09/12/2026
Twenty-five years later, we still say their names.
Today, I choose to remember one who's name I carried
Firefighter Vernon Paul Cherry
FDNY Ladder 118
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Vernon Cherry went to work as a firefighter.
He did not know that morning would become one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. He did not know that the doors of the firehouse would close behind him for the final time.
But when the call came, he answered.
He climbed aboard Ladder 118 with his brothers and went toward a place thousands of people were desperately trying to escape.
That is what service looks like.
That is what courage looks like.
And that is what sacrifice looks like.
As a firefighter myself, September 11 has always meant more to me than a date in a history book. When you put on this uniform, you understand that there may come a day when answering someone else’s call for help costs you everything.
Yet you answer anyway.
Our faith reminds us:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13
Those words carry a different weight when you think about men like Vernon Cherry.
He had already spent nearly three decades serving others. He was a husband, a father, a friend, a firefighter, and a man whose life mattered far beyond the uniform he wore.
And on September 11, he gave everything he had left to give.
At 1271 Group, and within our family, our faith is at the foundation of who we are. We believe that the measure of a life is not simply what we build, what we own, or what we accomplish.
It is how we serve.
How we love.
How we treat people.
How we stand beside one another when life gets hard.
And whether we are willing to answer when God places an opportunity before us to be there for somebody else.
Most of us will never be asked to run into a burning skyscraper.
But every one of us will be given opportunities to serve.
To forgive.
To encourage.
To protect.
To help someone who is hurting.
To stand up for what is right.
To love our families well.
To leave the people and places God has entrusted to us better than we found them.
That is how remembrance becomes more than words.
We honor the fallen not only by looking backward, but by living forward in a way worthy of the sacrifices made before us.
So tonight, I say his name.
Vernon Paul Cherry.
Brother, your watch ended September 11, 2001.
But your example did not.
May God continue to comfort the families who still carry an empty seat at the table, the firefighters who lost brothers and sisters that morning, and a nation that will forever remember where we were when the world changed.
May we never become too busy to remember.
May we never become too comfortable to serve.
May we never take tomorrow for granted.
And may we always have the courage to answer the call God places before us.
Rest easy, Brother Cherry.
We have not forgotten.
We will not forget.
🇺🇸 Never Forget — 9/11/2001 🇺🇸
