Eyewitness to 9/11 puts on NYPD gear for city’s ceremony

On any other day of the year, Karl Steininger is first and foremost a proud member of the Honolulu Police Department and an active member of his Hawaii community.

On Sunday, however, Steininger set himself apart from the procession of local first responders commemorating the upcoming 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by marching in a shirt and hat boldly emblazoned with “NYPD,” a nod to his former life as an officer with the New York Police Department.

“I’m happy to be here,” Steininger said. “What good is it if we don’t remember those who lost their lives that day?”

Led by Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, more than 200 members of the Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services and Department of Emergency Management walked from HPD headquarters on South Beretania Street to HFD headquarters on South Street and finally to Honolulu Hale. The procession was joined by representatives of the U.S. military, the airline industry, other government offices and members of the public.

At least a couple of marchers fell away, victims of the sultry conditions, but Steininger pushed ahead with a smile.

Steininger recalls working an early shift on what was a primary election day in New York. The first he heard of the attack came when he returned to his station and was beckoned to the rooftop, where his fellow officers were looking at the smoke emanating from where American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

“I turned away for a second, and the second plane hit,” Steininger said. “I saw the fireball.”

Steininger spent the rest of that chaotic day running medical supplies across the city, the urgency of the situation ringing in his ears as he listened to the screams coming over his police radio.

Steininger retired and moved to Honolulu three years later.

At Sunday’s ceremony he considered the literal and figurative distances between himself and the events of 9/11.

“The distance doesn’t matter,” Steininger said. “On that day we were all together. There was such an outpouring of love and support. Even if you weren’t there physically, you were there.”

This year the Mayor’s Remembrance Walk also included special acknowledgement of the flight crews that were lost that day and the ongoing service of the airline industry in the post-9/11 world.

Tia Roberts, an American Airlines flight attendant for 35 years, was among several airline employees who participated in the walk.

Like Steininger, Roberts vividly recalls the horror and confusion as news of the attacks spread.

Roberts was on layover and watching TV when she saw the first images out of New York and Washington.

“I was confused,” Roberts said. “Things like this just didn’t happen.”

Roberts said she appreciated the opportunity to memorialize those who lost their lives in the attacks and to share her sympathies with those they left behind.

“I wish I could send my love to them, to comfort them with a big hug,” she said. “I guess all I can do is send my thoughts to the wind and hope it reaches them.”

Sunday’s event included recognition of all first responders in Hawaii who died in the line of duty, as well as those who continue to risk their safety to serve their communities.

As the ceremony at Honolulu Hale concluded, Caldwell urged audience members to consider the importance of annual remembrances of 9/11, particularly in an age when radical groups increasingly turn to terror to publicize their causes and to achieve their political aims.

“For me it means working on myself, in my own heart, and coming from a place of love even when I feel anger and frustration,” Caldwell said.

“What ISIS has been doing in Syria is almost beyond imagination,” he continued later. “What Boko Haram is doing in Africa is beyond imagination for most of us. And how do we change that? We change that by coming from strength but with love.”