00:012026 america is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year but it's also celebrating the 25th
00:08anniversary of the september 11th attacks and there were a great many heroes that day
00:15and one of them was frank siller whose brother was killed in the attacks and killed in the south
00:22tower he is famous for going through the battery tunnel with his equipment on all the way down to
00:29twin towers where he was never found and since then the tunnel to towers program founded by his
00:35brother frank has raised millions giving homes to fallen officers fallen firefighters and
00:46fallen family members of family troops and injured troops giving them accessible homes doing great
00:52great work well i'm about to do a walk with frank siller and we're going to talk about the great
00:58work tunnel to towers does and what their big plans is for this year as they plan to give out
01:05343 homes
01:07in honor the 343 fallen firefighters let's go for a walk
01:19thanks for joining us frank you know
01:22the work you do with the tunnel towers program is amazing and it's 25 years now
01:30you talk i you know it still seems like yesterday to me i know especially you know we're in new
01:36york
01:36here today and you know you know how we lost those two beautiful towers you know at uh 9 59
01:43a.m on that
01:44faithful day uh when that south tower came down um that's when i turned to my mother-in-law i
01:49said nancy
01:50i think i just lost my brother uh our silla family life has changed forever on that day like so
01:56many other
01:56families my sister-in-law married five beautiful children you know they they lost their dad that day
02:02she lost my brother and her soul mate and we decided that we're going to do start a
02:09foundation in his honor to not only to honor what he did that day but so many other heroes
02:15uh new york heroes for sure i mean 25 years when i think about 25 years i think this and
02:25i know
02:26the whole first responders and public servants 25 years is like a magic number because that's
02:35when a lot of people in that profession retire so it dawned on me that most of the people that
02:45were working that day who may not even been anywhere near the twin towers who might have worked on the
02:51rescue efforts who knew people who knew people they're all retiring and now we're going to have
02:57like a whole there's not going to be many people who were working that day still working for the uh
03:03police and fire yeah that's that's true frank and and the truth of the matter is a lot of retired
03:09you know already over these last 25 years it's a new fire department but it's still the best fire
03:14department the greatest fire department ever existed uh uh for sure yeah my my sister-in-law
03:21recently has said to me gee stevenwood he's supposed to be retiring now he's not supposed to be
03:26gone he's supposed to be retiring now we were supposed to be enjoying our retirement i just
03:31had a long conversation with her very recently about this but look 25 years later we're proud
03:38the tunnel to towers foundation is so proud of the work we're doing you know some of the things
03:42we're doing this year yes that's 343 your houses i know you've given out many of homes over the the
03:49last uh two and a half decades uh you've uh raised it for not only the fire department uh police
03:56department but uh wounded warriors and uh people uh from the uh the military in afghanistan and iraq
04:04and giving them homes and uh accessible homes i mean we've had uh people who have been badly injured
04:11that uh talking about all the great work you've done for them by putting accessible homes
04:16you're 100 right they went to war because of what happened on 9-11 and therefore you know i feel
04:22very
04:23responsible that we make sure that we take care of these great heroes and their families uh that are
04:28left behind if they died in the line of duty or if they're catastrophically injured you know you
04:32mentioned that we're going to deliver 343 homes this year why 343 you know why yeah that's how many uh
04:38the firefighters were killed that day it's how many firefighters that died on 9-11 so you realize
04:43we're delivering 343 mortgage-free homes for the 25th anniversary we want to turn something that was so evil
04:51and so bad we want to make it so good and so pure and and that's why that's how we
04:57combat evil we bite by
04:59doing good and so it's almost a house a day think about it yeah it's the house it literally is
05:04almost
05:04a house a day i mean uh good good that's incredible right and then you know we we you know
05:12we made a
05:12promise to eradicate homelessness amongst our veterans uh you know we're gonna we've the last two and a half
05:18year 17 500 homeless veterans off the street we're buying hotels all over america we remodel them
05:25we make them apartments permanent housing for the older uh veterans and then on but on the first floor
05:30of these hotels we make all the comprehensive services they need to assimilate back into society
05:36that's the thing that people forget about is they don't have the uh battle scars except
05:43they're in their heads the the battles of uh the war the ptsd and the unseen toll it took on
05:51them
05:51oh could you imagine the war they see their front blown up next to them or or shot or killed
05:57right
05:57next to them and they and they and they died and they come back here in america they're not part
06:02of
06:02the military anymore they have to go out and similarly into society and they have all these problems uh and
06:09we don't we can't leave them on the street frank we can't leave them on the street no and the
06:13tunnel
06:13the tower has made a promise we're going to do another 10 000 this year off the street it'll be
06:18over 27 500 homeless veterans uh and it will be three and a half year span we're so proud of
06:25that
06:25uh of that number you know uh you know we work very very close with the va and hud uh
06:33secretary collins
06:34for the uh va is i mean you know you were at the gala yeah yeah very nice guy yeah
06:41yeah i know he's
06:42trying to help my uh father with his uh kidney ailments oh by the way he told me to tell
06:48you he
06:48tried to get in touch with you to make sure that you know because he wants to make sure he
06:52does that
06:53i gave my not my yeah i gave him his uh my father the card he called yeah i was
07:00with him the other day
07:01he told me maybe i'll see if i could uh that email or something like that how about if i
07:05call him
07:05when we get back up into your office yeah because the problem is he lives all the way down in
07:10uh
07:10paspervania oh yeah yeah so what this america va is for everybody in america that served our
07:16i mean i i i mean i'm trying to make that connection but i just we will we will i
07:23i i i promise you
07:25you know uh it's the effort of so yeah so you know some of the other things that we're doing
07:32yes i
07:33saw the uh you're taking the uh piece of steel and you're gonna go on a nice little tour of
07:38uh and
07:39it's also it's the 250th anniversary of uh the declaration of independence so we we're gonna be
07:44doing one of the things i was just at the white house uh the other day with the president and
07:48i was
07:49talking about the 25th anniversary he's very uh involved with the tunnel to towers he loves what
07:54we do and he uh said that we we're going to do some things with with america 250 as well
07:59with with
08:00the steel with with the fact that uh we're going to uh bring this around to you know 40 different
08:07cities in across america on on a tour from april to to 911 uh where i actually walked through the
08:16tunnel with that piece of steel from the south tower it's an i-beam it's it's it's 16 000 pounds
08:22this i-beam it's 20 it's 22 or 24 feet uh long and um and it's going to be on
08:28this beautiful uh
08:29truck that we built for it exposed to so people could see it so people could touch it people could
08:35pray on it and pray for listen my brother was never recovered at ground zero so that piece of
08:40steel has his soul in it and the soul of many other great americans that we lost so we're so
08:45proud that we're going to bring that all across america so they don't forget again that's promise
08:50you know 25 years to show people that this is what happened and i think that's very important
08:57to tell you the truth especially with the uh 250. i agree you know i remember that day and that
09:04time
09:08out of tragedy came greatness because for like a brief period of time the country was united
09:16yeah i i mean we'd like to see that again wouldn't we oh i i mean but you know most
09:24america cares you
09:25have 10 percent of the nuts they're crazy they they they ruin everything uh but most most americans care
09:33most americans care and i found out you know you're like you you're all over the united states i go
09:37all
09:38over the united states we're delivering homes in every state and wherever i go the reception we get is
09:44nothing short of miraculous i mean and of course the story is uh your brother was going off duty
09:53yes and then he uh stopped and he ran through the uh the battery tunnel all the way to uh
10:03the towers
10:05and of course you have the race every year yes the uh so he was he was actually on his
10:12way home he just
10:13finished his night shift and he was on his way home to um to play golf with my brother george
10:20my brother
10:20russ and myself the four brothers were going to play golf but he heard on his radio scanner
10:24that the towers were hit what his firefighters do they go you know when they're called upon they're
10:30going to show up and he went back to his firehouse got his gear drove to the brooklyn battery tunnel
10:36and uh it was closed for security reasons frank so what did he put his gear on his back 60
10:41pounds
10:41ran through that tunnel you know it's almost two miles long you've been through that tunnel enough i'm
10:46sure and uh and come out the west street and and i believe he was in the south tower uh
10:52because
10:52that's where other uh squad one members you know he was a member of squad one in park slope in
10:57brooklyn
10:58and uh they were some of them were recovered in the south tower and i believe uh that's where he
11:03was
11:04because he didn't want to fight this battle this fire with the people he trained with every day so
11:08that's why that's piece of steel is so important go around around the country that's why delivering
11:16343 mortgage free homes to all these great heroes that sacrifice their life or their limbs uh for our
11:23country that i mean that we have to do that i think your charity is one of the most worthwhile
11:28charities in america all all the good it does because you know and you don't just uh concentrate on
11:34uh 911 yeah like no like uh anyone who's killed in the line of duty anyone in america first responder
11:40you die you leave a young family behind i promise you we promise you the tunnel to towers that you're
11:45going to your family is going to be taken care of and you're going to get a mortgage-free home
11:49i mean there's so many people out here uh you know he's a pretty good guy too you know yeah
11:53he's
11:54done a lot a lot of work for uh dave's a lot of work he does a lot for us
11:58so you know if people want
12:01to get involved go to t2t.org t2t.org and we ask people do 11 a month 11 a month
12:09most most people
12:11could do 11 a month oh and you know what this year i'm doing some milestone walks you're going to
12:21do
12:21some milestone yeah well i've walked now 800 and something straight days wow so nine uh 900 uh walk
12:29and then in uh june we're going to have the big 1 000 straight days walking wow and i'm going
12:36to try
12:37to like see you get and i always get a lot of crew people a lot of people joining me
12:42for these walks
12:42i'm going to see if we could uh raise some money while doing these walks i'll join you one day
12:47that
12:47would be great i would love to join you that'd be great i'll help raise some money for uh t2t
12:52tunnelton towers great foundation you know they really have emerged and all the good work they do
13:00thank you for joining us and uh it's going to be a great year of uh remembering and giving out
13:07all
13:07these great homes to help out all these people thank you for joining us and i'm very honored that
13:13you were able to give us some time i'm honored thank you very much god bless you
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