Point Lookout: Ex-firefighter stays local
Bob Beckwith watches a memorial service for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in Point Lookout. (Sept. 11, 2011) Credit: Ed Betz
Retired FDNY firefighter Bob Beckwith, who stood with President George W. Bush on a crushed fire truck and pile of debris at Ground Zero in 2001, went to Point Lookout Sunday rather than to the site of that iconic image.
Beckwith, a Baldwin resident, said he chose the Long Island ceremony over Lower Manhattan because no first responders were invited to the Ground Zero memorial. President Barack Obama invited him to the Manhattan ceremony, Beckwith said, but he declined because he did not lose any family members.
"I know a lot of people that came here , that's why I came," Beckwith, 79, said as he toured the Town of Hempstead memorial with his wife, Barbara. Tears ran down his cheeks as he held a white carnation in one hand and used the other to shake hands with the many people walking up to him.
"I don't like the word 'closure.' We will never get closure," he said. "I want everybody to never forget, and to pray for the survivors."
Beckwith said he ended up in the photograph with Bush by chance -- he was at the site working with other first responders and just happened to be near the president.
He was to meet later Sunday with Bush, Beckwith said, declining to provide details.
