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McCarthy & Kelly LLP is proud to salute all of the American heroes from the FDNY, NYPD, EMS and PA that bravely stood their ground during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In particular, we salute the efforts of our clients, FDNY firefighters George Johnson, Dan McWilliams and Bill Eisengrein whose efforts were recorded in the photograph by Thomas E. Franklin of The Record.
The Bravest Fund is a charitable organization dedicated to benefiting members of the FDNY, NYPD, EMS and Port Authority Police that suffer career-ending injuries or death, including those affected by the terrorist attacks on 9/11, not covered by existing benefit programs.
The Bravest Fund was founded by FDNY firefighters and McCarthy & Kelly LLP clients George Johnson, Dan McWilliams and Bill Eisengrein. These three firefighters were thrust into the world spotlight when they raised the American flag amidst the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The historic moment was captured by Thomas E. Franklin, a staff photographer for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) at approximately 5:00PM on one of the darkest days in American History. Just moments before the flag was raised, an evacuation order had been issued, as 7 World Trade Center was about to collapse. Amidst the chaos of that moment, the three firefighters remained steadfast as they walked east from the Hudson River, through the wreckage of the World Financial Center, until they reached a platform where, incredibly, a large flagpole reached skyward from out of the rubble. The firefighters secured the American flag to the rigging of the flagpole and began to raise it. At that moment, the hundreds of emergency service personnel present at Ground Zero stopped to watch the raising on the American flag in a manner that was reminiscent of the Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1942 during World War II. Standing defiantly against the gray and white landscape of devastation, these dust-covered men and the vivid red, white, and blue of Old Glory instantly became a symbol of American patriotism. The photo of these three heroic rescuers -- Brooklyn-based firefighters Dan McWilliams of Long Island, George Johnson of Rockaway Beach (both from Ladder 157) and Bill Eisengrein of Staten Island (Rescue 2) -- became a global beacon of hope and resolve in the face of the worst attack ever suffered on American soil. A message that America would not lie down in the face of an unimaginable attack and that the American way of life would go on.
On March 11, 2002, the six-month anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, FDNY firefighters Johnson, McWilliams and Eisengrein stood beside President George W. Bush and the Postmaster General John Potter, as the new US postage stamp entitled "HEROES USA" was unveiled in the Oval Office. The proceeds raised from the sale of the HEROES USA semi-postal stamp will be donated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to benefit all emergency service workers and their families affected by 9/11.
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