GREEN BAY, WI -- Here at home, those who put their lives on the line every day were joined by family, friends, and neighbors In honoring the victims of September 11th.
Several ceremonies were held throughout the region today, from Forest Junction to Greenville.
In the past 15 years, many have made the journey to visit the site, and museum, in NYC.
Some people in the region were there, back in 2001, answering a call to help.
For retired Red Cross volunteer Howard Porter, who got the call on this day 15 years ago to travel to New York City, the days immediately following 9/11 were filled with confusion, along with an undying determination to help.
"Well, it happened on a Tuesday," recalls Porter, standing outside his Appleton home on a bright Sunday afternoon, "but they had trouble getting people out, because all the airlines shut down."
Porter eventually arrived that week in Philadelphia, taking the Amtrak to NYC. His work that Saturday and the following days included locating victims' family members around the attack site, who were hoping to ID their loved ones' remains.
"People would bring combs," says Porter, "and tooth brushes down for the DNA [testing]."
When Porter wasn't busy helping victims deliver DNA samples, he says he was talking to victims' families, many of whom never had the chance to say goodbye.
"So that's her last memory of him, is arguing about some trivial thing," describes Porter, referring to one woman who explained to him how she and her husband's last moments together were spent fighting, "you know how it goes. And then, the other one was a woman who had.. two grade school-aged boys with her, and she just started crying, because she said 'I never had a chance to say goodbye,'" says Porter. "For a long time after that, I made sure I said goodbye to my wife."
Among 9/11's victims, officials say 60 police, 8 paramedics, and 343 firefighters.
"Sometimes we do lose track a little bit on why we're here," says Little Chute firefighter Derek Van Deurzen at this morning's ceremony, "and that's one thing that my eyes were opened to."
Van Deurzen visited the 9/11 memorial, and museum, last week. He says he was moved by responders' selflessness that day, noting the various phone recordings that visitors can listen to in the museum.
He says his heart aches for the families of lost heroes.
"I'm lucky enough to be able to serve with my dad, and two uncles on the department," says Van Deurzen, "so, when we get called out, which happens often on Christmas, and Thanksgiving, there's a good chunk of our family that leaves. And it is a little scary."
"You never know when they get that call-if it's a car accident, if it's a fire, if it's anything," says wife of Greenville firefighter Kim Mulroy, after Greenville's ceremony this morning, "what's going to happen? Are they going to make it home?"
It's a fear that can keep firefighters' and police officers' loved ones up at night.
But on this anniversary, she and her two sons are also reminded of just how proud they are of their own hero.
"He helps people in our community," says son Jevis, standing alongside his mom and dad, "and he wants to be a good person, like us."
Jevis says, when he's older, he'd like to follow in his father's footsteps.
