By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES— Naples resident Ron Shaw believes it’s important not to forget what happened to Americans on Sept. 11, 2001.

Since the one year anniversary of that infamous date, Shaw has been holding a service on the Naples Town Dock. As part of those annual ceremonies, he plays his bugle — an instrument he doesn’t regret learning how to play. 

On Sunday, Shaw commented that playing “Taps” always makes his eyes tear up but when he plays “The Star-Spangled Banner,” he gets angry.

“I get angry every time I think that someone could do that to us,” he said, shaking his head.

Because Shaw refuses to forget, he keeps on showing up at the Naples Town Dock every Sept. 11. Because the observance keeps on happening, someone who was vacationing from Florida found a place to go to remember 9-11.

Jim is a pilot based in Florida who is vacationing with hiswife, traveling around in an RV. A few days ago, he was kayaking on Tricky Pond and met a couple on the water who told them about the 9-11 observance in Naples. 

He went because it was important not to forget.

“Everyone remembers where they were at on 9-11. I was in Sarasota, Fla., which is my home, and my daughter had a broken ankle so we were in the doctor’s office. He said we are going to have to do an X-Ray. So, I went out to go the bathroom when she went in there, and saw the second plane hit live,” he said. “I knew right away it Osama bin Laden because we had been hearing about him for years. I was working for Northwest Airlines at the time. And I was actually on a 757 which is one of the types of the planes that hit the building and also the pentagon.”

“We had been hearing about them [al-Qaeda] for years. We knew about them but never thought they would do something so devious to take so many lives,” he said.

Sept. 11, 2001, fell on a Tuesday, and all civilian air traffic was suspended for two days.

“I finally flew again on Friday after 9-11,” Jim said. “And went into New York, LaGuardia, and you could see the smoldering remains. We went right the Hudson, north along the Hudson. We landed. The farthest we could get was city hall, New York. They had a temporary morgue set up. Saw all the memorials in town. People were still looking. It was an active search at that point.”

“Never forget— that is our motto,” he said.

On Sunday morning, Patricia Shaw was very pleased to see the Causeway flags at half-mast.  

Another detail that added to this year’s ceremony: The town’s emergency siren sounded — twice. Once around the time the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, whichwas 8:45 a.m., and again for the second plane hitting the South Tower, which happened at 9:03 a.m.

So, in addition to hearing the familiar, emotion-evoking songs on the bugle, there was the sound that people hear when there is a town-wide emergency. 

Down at the dock, people informally shared with each other where they were that day, where family members were that day, how it felt to watch the events unfold on live news. 

“My brother at the time was a firefighter in Northern New Jersey,” Tricia Shaw said. “Some of the 911 calls were getting bounced to his firehouse. One of the people he talked to was a woman who was in the tower and things did not end well for her. So he carries that.”

“The ripple effect of the tragedy and the anxiety and the trauma that even people who weren’t right there at the site. It just ripples out,” she said.tragedy

Norman Schneider knew a couple who was at ground zero but got away safe.  

“The people I worked with were staying in at a hotel next door. They saw the plane hit. They just called for their car to leave but [He said his wife was in labor] They ran. Three years later they finally found the car. Nothing wrong with it, except the battery is dead. It was three levels below the street,” Schneider said.  

“It took them that long to dig in out,” Jim said. 

“It’s a small world,” Schneider said. 

“Tragedies like this, for a time, make it a smaller world,” Tricia said.