TERRE HAUTE —
Big red trucks and blaring sirens always held a special appeal for Jason Kame.
“I always wanted to be a fireman. I was one of those kids that always knew what I wanted to do,” he said inside the Terre Haute Fire Department’s Headquarters Station at First and Spruce streets.
Now a lieutenant with 13 years with the department, the 36-year-old husband and father of three said the calling still holds fast, even with the sprains, strains and bruises that go along with it.
As he was interviewed, Kame was still on light duty due to a herniated disc suffered while fighting a fire in early June. It was the second time around for that type of injury, but he said he was looking forward to being back on a truck by early September.
“You can’t come here and think about getting hurt every day,” he said, noting his role on the team is often to rip the roof or walls apart during a fire to ventilate the structure. Nationally, hundreds of firefighters die each year, with another 100,000 injured. In the 13 years he’s been on the job, more than a million firefighters have been hurt in the line of duty, he said.
And that was on his mind 10 years ago, the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, during the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C.
Kame, like most firefighters at the department, started his career there as a paramedic attached to the ambulance units. He’d been on the city’s northside late the night before 9/11 in response to a stabbing, and was sleeping in that Tuesday morning when his mother-in-law called to tell him the nation was under attack. Still a little groggy, he and his wife turned on the television and quickly obsessed with the coverage, he recalled. Watching the buildings fall and the media-generated timelines, he heard the sound of fighter jets rumble overhead.
All those people, and all those firefighters, dead, he recalled thinking with despair.
But the dangers never dissuaded him.
Kame recalled that his grandfather and uncle both served on what was then the St. Mary’s Volunteer Fire Department. On Sunday afternoons, they’d let him come and hang out, learning about the equipment while listening to “war stories,” he said.
Kame graduated from West Vigo High School and attended Indiana State University for a while, but as that institution didn’t have a fire science program, he ended up leaving and volunteering with the St. Mary’s Volunteer Fire Department while working with what was then the Rural Metro Ambulance Service.
The St. Mary’s Volunteer Fire Department eventually merged into what is now Sugar Creek Volunteer Fire Department. But by then, Kame had gotten onto the Terre Haute Fire Department as a paid firefighter and spent the first three years as a paramedic before moving to Ladder Company 5, where he remains today.
“The fire house is a home away from home,” he said, describing the lifestyle of the job, which schedules its workers on 24-hour shifts, staggered around 48 hours off. While at the station, the firefighters live, eat and sleep in communal settings. “Each house is just one big, happy, dysfunctional family.”
That lifestyle and sense of family is a big draw, as is working with the equipment, and most people get hooked early, he said. The group with whom he spent his first few years at St. Mary’s Volunteer Fire Department remains tight, Kame said, even though some are scattered around the state.
“I guess that was our college, since they don’t have a fire science program at ISU,” he chuckled.
Young people interested in the fire department service should get all the education they can, particularly in the medical field, Kame said. Joining a volunteer department is a great way to get experience and learn about the equipment, he added.
And, in the end, if the siren’s call beckons a young person, he or she might as well jump aboard and get that experience. Decades after hanging out with his grandfather, Kame is still “one of those kids.”
9/11: 10th Anniversary Coverage
WHY I SERVE: The firefighter
- 9/11: 10th Anniversary Coverage
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Delores Ann Day
Delores Ann Day, 77, of Terre Haute, passed away at 2:10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Union Hospital.
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Wabash Valley lights the night in memory of those lost to terrorism
As the sun set and skies turned pink Sunday, about 30 people worked to light 9,200 tea candles at the Fairbanks Park Chauncey Rose Memorial.
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‘September Souls’ a 9/11 story told one piece at a time
Amid the mourning, artwork was born.
The resulting quilt, “September Souls,” will be on display in Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library through October, along with a short video about its creator, the late Rosemary England. -
Terre Haute South site of 9/11 ceremony to ‘remember the fallen’
The morning was clear, warm and comfortable, not unlike 10 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers on suicide missions murdered nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
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Donors remember times of need as they let the ‘red’ flow
The music floating about Fairbanks Park was serene, but inside the air-conditioned RV nearby, the blood was pumping.
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Service honors those who boldly leap into the face of danger
Religious services around the Wabash Valley marked the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, including a special service honoring America’s emergency responders Sunday at Good Shepherd Baptist Church on the south side of Terre Haute.
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ISU ensembles honor memory of 9/11
Vocal and instrumental music blended with visual images as Indiana State University student performers joined Sunday in songs of reflection and hope in memory of 9/11.
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EDITORIAL: Inspired by resilience in our post-9/11 world
The places directly linked to 9/11 can seem so distant from our own surroundings here in the Wabash Valley.
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True heroism: Flight 93 rewrote conclusion to plot by 9/11 terrorists (see VIDEO)
Walking in the Shadows of 9/11
Last of a three-part series
The place — chosen by fate — holds a powerful silence. -
MARK BENNETT: Value of every minute deeply realized on 9/11 (related VIDEO)
Editor’s Note
This summer, the Tribune-Star’s Mark Bennett visited New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., sites where the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now memorialized. He observed the cityscapes and landscapes forever changed by the events of that day and talked with people he encountered there, many of whom witnessed the attacks and their aftermath from close range and had personal ties to its victims. -
Three sites ... a shared goal: Travelers will experience 3 distinct environments at 9/11 memorials
A national sense of tragedy provides a common, connecting thread to these three places.
A broad plot by al-Qaida terrorists sent hijacked commercial airlines crashing into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a remote field near Shanksville, Pa., on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A decade later, most Americans old enough to vote know the basic story and remember where they were on 9/11. -
Pilot recalls escorting Air Force One on 9/11
Piloting his F-16 fighter jet on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, then-Lt. Col. Chris Colbert of the Terre Haute-based 181st Fighter Wing, could see that the shimmering object in the distance was a very, very large aircraft.
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Volunteers turn out for 9/11 Day of Service
Building handicapped ramps, pulling weeds along a city park trail and assembling packages for U.S. military personnel were all part of a 9/11 Day of Service on Saturday organized by Terre Haute Ministries.
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Pentagon Memorial pays tribute to 184 lives lost in 9/11 attack on Washington (related VIDEO)
Walking in the Shadows of 9/11
Second of a three-part series
The latch clicked loudly, and Lt. Col. Robert L. Ditchey pushed open a door inside Corridor 4 of the Pentagon.
He entered an area that resembles an urban alley, but with a roof.
“This is where the final pieces of the aircraft had crashed through,” explained Ditchey, Pentagon press officer for the Department of Defense. -
Sept. 11, 2001 — A date seared into the minds of Americans
There are events so important in our lives that we remember every detail. Sometimes, these are personal celebrations such as weddings, births and graduations. But other events, sudden and tragic on a national scale, such as the brutal terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11, become defining moments for a generation.
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B.J. RILEY: Quieting the roar of the presses …
There are memories branded forever in our minds. They are as clear as if they occurred just yesterday. I will never forget that Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, or the days that followed …
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A CHANGED NATION: After 9/11, air travel, privacy, security all took on new rules
A lot has changed in the decade since passenger planes were used as missiles to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and to damage the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
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9/11 Day of Service in Valley: Consolidated 5th-graders swept away with helping others
After the 9/11 tragedy, many saw a spirit of unity emerging across the country as Americans pulled together and helped each other during a dark time in U.S. history.
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WHY I SERVE: The soldier
On the wall of his office inside the Myers Technology Building, Chris Pfaff pointed to a map of Afghanistan, a place about as different from the Indiana State University campus as one can imagine.
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'ALMOST SURREAL': A decade later, two men who witnessed the attacks look back
The underground Metro train shook noticeably.
Something had happened. William Hanna, a retired U.S. Army colonel living in Virginia, was on board the Metro and could feel the shock. -
WHY I SERVE: The firefighter
Big red trucks and blaring sirens always held a special appeal for Jason Kame.
“I always wanted to be a fireman. I was one of those kids that always knew what I wanted to do,” he said inside the Terre Haute Fire Department’s Headquarters Station at First and Spruce streets. -
TEACHING TRAGEDY: Attacks created new chapters for the history books
The 9/11 terrorist attacks permanently changed the daily routine for students in the Vigo County School Corp.
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WHY I SERVE: The police officer
Joe Watts heard the calling to wear a police uniform early in life.
“I tell everyone that as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a state trooper,” Watts says. -
TEACHING TRAGEDY: 9/11 attacks were a ‘historical turning point’
Incoming college freshmen this fall would have been about 8 years old when 9/11 occurred, and college faculty find that with each passing year, students know less and less about the terrorist attacks.
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Ralston took part in congressional terrorism study before 9/11
Years before the terrorist attacks in 2001, Terre Haute resident Patrick R. Ralston was part of a national panel that would assess how the U.S. government could assist state and local responders in combating terrorism.
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IN GOD WE TRUST: Many sought comfort in prayer, religion after attacks
In times of tragedy, many people turn to prayer to help them begin to cope with myriad emotions.
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LIFE & LIBERTY: Americans won’t let lives be ruled by fear, prof says
In the post-9/11 world, Americans have been willing to make some concessions in the name of national security, but not many, says a St. Mary-of-the-Woods College faculty member.
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Ten years removed, 9/11 attack on NYC remains on minds of many (see VIDEO)
First of a three-part series
A decade later, images from Sept. 11, 2001, remain vivid in the minds of most Americans. Plane crashes. Collapsing skyscrapers. Staggering people covered in dust. Horror. Shock. Confusion. Fear. Heroism. -
9/11 Memorial Event to honor those killed in attacks
Late last year, Terri (T.J.) Coonce had a vision for a 9/11 memorial event.
Inspired by an uncle and cousin who had served in Afghanistan, she wanted to honor not only those killed in the terrorist attacks, but also all American service members who have since lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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‘Remember those who were heroes that day’
Half-time shows at college football games are normally reserved for some relatively light entertainment and a chance to buy some snacks.
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