Tunnel to Towers Expands Mission To Leave No Veteran Behind

Two Augusts ago, I joined Frank Siller a few miles from his quest to reach this Somerset County borough as part of his 537-mile tribute walk to all those lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The walk started in Washington, D.C., and would end at Ground Zero in New York just in time for the 20th anniversary of the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center.

Siller lost his brother Stephen that day, a fireman who had just finished his shift at Brooklyn's Squad 1 when he learned a plane had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center. The younger Siller strapped 60 pounds of gear on his back and ran through a closed Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, where he gave his life trying to save others.

Overcome with grief over the loss of his brother and looking for purpose to honor his sacrifice, Frank Siller explained on that walk that within pretty short order he started a foundation, eventually known as Tunnel to Towers, to honor what Stephen and others did that day.