Home»PARADES»2011 St. Patricks Day Parade featuring the Patriot Flag

To mark the ten year anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks in New York the Patriot Flag has been traveling around the country on a year-long tour. It made its appearance in Baltimore on March 13, 2011 at the annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade and was hosted by the Baltimore City Fire Department. The flag honors the men and women on the job protecting the citizens. It also sends the message to the world and families of the loved ones lost on 9-11-01 that “WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN” their supreme sacrifice.
The idea was first started by Firefighter/Paramedic Mitch Mendler, a California Firefighter and Wayne Louth, of the American Legion Post 149 in Escondido, California.
The flag was donated by the American Legion Post 149. It measures 30’ X 60’ and is one of the largest flags ever flown and displayed in public.
It was first flown in San Diego, California on August 10, 2010 and will make weekly appearances in all fifty states throughout the year making its final appearance at Shanksville, PA, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and then at “Ground Zero” in Mahattan on September 11, 2011. It will then make a final appearance at Fort McHenry in Baltimore on September 14th.
The flag is being shipped to and from each destination free by Federal Express in a special shipping container.
As it is displayed in each state it is hosted by the local Fire Departments, Police Departments, and Veteran groups.
On the day before it arrived in Baltimore it was displayed in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Milford Connecticut.
During its stay in Baltimore it was accompanied by two retired FDNY Lieutenants that survived the collapse of the World Trade Center.
Lieutenant Joe Torillo of Engine 10 was outside of the South Tower when it collapsed and buried by the debris. He was pulled out and sent to a hospital in New Jersey where he woke up three days later. He was missing and actually counted as the 344th victim until he was identified when he woke up and was accounted for.
Lieutenant Mickey Kross of Engine 16, along with a few other firefighters and some civilians they had rescued were in the Stairway B of the North Tower when it collapsed and were some of the few people that actually survived the total collapse of the building.

The History Channel did a story on the survival of these people. Lieutenant Kross tells the story of how he found a penny on the ground on his way to work that morning. He said that he had previously never in his life picked up a penny from the ground, but this particular morning he decided to. And as he said it must have been his lucky day! Incidentally the woman that they rescued, Josaphine Harris, just passed away last month.
Both Lieutenants have since retired as a result of their injuries and have been carrying their message of survival and hope to many Americans since the terrorist attacks on their tour with the flag.




Lieutenant’s Torillo and Kross along with Mike Hughes, president of the Citizens Police Academy of the New York Police Department made a presentation of a plaque to Assistant Chief Donald Heinbuch representing the Baltimore City Fire Department at the Firefighters Local 734 Union Hall before the parade. After the presentation the New York guests were driven along with the members of the Fire Department’s Emerald Society to Mount Vernon where they would march along with the members in the parade through downtown Baltimore. Near the end of the parade route the Patriot Flag was set up on the ladders between Truck Co.1 and Truck Co. 26 where everyone in the parade would pass under.
After the parade was over the flag was taken down and repacked in the container to be shipped to the next destination-Cleveland, Ohio.
After the Baltimore appearance the flag will have travelled about 66,118 miles covering 75 cities in 30 states.