By Allison Peck
Listen to the full interview on our Kubota Podcast
A flag that has flown over the site of the World Trade Center will make its way from Wallace to North Platte Thursday as local firefighters honor the first responders who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
The memorial flag journey will begin at 5 p.m. at the Wallace Fire Department and travel through several communities before reaching North Platte.
Brett Gartrell, a firefighter who helped organize the event, said the flag is certified and comes with a ticket of authenticity. While it was not flown on September 11, 2001, it was flown over the 9/11 Memorial in New York on July 8, 2026.
Gartrell said the idea came from conversations with friends and family and was created specifically for the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
“I think it was something neat that we could do in remembrance of the fallen firefighters and first responders,” Gartrell said.
The flag will be carried between fire departments, with each community's fire chief taking part in the handoff.
The journey begins in Wallace, where Fire Chief Pat Arney will carry the flag in a Wallace command vehicle. The convoy will travel to Elsie before continuing to Paxton, where the flag will be handed to Paxton Fire Chief Kyle Gartrell.
From there, the flag will continue along Highway 30 to Sutherland, where it will be handed to Fire Chief Wasey Campbell, and then to Hershey Fire Chief Toby Tobiason.
The flag is expected to arrive at the Pizza Ranch parking lot in North Platte at approximately 7 p.m.
Gartrell will receive the flag there, where it will be unfolded and placed on a portable flagpole. Firefighters will then walk approximately one mile from the Pizza Ranch to North Platte Fire Department Station 1.
The North Platte Professional Firefighters Honor Guard will receive the flag and keep it overnight. On September 11, the Honor Guard will post the flag and it will fly at Station 1 throughout the day.
Gartrell said the response from area firefighters has been overwhelming.
“I pretty much just kind of put it out there as an idea and everybody come running,” he said. “It's worked out really good.”
He said the participation also reflects the connection shared by firefighters and first responders across the area.
“We're just firefighters. It doesn't matter your title,” Gartrell said. “We're all here for a specific reason. That's protect our communities and do our job.”
Gartrell hopes the event will also help younger generations understand the significance of September 11.
“It means that we're trying to remember firefighters and first responders for doing what we all talk about,” he said. “Those guys went running into a situation that they were pretty certain they weren't going to make it out of.”
For Gartrell, the passage of 25 years makes remembering even more important.
“There are kids now in school that they weren't alive for this,” he said. “So I hope that it maybe might spark just a little bit of maybe people remember it and we keep it alive the best we can.”
Gartrell remembers being a junior in high school when he watched the attacks unfold in his school's library.
Now, he said, September 11 has become something students learn about as history.
“It's wild to think that something that we lived through is now taught as the past,” he said.
People are encouraged to come out and watch the memorial flag journey through their communities. Gartrell said spectators should remain on sidewalks and follow directions from law enforcement to keep everyone safe.
He emphasized that the event is not about recognition for the people organizing it.
“We're not doing it for any sort of recognition or anything,” Gartrell said. “We're doing it to remember the firefighters and the first responders we lost.”
As the flag makes its way through the area Thursday evening, Gartrell hopes people will remember not only the tragedy of September 11, but also the courage shown by first responders.
“I hope they can believe in, you know, something so terrible, and then we can rise above it and come back better than ever,” he said. “Remembering how brave those guys were to do what they did, and probably one of America's worst days.”
Gartrell said firefighters and first responders who want to participate in the final walk can meet at the Pizza Ranch around 7 p.m. The public is also encouraged to find a safe place along the route to watch the flag pass through North Platte.
The North Platte walk will head south from the Pizza Ranch on Dewey Street, past the courthouse, before continuing toward B Street and then south on Jeffers Street.
Gartrell said the event is ultimately about making sure the sacrifice of September 11 is not forgotten.
“I think it's a big part of our history,” he said. “I don't think that it should ever be forgotten.”