Merced honors victims of 9/11

Fixing a tiny American flag to his motorcycle, one parade rider was marking the 15th anniversary on Sunday of the “driving force” behind his military service.

Staff Sgt. Kevin Paul, 31, was dressed in his Army fatigues as he rode his motorcycle down Main Street with dozens of other bikers during Merced’s First Responders 9/11 Memorial Parade.

Paul said he was 16 years old in Tacoma, Wash., when he saw the jumbo jets slam into the sides of the World Trade Center buildings in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I woke up, saw it on TV and watched it all day,” he said.

He didn’t go to school that day, but rather watched the events unfold on television with his family nearby. Nearly 3,000 people would die that day as the towers crumbled, and planes struck the Pentagon and crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

In addition, around 400 first responders died in the suicide attacks.

The lives lost that day had a lasting effect on Paul, who joined the Army as soon as he was old enough. He’s since served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan in his 11 years as a soldier. He’s now a recruiter in Merced.

The parade is a fond sight for Paul. “It shows that people don’t forget,” he said. “It shows that people didn’t give their lives to help others for no reason.”

Engines rumbled as the American Patriot Chrome Cowboys club, the parade’s organizers, rode along Main Street. Several other local clubs took part, including the Soul Brothers, Mi Gente and Ruff Ryders, to name a few.

Leslie Fournier of Merced said she was on a business trip with her husband in 2001, and the two of them could not fly home from Colorado. She said she hoped the parade would serve to “acknowledge” and “respect” the victims and the first responders in New York.

Midway through the parade, the riders parked and left their bikes to make sure everyone in the crowd had their own tiny American flags to wave. Merced County first responders also rode in the parade.

“Disbelief” and “pain” were the first words that came to mind for Thom Grimaldi, another rider, as he thought back to when he saw the tragic events on the morning news.

The 67-year-old said only one of his six grandchildren were old enough to have seen the live footage from 9/11. He hoped the parade would serve to educate and remind people about the attacks.

“Keep it in everybody’s mind,” he said. “It did happen, and it could happen again if we’re not careful.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2016 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Merced honors victims of 9/11."