First Responders, Texas Tech ROTC and more climb over 2,000 stairs to never forget 9/11

Lubbock Fire Rescue and the Lubbock Police Department turned out alongside Tech's Army ROTC, several Marines and student organizations. One firefighter drove in from Midland just to take part. The number isn't random. It mirrors the stairwells first responders climbed in the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, before they collapsed.

This is the kind of event that doesn't need a stage or a speech to land. Cadets and officers pushing through 110 flights, fully aware of why that number matters, says more than a ceremony could. For Tech's Air Force ROTC, a fifth straight year running it means this isn't a one-off gesture anymore. Students plan their calendars around it.

For Lubbock, it's a chance to see the people who show up during actual emergencies, fire crews and cops, doing something physically brutal on purpose to keep a memory alive. It also ties Texas Tech's campus directly into a national moment of remembrance.

Twenty-four years later, people are still climbing stairs in Lubbock so nobody forgets what happened on the 110th floor.