Community Corner

Changed by 9/11: John Bates, Massapequa Resident

For the last 10 years, John Bates has been honoring the memory of one of 9/11's most heroic figures.

On Sept. 11, 2001 John Bates was a New York Harbor pilot. Like all New Yorkers, his life changed forever on that day. He lost a friend who was one of the most noteworthy heroes of that tragic day and his family life changed forever. 

For the past decade he's been one of the organizers of an an annual tribute to Fr. Mychal Judge, a fire department chaplain who was killed at Ground Zero. He met Judge through officer Steven McDonald, the hero NYPD officer who was shot and paralysed in 1986.

"For me Sept. 11 means we always remember Fr. Mychal Judge," Bates said. "He was the type of man, who after you met him, he was like your own pastor. He always remembered who you were. As a pilot in New York, the World Trade Center was one of the most visible points on the harbor and it was destroyed. So every day you think of such a wonderful building that was destroyed by terrorists. My daughter went into the Army. She went to Iraq because of Sept. 11. I think the [tribute] has been a good way of remebering Michael an all of the others we lost."

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