Motorcycle Garage Does Its Part to Commemorate the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

The L.A. Fire Hogs, the 20-year-old motorcycle club composed of active and retired Los Angeles firefighters, made the cross-country trek towards New York City to honor the 343 firemen who lost their lives on September 11th.

The 40-person caravan, all riding American-made Harley Davidson’s, ended their 14-day-long trip at Vax Moto, a motorcycle parking garage and repair shop in Park Slope, on Third Avenue between 12th and 13th streets.

A few weeks ago, Vax Moto owner Justin Walters received a call from the owner of Rolling Thunder Cycles, a Harley Davidson store on Long Island, asking if the L.A. Fire Hogs could keep their bikes in Walters’ 9,500 square foot space, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“I said, ‘done deal, no problem. It’s on the house,’” said Walters, who usually rents out parking spaces for $175 per month. “This is my way of doing my part for the tenth anniversary of 9/11... this is me doing what I can to honor the fallen firefighters.”

The captain of Los Angeles Fire Station Three in downtown L.A., Mike Kamerer, has been planning this journey across the nation for the last ten years. Kamerer is also the Vice President of the Hogs, which has about 150 members, and rides a 2007 Harley Davidson Street Glide.

On August 28, he led his 40-man caravan, all of which are active or former firefighters for the LAFD, to New York. They arrived on Thursday, September 8. The trip has raised $5,000 for the FDNY Widows and Orphans Fund, he says.

“Our journey is a tribute to our fallen brothers and to never forget 9/11. We never want to forget that horrific day, and we will never forget our fallen heroes,” Captain Kamerer says. “The planes that hit the World Trade Center were supposed to fly to L.A. So if the planes had hit downtown L.A. I know the FDNY would’ve been there for us.”

During the 2001 attacks, Kamerer was in his native California. But the following day, he took a military flight to New York City as part of the Urban Search and Rescue Team. For three days he helped recover bodies and clean up the wreckage.

“We worked at Ground Zero, on what they called ‘the pile,’” Kamerer says. “It was horrific. It was like a movie set, everywhere you looked it was pure carnage. I thought to myself, ‘Did this really happen?’ But it truly did.”

The Hogs stopped at every 9/11 memorial in the nation during their trip east, which began at the Los Angeles World Trade Center Memorial in Elysian Park, California. They paid tribute at the Pentagon, the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA, and then, once they arrived to New York City—where Engine 46 in The Bronx escorted them into Manhattan—they visited the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive.

On Saturday afternoon in Vax Moto’s garage, a few independent riders who made the trip with the Hogs and work along side Kamerer in the LAFD, tuned up their bikes and checked the oil and spoke about the significance of their trip of tribute.

“Ultimately, we are here to pay our respects to all the people who lost their lives and families in 9/11. But, on top of that, since we are all firemen, we rode to pay our respects to the New York City Fire Department,” says Mike Celestino, 36, who rode his 2009 Harley Nightster across the country. “They lost 343 guys that day.”

“Starting in L.A. and riding across the country is rough," Celestino, who has tattoos running up both arms, said. 

"We drove 500 to 600 miles a day, enduring rain, heat and dangerous roads,” he added. “But in the big picture it was nothing compared to the pain that people who lost their loved ones in the Towers feel every day.”

Justin Walters was not one of those people who lost a loved one in the attacks, but he says still it was incredibly emotional for him.

In 2001, he was a freelance photographer. He stood on the corner of Thompson and Broome streets when the first tower fell. He grabbed his camera, ran down to the World Trade Center and witnessed the whole "wrenching experience," he says.

“It stuck with me and hasn’t dissipated at all,” Walters says. “I lived the entire tragedy and these pictures were not for sale, I was just living it, not working it.”

Walters, while sitting on the red leather couch of his garage, said 9/11 changed his sense of compassion for his neighbors and his yearn to help people.

“I now value interpersonal interaction more. 9/11 has made me a better person,” Walters says. “It boils down to the little things. I don’t need to make a speech about this tragedy, we just need to be hospitable, take the extra effort and offer what you have to others who are in need.”

And for the Hogs, a safe place to park their bikes and tune up their choppers means the world.

“I have felt every emotion on this trip,” says Adam Fisher, a 31-year-old firefighter in the LAFD who rode his Harley Sportster with the Hogs. “This trip, for me, symbolizes a ride for honor. I want to give exposure to everyone who sacrificed their lives in 9/11, not just the firefighters.

"Even though we are firefighters and we are here to represent and honor them, everyone who died that day deserves every bit as much recognition and remembrance and honor.”

And despite the Hogs being on the West Coast during the attacks, to them the trip symbolized the unification of our country. Fisher explains that September 11, 2001 changed the entire nation, no matter what state one lives in and they have travelled across those states symbolized that notion.

“There is really no distance separating our country, a tragedy in New York is a tragedy for us all, and that’s why we are here.”