An Antique's Heroic Journey: Truck 16 at the Pentagon on September 11th

In 1955 a beautiful fire truck was manufactured in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This Mack model B-85 was a ladder truck and was of course the classic red.  Like any classy red vehicle from the 1950s – it was, of course, a convertible! And to offset its bright red color, the truck had silver chrome bumpers, shiny silver chrome sirens, an old-fashioned signal bell mounted at the left front, and red lights all around. It is the kind of rig you could easily imagine dashing to the rescue with a Dalmatian in the center seat, lights flashing, sirens blaring, with firefighters hanging off the back. This awesome open-top fire truck was placed into service with the volunteer fire department in the little town of Woodsboro, Maryland – not too far from Baltimore and Washington, DC – where it became known as Truck 16. As the nation collectively experienced the nightmare of September 11, 2001, a call came to the Volunteer fire station in Woodsboro, Maryland. It was later in the day on the 11th, the towers had collapsed, the pentagon was burning, and one passenger jet had flown into the ground in an open field, just up the road in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. “We need truck 16 now, at the pentagon, it’s the only truck that can do the job – get here – now!”  the caller said. ....