by ARI PAUL
A group of firefighters and Port Authority Police Officers Aug. 1 greeted 18 wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington at 7 World Trade Center.
Hospital Audiences Inc. sponsored the weekend trip for the vets, which started with a tour of Ground Zero and 7 World Trade Center, and continued with a visit to the World Yacht Harbor and a baseball game at Yankee Stadium.
Members of the Emerald Society and uniformed firefighters welcomed the vets, many of whom were amputees, on the 52nd floor of the building, while a representative of Silverstein Properties gave the group a tour focusing on how the building was developed to be safer than the ones that were destroyed on 9/11 but was also more environmentally friendly, as it cultivates sunlight rather than using artificial light and captures rainwater for the building's irrigation system.
Uniformed Fire Officers Association officials Stephen Carbone, Richard Alles and Patrick Reynolds were also on hand for the event.
"Here I may sound a little bit like John Goodman in The Big Lebowski who continuously digresses into the Vietnam War, but the genesis of the idea is my experience through the Vietnam era, through a deep anti-war sentiment that was labeled anti-veteran," said HAI board member Les Winter, who developed the idea of bringing wounded veterans to New York. "Today, everyone is anti-war [but] everyone, particularly the people of New York City, supports our veterans and soldiers. This program reflects the spirit of New York City."
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