Remembering Bayonne 9/11 victims
On Sept. 11, 2001, 2,973 people died in attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, on the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and aboard Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.
This week, keep in your thoughts the lives lost that day and all lives lost to global terrorism, and to the resulting wars that continue to this day.
Although total casualties have yet to be officially calculated, at least 12 Bayonne residents lost their lives on that day:
Alysia Basmajian, 23, who worked as an accountant for Cantor Fitzgerald. She worked on the 101st floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center, the second to collapse. She, her husband Anthony, and their child Kaela Grayce, moved to Bayonne in May 2000. Alysia and Anthony met, fell in love and married while at the College of William and Mary.
Ana M. Centeno, 38, was an accountant with Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, she was known to frequent the local gym or jog the track in Stephen Gregg County Park. Born in Puerto Rico, she moved to Jersey City while still in elementary school. She later moved to Bayonne.
John A. Cooper, 40, grew up in Brooklyn, where he excelled in sports. He sold computer software as an account manager for SunGard Trading Systems in Jersey City, and was visiting someone in the World Trade Centerat the time of the attack. Friends have described him as nice with a good sense of humor.
Colleen Ann Deloughery, 41, worked as a reinsurance specialist for Aon Corp. on the 99th Floor of the World Trade Center. Born in Jersey City, she lived most of her life in Bayonne, where she and her future husband met as teenagers. They married in 1990. She loved spending time in her tiny backyard with her husband, Jay, and two children Amanda and Michael – along with brothers, sisters and other family members.
Ramzi A. Doany, 35, worked as a forensic accountant for Marsh & McLennan, the insurance brokerage company. Doany was born to Palestinian parents in Amman, Jordan, and lived for many years in Milwaukee where he attended the University of Wisconsin. He reportedly loved working in New York City, reading Charles Dickens, and Thanksgiving turkey. Just prior to the Sept. 11 attack, he’d purchased a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
John Roger Fisher, 46, worked as a security consultant to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He helped operate the security system installed after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. When the jetliner struck the North Tower on Sept. 11, he rushed back to New York from a meeting in New Jersey to check on security and help with evacuations.
Orasri Liangthanasarn, 26, worked as a banquet coordinator for the Windows on the World restaurant, on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center, a job she started the month before the attack, after graduating from New York University’s master’s program in Food and Nutrition Management. She and her sister came to the United States from Thailand in 1998. After living a year in central Illinois, they moved to Bayonne.
Gavin McMahon, 35, was an insurance executive for Aon Corp. on the 105th floor of the South Tower. A world traveler who was born in England, he moved to the New York area in 1996. He fell in love with New York after a visit a decade earlier. He and his girlfriend moved to Bayonne a few years later, where he was still renovating a house at the time of the attack. He was particularly fond of Formula One racing and an Irish punk rock band known as Stiff Little Fingers.
Steven P. Morello, 52, was a facilities manager at Marsh & McLennan, where he worked for seven years on the 93rd floor of the North Tower. Less than two weeks prior to the attack, he and his wife Eileen celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. They raised three children: Steven Jr., Alfia, and Jessica.
Kenneth Joseph Tarantino, 39, worked as a currency trader at Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower. He also worked as a substitute teacher while going to college. He met his wife while attending college. He eventually got his bachelor’s degree in marketing. He was fond of golf, the Yankees, and going to a beach house every summer on the Jersey shore. He and his family had just moved to a bigger house in Bayonne the February prior to the attack, with their 3-year-old son, Kenneth.
Patricia Cushing, 69, a retired service representative for New Jersey Bell, was traveling to San Francisco on vacation with sister-in-law Jane Folger, a retired bank officer living in Bayonne, 73, when their plane was hijacked. This was her first flight on a commercial airplane, United Flight 93, which passengers forced down in Pennsylvania to avoid having the hijackers use it as a weapon. Cushing loved music, and became a season ticket holder at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City after her husband died in 1988. She accompanied her sister-in-law to every type of cultural event. Folger loved New York City and could not get enough of the stores, theater, Greenwich Village, or the World Trade Center complex, where she loved to shop. The two women lived within a few blocks of each other in Bayonne. They shared the same tastes in conservative classic clothing and enjoyed the benefits of senior citizenship.
Interfaith Memorial Service at the Teardrop
This year’s Interfaith Memorial Service and Candlelight Vigil honoring those lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001, will be held on Sunday, September 11, 2016 at 7 p.m. at the 9-11 Memorial in Harbor View Park at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor (the former Military Ocean Terminal Base), which is at the eastern end of the Peninsula at the Teardrop Memorial.
Several members of the Bayonne Interfaith Clergy will offer prayers, readings, and reflections. Rev. Joseph Barbone, former Pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Church, will serve as master of ceremonies. The program will include a bagpiper, trumpeter, color guards from the Bayonne Police and Fire Departments, the veterans’ color guards from Bayonne, and the Bayonne High School Marching Band. Mayor James Davis will offer brief remarks. The Bayonne Honor Choir will sing. Taps will be played at the end of the program.
The Bayonne Recreation Division will provide free shuttle bus service on the 11th, picking up passengers at West 23rd Street and Del Monte Drive, in front of the Catholic War Veterans’ Post #1612, which is near public parking lots. Shuttle bus service will begin at 5:30 p.m., and will drop off passengers at a parking area on the Peninsula/former Military Ocean Terminal until 6:45 p.m. Following the service, at approximately 8 p.m., the buses will pick up passengers at the same area for the return trip to West 23rd Street and DelMonte Drive. Shuttles will continue to run until all passengers have been returned to West 23rd Street and DelMonte Drive, by approximately 9 p.m. In order to provide space for the shuttle, there will be no parking permitted in a designated bus area from 5 to 10 p.m. Signs will be posted in the designated no parking area.
Participants who wish to drive directly to the ceremony can park in designated spaces at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor. There are also some parking spaces next to Harbor View Park.
The event is scheduled to take place rain or shine, and any questions can be directed to Jean Perrucci at (201) 858-1623.
Happy 110th Birthday, Bayonne Fire Department!
The Bayonne Fire Department is turning 110 this Saturday, September 10. It was founded Sept. 3, 1906 and currently operates out of five fire stations. Bayonne Truck House #1 was its first, built in 1875, and added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1976. Today, the city is served around-the-clock by 161 professional full-time firefighters. If you don’t see them out in the field fighting fires or don’t hear their deafening sirens, be assured they’re doing their jobs. You can check our website for updates on their heroics.
The BFD operates a fire apparatus fleet of five engines, three ladders, one squad (rescue pumper), one rescue truck (part of the Metro USAR Collapse Rescue Strike Team), two fireboats, a Multi-Purpose Unit (M.P.U.), a large 4,000-US-gallon (15,000 l; 3,300 imp gal) foam tanker truck, a haz-mat truck,and numerous other special, support and reserve units. Each apparatus is staffed by three firefighters and a captain. Each platoon works on a 24 hours on, 72 hours off schedule and is commanded by a Battalion Chief. The BFD responds to approximately 17,000 emergency calls annually.
Bomb threat hoax at Wal-Mart
Jersey City’s Emergency Service Unit determined a bomb threat called in on the Wal-Mart at Bayonne Crossing on Saturday evening was a hoax, according to Bayonne Police Lieutenant James Donovan. According to police, an employee reported receiving a phone call from a blocked number at 7:30 p.m. from a man who said three bombs were placed outside the store and would explode in 20 minutes if the store was not evacuated. When officers arrived, customers and employees were already in the process of evacuation. The store was shut down temporarily for the police and Jersey City’s bomb squad and Emergency Service Unit to inspect the vicinity and determined in less than an hour that no bombs were present.