SC firefighters get new fire truck with 9/11 history

By Mike Ellis
The Anderson Independent-Mail

ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. — When the Anderson County Fire Department needed to get a new truck in 2005 they found one through a broker in Arlington, Va.

Fire Chief Billy Gibson, a shop foreman and a mechanic, went up to check out Quint 109.

Quint refers to the engine’s five functions: pump water, hold water in a tank, hold and operate hoses, mounted ladder and ground ladder.

Looking it over, the Anderson County crew noticed a five-sided sticker on Quint 109: Operation Noble Eagle.

“They told us that any fire apparatus that responded to the Pentagon on the morning of 9/11 was given that special distinction,” Gibson said. “We didn’t know that it was a truck that had been at the Pentagon. We were just looking for a new apparatus.”

Station 9 in Arlington is close to the Pentagon and was the first station to reach the damaged western side of the federal government’s largest building after it was struck 46 seconds after 9:37 that morning.

Quint 109 can be seen right in front of the blast zone in pictures from Sept. 11, said Robert Taylor, a firefighter who drives the truck out of the Sandy Springs Volunteer Fire Department.

When Gibson and the mechanics bought the truck, it needed to be re-lettered and restriped to match Anderson County’s color scheme.

“We told the dealer in no uncertain terms that the Operation Noble Eagle sticker was to stay on,” Gibson said. “We also kept the 109 call sign.”

Driving the truck, Taylor said, bring up emotions. Many firefighters died on Sept. 11, but Arlington Station 9 firefighters all made it home alive.

“This is not just one of the trucks that responded, it was the first truck that was there,” he said. “There’s a lot of history on that truck, there’s a lot of pride we have in operating something like this.”

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