Hello:

I was given the honor of being allowed to participate with the FDNY*EMS Pipes and Drums this past weekend at Paramedic Mark Davis' funeral. I wanted to share some thoughts with you and request that if you think it's appropriate, please share them with the members of the TIERS Rescue, Guilfoyle Ambulance and Cape Vincent Fire Departments:

I've been an EMT for close to 25 years. As a member of the NYC*EMS (now FDNY), I was a member of the ceremonial detail unit, and participated in the line of duty funerals of all members of the service to make the Supreme Sacrifice. Believe me, it never gets easy, and hopefully it never will.

Your community, despite not having the "experience" of doing many line of duty funerals, performed with exemplary service. It is our actions, when we remember a fallen brother or sister, that renders the honor to that memory. It ensures that the family will be left with a understanding of the esteem that we held their family member in. Everyone of you should be proud of the dignity and respect that you held yourselves to during a extremely difficult time. You have given the family a memory that they will hold for years, long after the shock and hurt of the present time fade. Personally, I am proud to have met so many of you and been allowed to join your ranks.

I would like to share with you a poem I found after the events of September 11th, 2001. It brought me some comfort, and perhaps it will do the same for you. It is an excerpt from a poem by Laurence Binyon, written during World War I in tribute to the fallen of that great tragedy:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Thank you for allowing me and my band to have joined you on this day of honor. May God Bless you all and keep you safe.

Robert White
Lieutenant
FDNY*EMS Battalion 16