel left behind a wife and daughter. He asked me to do the climb in honor of FF Geidel, and that I reminded him of his late friend. He said he wanted to talk after, share some stories, and take a photo to send back to his friend’s family. Of course, I was honored and said yes. We did meet after the event and spoke at length, and snapped a photo I still cherish to this day.

The memorial stair climb is a hard and arduous event. Rightfully so, to show just a glimpse of what hundreds of firefighters experienced on September 11th. To do the stair climb as an exercise itself is a difficult task, but add to that being in full turnout gear and the “Why” of it, and it adds a whole other level of anguish. It is a lot of time to think about individual men who were there that day. Many of us with a specific firefighter’s name in our head; the complete sacrifice, selflessness to serve others, and unimaginable suffering that our fellow brothers endured that day.

It was pretty somber, passing others going up and down, knowing that this was a similar picture of a fatal situation in 2001. I went to the Stair Climb with a friend I’d met while in the Fire Academy. Doing this event together, being there to encourage and support each other when there were times you didn’t know if you could finish, was humbling. We aren’t used to high rises where we’re from, but we knew we had to experience this to pay our respects to the fallen. To this day there is a bond there I can’t put into words. The last level of stairs we had to climb was probably one of the most difficult moments I had experienced up to that point. It was a 27-story stairwell, so we had to climb it about four times to equal 110 stories, not including the descent. To this day I still remember that feeling of finishing 110 stories and feeling such immense gratitude and respect for the men we did this in honor of.

You can read more about Firefighter Gary Geidel through the eyes of his daughter, Tillie Geidel Conklin, on this memorial page  Remembering FF Gary Geidel