by Sean Kilkelly

Created on: August 22, 2007

When reflecting back upon that horrible day of September 11, 2001, the worst in American history, there are many things that stand out in my mind. The face of radical Islam left unchecked for so long. A face that had manifested itself as Robert F. Kennedy assassinator Sirhan Sirhan, or the fiery anti-American Ayatollah Khomeini, or the covered faces of those terrorists that killed the 11 Israeli Olympians in Munich, and finally the face of Usama bin Laden and his brand of fanatical terrorists. For years the threat of militant Islam had been ignored until it came to the island of Manhattan.

What I believe makes America great is the people. Yes, there were some politicians who performed admirably in the wake of the attacks, and of course there were those politicians who did what they do best, and just performed. But facing such devastation and unprecedented horror there were those incredibly brave souls who looked into the gates of hell and walked in without a flinch. The everyday guy going to work in the concrete jungle trying to make a buck. As well as, a man who warned the world of the threat of extremists, but was ostracized by the "good guys".

There are four men who I want to remember. These four were tragically killed on that dreadful day, yet their memory will live on.

Captain Timothy Stackpole. As a long-time listener and sometimes first-time caller to WFAN, I remember hearing the distinct, heavily New York accented voice of Stackpole doing a commercial in which he talks about how much The Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital had helped him to recover. In 1998, the Brooklyn native was fighting a fire in a city-owned building when the floor collapsed causing him and two other firemen to fall ten feet into a fierce blaze. More than 30% of Stackpole's body was burned on a night that three other firefighters had died. Stackpole and the other two firefighters were well-compensated because NYC was found to be negligent in taking care of the building's structural flaws. Stackpole spent two months in the hospital and then worked out vigorously to come back to do what he loved.

I remember picking up the New York Post and seeing a picture of Mayor Rudy Giuliani standing next to Stackpole's wife and five children at his funeral services. The picture is heartbreaking but the memory of this brave man is inspiring. I wish I had known him. But when I used to hear that commercial, it was so uplifting and inspiring you kind of felt as though you did know him and

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