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<p>NANTICOKE &#8212; Douglas Fawbush offered the raw numbers: 343 firefighters, 60 police officers, eight paramedics, more than 3,000 civilians.</p><p>The director of campus safety at Luzerne County Community College opened Wednesday&#8217;s Sept. 11 remembrance service with the bleak losses of that black day.</p><p>The Rev. James Nash spoke the unwelcome truth exposed by the stunning attacks on American soil 18 years ago: It showed &#8220;what unchecked hatred is capable of doing.&#8221;</p><p>Nash, the pastor of St. Faustina Parish in Nanticoke also offered an antidote. &#8220;We can&#8217;t change the world, Lord, but we can make it a little more peaceful by changing ourselves.&#8221;</p><p>Nanticoke Fire Chief Kevin Hazleton choked up with emotion for just a moment while explaining the Final Alarm Ceremony held &#8220;in honor of our brothers who have selflessly given their lives for the good of their fellow men, their tasks complete, their duties well done. The last alarm. May they rest in peace.&#8221;</p><p>A bell rang five times. Then five more. And five more. And five more.</p><p>Kilt-clad and sporting a neatly trimmed silver mustache, bagpiper Jim Sweeney played &#8220;Amazing Grace,&#8221; first standing before the college&#8217;s Walk of Honor, then turning and moving away, the firefighters from area companies who had processed in earlier marching after him as he passed under a giant American flag suspended between the raised ladders of two fire trucks, the music fading.</p><p><strong>Walk of honor</strong></p><p>The walk of honor itself reflected the reason for the ceremony. Originally set up in memory of Michael Scott Carlo, a New York city firefighter who died saving others during the 2001 terrorist attacks, it now includes more than 100 bricks, plaques and benches commemorating others who died in the line of duty. The centerpiece: two pillars echoing the Twin Towers with a battered piece of the actual trade center in between.</p><p>LCCC President Thomas Leary said the day was not only about remembering those who died.</p><p>&#8220;The legacy of 9/11 will be the determination and persistence of a free American people who recommitted themselves to preserving a nation that represents every religious and ethnic background of the world.&#8221;</p><p>State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, recalled Mick Henry, a personal friend who settled in Lake Wallenpaupack after leaving his job with NYPD, a man who &#8220;spent 28 days digging through the toxic rubble at ground zero, hoping and praying for survivors, but mostly, he said, caring for and recovering the remains of the victims.&#8221;</p><p>Baker said she still keeps a piece of glass he gave her, etched with his badge number. Henry, she added, died five years ago on Thanksgiving, succumbing to cancer &#8220;likely caused by the exposure at Ground Zero.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Navy vet speaks</strong></p><p>U.S. Navy Veteran Ryan Evans may have offered the most intimate connection to the terrorist attack, even if he was only 8 years old at the time the Twin Towers tumbled. He talked of watching the images on TV, feeling helpless, and turning that feeling into action on Sept. 21, 2014, when, as a college dropout working at a gas station and driving a 1998 Ford Escort, he was sworn into Navy service.</p><p>He did a 41-month tour overseas and opted not to re-up, enrolling instead in LCCC&#8217;s journalism program. He paraphrased the words his division officer said the day he became a civilian again.</p><p>&#8220;You have an obligation to pursue everything after the military with honor, with courage, with commitment, with integrity and with excellence. Not because of your own service or the high code of honor we hold ourselves to, but because of the men and women like you who never made it back home. The military life gives you the ability to live with excellence, and you owe it to them to make something of yourself out there.&#8221;</p><p>Evans recalled &#8220;two friends who gave their lives in service to complete and total strangers because they so passionately believed in something greater than themselves&#8221; They risked their lives for millions of people they never met, he said, knowing it was worth it because those strangers were Americans.</p><p>&#8220;I ask you to go forth and live as wonderfully as you can, in honor of all those who can&#8217;t.&#8221;</p><p><strong>&#8216;Going Home&#8217;</strong></p><p>Sweeney, who said he was allowed to pick his own musical selections, closed the ceremony with the tune commonly known as &#8220;Going Home,&#8221; a compelling theme lifted whole cloth from Antonin Dvorak&#8217;s Sixth Symphony, &#8220;From the New World.&#8221;</p><p>No one sang the lyrics, but the melody evokes the feeling, even if you never heard the words.</p><p><em>Going home, going home, I am going home. Quiet lights, some still day, I am going home.</em></p><p><em>It&#8217;s not far, just close by, through an open door. Work all done, care laid by, never fear no more.</em></p><p><em>Mother&#8217;s there expecting me, father&#8217;s waiting too. Lots of faces gathered there, all the friends I knew.</em></p><p><em>I&#8217;m just going home.</em></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jim Sweeney leads the procession of firefighters to the September 11th remembrance ceremony at Luzerne County Community College. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC1-5.jpg</photo0><caption0>Jim Sweeney leads the procession of firefighters to the September 11th remembrance ceremony at Luzerne County Community College. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC2-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre firefighters currently in the LCCC academy performed the flag ceremony for the September 11, rememberance ceremony at Luzerne County Community College Wednesday morning. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC2-5.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes-Barre firefighters currently in the LCCC academy performed the flag ceremony for the September 11, rememberance ceremony at Luzerne County Community College Wednesday morning. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC3-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Fire Capt. Mark Boncal tolls the 5-5-5 line of duty death bell during the Luzerne County Community College September 11th remembrance ceremony on Wednesday. the sculpture is made to resemble the World Trade Center twin towers, with a piece of steel from the buildings between the two pillars. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC3-5.jpg</photo2><caption2>Fire Capt. Mark Boncal tolls the 5-5-5 line of duty death bell during the Luzerne County Community College September 11th remembrance ceremony on Wednesday. the sculpture is made to resemble the World Trade Center twin towers, with a piece of steel from the buildings between the two pillars. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC5-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Fire and emergency service members listen as Luzerne County Community College President Tom Leary speaks about the attacks 18 years ago. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC5-5.jpg</photo3><caption3>Fire and emergency service members listen as Luzerne County Community College President Tom Leary speaks about the attacks 18 years ago. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC6-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Fire and emergency service members recite the Pledge of Allegience at Wednesday&#8217;s September 11th remembrance ceremony at Luzerne County Community College on Wednesday morning. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC6-5.jpg</photo4><caption4>Fire and emergency service members recite the Pledge of Allegience at Wednesday&#8217;s September 11th remembrance ceremony at Luzerne County Community College on Wednesday morning. </caption4><photoCredit4>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC4-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">U.S. Navy Veteran Ryan Evans, a Luzerne County Community College journalism student, addresses those attending the September 11th remembrance ceremony Wednesday morning at the college. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091219LCCC4-5.jpg</photo5><caption5>U.S. Navy Veteran Ryan Evans, a Luzerne County Community College journalism student, addresses those attending the September 11th remembrance ceremony Wednesday morning at the college. </caption5><photoCredit5>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit5></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

9/11 memorial service: Living for those who can’t