On a day when the nation observed the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Fighting Saints Battalion – consisting of ROTC students from Saint John’s University, the College of Saint Benedict and St. Cloud State University – again paid tribute to the memory of those whose lives were lost that day at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on United Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers overwhelmed the hijackers.
As it has the past six years, the battalion held its 9/11 Stair Climb Remembrance. This year, the event – which rotates annually between CSB and SJU and St. Cloud State – took place inside Clemens Stadium on the SJU campus.
ROTC members were joined by other groups from the campus community – including the SJU wrestling, CSB and SJU swimming and diving and CSB lacrosse teams – and members of various fire departments from the surrounding area.
Participants climbed up and down the stadium steps 10 times, in honor of the first responders who lost their lives climbing the stairs of the World Trade Center towers, valiantly trying to save as many lives as possible.
“We do it for all the people we lost that day, including the first responders who gave their lives trying to help others,” said SJU senior Kouper Seidl, a psychology major and the cadet in charge of organizing this year’s event.
“It really correlates with what we believe as a battalion and preach every day about being leaders and emulating those who sacrifice and take charge in situations like that.”
SJU senior Ethan Hastings, an ROTC cadet, was participating in the event for the third year in a row. He was carrying 45 to 50 pounds to simulate the amount of weight the fire fighters were carrying in the World Trade Center towers that day.
“It really provides you with perspective on how hard it was for the firefighters as they were dealing with everything they had to deal with that day,” Hastings said.
Fellow cadet Mahala Gillespie, who was carrying 35 pounds as she climbed, said scaling the stadium steps felt like an appropriate way to show respect for those who lost their lives.
“It’s difficult and tiring, but rewarding too,” she said. “And it’s nothing at all compared to what people went that day.”
LTC Luke Bowers, who is in his first year as a professor of military science and the military science department chair at CSB and SJU, is proud of the way the 65 members of his battalion have done their part to make sure the 9/11 victims are not forgotten.
“Our students have put together a very challenging, but poignant way of remembering those we lost that day,” Bowers said. “It’s something they are very passionate about doing.”