Hot! A Marine Who Survived The Beirut Bom But Died A Hero When The Twin Towers Fell On 9 11

It was the best of New York, inside and out.

At the 9/11 commemoration, which was exclusively for families of the fallen this year, FDNY Lt. Gerard Chipura spoke about his brother John, whose life he thinks should be an inspirational and action-packed book.

PHOTOS: AMERICA REMEMBERS

John was a Boy Scout as a kid, always helping people, Gerard was saying before they started reading the names of the dead on this sunny, blue-skied Tuesday morning that was a color copy of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.

Then John became an Eagle Scout. Always helping people. Then he joined the Marines and was serving in Beirut for his country in 1983 when the barracks was attacked by a terrorist bomb, killing 243 of his fellow Marines. He survived that and came home and joined the NYPD and was a decorated cop for 11 years. Then he became a firefighter and answered the call here 11 years ago this morning. John survived Beirut, but he died here on 9/11. God, I miss him every day.

Outside the memorial plaza, in the long shadow of the new Freedom Tower rising 1,776 feet from the granite bedrock of lower Manhattan, Elizabeth Balon, 19, a biology major at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, aimed her iPhone camera at the tower inside the consecrated acres of Ground Zero.

No, I didn t lose anyone on that day, she says. I m here for my sister, Lance Cpl. Estela Sharp, who has been serving in Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, since May. That war started because of the attacks here, so I came here today in my sister's honor and to pay my respects to the people who died here. I don t know why, can t explain it exactly, but I feel very close to my sister here today. Like she can see and hear me. Like I can see and hear her. I miss her so, so much, but I am glad I came. It brings me peace to pray for the people she s serving in a war for.

Inside, Walter Matuza tapped his guide cane through the crowd of mournful family members and spoke of the day 11 years ago when he still had eyesight but learned he d lost his father.

I was 10 and living in Staten Island and I knew the attacks had happened here at the towers, he says. But it was my father s day off. He wasn t supposed to work. But there was an awards ceremony at school and he needed a projector that was at work here on the 92nd floor of the North Tower. So he went in just to get the projector. He didn t make it out. I don t remember the exact words they said to me that day, but I remember that my mother and my grandmother took me into my parents bedroom and I sat on the bed and they told me that my father was never coming home. I was a star baseball player. My dad came to all my games. My favorite time with him was fishing. We d never do that again. Five months later, I also lost my eyesight.