60 minutes rewind
343 new york city firemen died under the rubble of the world trade center but a new york city
fire department tradition is living on stronger than ever and more significant
than anyone could have imagined for 40 years a small band of brothers full-time firefighters
and part-time musicians have performed at the department of occasions
the happy and the sad the weddings the parades and every once in a while the funerals
but since september 11th every once in a while has become every day and on some days every few hours
by the time we share our thanksgiving dinners the band will have played at about 300 services
the snare of drums and the bellowing of bagpipes
has been echoing in the canyons and suburbs of new york city ever since september 11th
we played many other funerals over the years but this has been just it's like almost every
day and you go from one to the next to the next it's the same never get used to it
the seventy members of the new york city fire department emerald society pipes and drums
have hung up their firemen's helmets and donned kilts full time i've played more
in six weeks buried more guys in six weeks than i've done in 23 years as a firefighter
but they know burying them all is not likely only a few firemen in these ruins have been identified
for most this will be their final burial ground for those who are found there are funerals
for the rest memorial services and the band will be there for all of them
the men plan to be playing at churches beyond christmas i love this job so much jimmy gente
is a founding member of the pipes and drums like several others gente is retired from the
fire department but not from the band it's it's something that we have to do when we want to do
because of the great loss and and the brotherhood in the job brian grogan has spent 20 years with
the department 16 as a bagpiper before september 11th you played funerals you
played memorial services but thanks to god they weren't that many after september 11th has been
constant what said like reminds me of that movie uh groundhog's day when every day
just doesn't stop
has there been a morning where you just said to yourself i want to do this but i just
can't do it i can't do it today every morning every morning i say it but i get up and i go
tim grant is leader of the band a lot of people they lose a family member or they lose a friend
maybe maybe it might have been a a young person an old person grand grandfather or something
like that it's usually one one person one at a time you know everybody here knows 20 30 people
when do you ever in your life lose that many people in one day that you know it is routine
to have 10 services a day one saturday there were 21. the band often is spread so thin that
only a few players can show up at each service tom mcenroe remembers doing four in one day we started
at ten o'clock in the morning we did a ten a one a four and seven o'clock at night many days the men
travel hundreds of miles driving from church to church to places like the bronx where sean talon
was mourned talon was a trainee two weeks short of his 27th birthday single a former u.s marine
but more often the pipers and drummers find themselves playing miles from the city
in the suburbs where most firemen and their families now live on this day it
was battalion chief joseph marchbank's turn to be memorialized he had served 22 years
and left behind a 14 year old daughter lauren an eight-year-old son ryan and his wife teresa
any of us who've been through a memorial service or a funeral for a loved one particularly someone
as close as a husband are times when you don't even hear what's happening around you yeah you're
right did that happen today when the bagpipes were playing no not at all when they when they folded
the flag they had the honor guards doing that it was uh and they played and i heard everything
what theresa march banks heard best and loved most
was the final farewell they always land up in the same formation and these days play the same song
i could have rode like that for a couple miles
because i didn't want it to end yeah i didn't want it to end
the beginning of modern bagpiping is as old as the hills the hills of scotland and of ireland
centuries ago it was a call to battle urging the brave to fight on that piercing cry would
echo from glen to glen the blasts of bagpipes may seem more fit for marching than morning
but their power is unmistakable no one understands that better than dennis smith
he wrote the best-selling book about new york city fireman report from engine company 82 smith
himself was a fireman and a member of the band bagpipe music is not in and of itself soothing
there is a kind of mystical magic to it it's a very simple instrument in terms
of what it does it inspires it generates extraordinary enthusiasm for the moment
um it it it because of it the whaling nature of it it it is able to move you to tears
in in a funeral environment uh in a second i mean to hear the bagpipers play
amazing grace and to look at these young women with these little children at their knees
to see that is is is very very moving
amazing grace is always played when the casket and family are entering the church
for pipers this is a heartbreaking moment we're always right in front of the church
they're coming out of limousines you see the wife you see the children and fine we seem to always
have a lot of children and uh everybody's like lost and hurt and you're standing right there
you can't you can't look at the children even the wife you got to look away
because otherwise it'll tear you apart really tell your part
you never get that you never walk away from it it's still a twist in the stomach and choking
the throat and tearing your eye no matter what you think he would get hard to it but you don't
but no matter how hard it is to play in front of the church
there is one period even tougher and it's the one thing they try to avoid
it's what bill duffy talked about while waiting for a service to end you'll notice a lot of guys
in the band aren't going into the churches uh i only go in if i really knew the guy
because
it's just too much it's just too much emotionally to bear to do that
but several days later every single member of the band came prepared to do just that
for their beloved drummer their only member to die at the world trade center
darrell pearson was 30 years old everyone called him bronco he left no parents
no wife no children the band was his family and they gathered as they say to pipe him to heaven
usually one lone piper plays amazing grace not today for bronco there was a symphony
and when the playing stopped they all carried their instruments
and their love through the church doors
but this is not the end of the story life for the band as for the rest of us is
slowly returning to normal with every week there are fewer funerals now fewer endings
and more beginnings only two weeks ago brian grogan got a taste of that himself
you may remember grogan felt like he was living in the movie groundhog day
with funeral after funeral after funeral but not this night it was his daughter's wedding and the
men from the emerald society were there playing a different tune making it last a joyful noise
this was one day grogan hoped would never end you know it sets aside what what i've been through and
what the rest of the flight development's been through and the rest of the world's been through
this is the greatest feeling in the world
you