Children take focus in Milwaukee observances of 9/11

MILWAUKEE-As Milwaukee Firefighters stood at attention listening to the names of their New York brethren who were killed on 9/11, a young boy stood by their side.

He wasn't even born that horrible day in 2001, but his stern expression seemed to say he knew exactly what this memorial was about.

\"The world really changed that day and our jobs changed that day,\" Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing told CBS 58 News. \"We didn't worry about terrorism, weapons of mass destruction. We didn't worry about those things prior to September 11th.\"

 

Children were at the center of several local observances.

Students from St. Marcus school marched silently, American flags in hand, on their way to a fire house closest to their school.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke explained why they wanted the young ones to be so involved.

\"I think it's important,not from a sense of fear,  people to understand the threats the world faces the role they play in it.\"

At the War Memorial along the lakefront policy makers from all parties gathered to pay their respects to the military.

Mayor Tom Barrett was in congress at the time and the sister of one of his legislative aides died in one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.

\"I felt it,\" the mayor told a hushed crowd. \"We all felt it.\"