Beach firefighter retiring, recalls Sept. 11, 2001
Longtime Fort Myers Beach resident Capt. Roger Schadt will retire from the City of Fort Myers Fire Department in December after 25 years of service.
Schadt, along with 25 other firefighters will take early retirement on Dec. 28.
Schadt, who said he has gone on many fire calls in his career, said his most poignant memory in his career as a firefighter was on Sept. 11, 2001 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center.
“It made me feel very, very angry,” he said. “I think I felt like everybody. I wanted to get on a bus, train, plane or whatever and go there and find out who did it. We lost 347 firefighters that day and we also lost a couple of thousand of very good people.”
Schadt said after 9/11 he began to think differently about being a firefighter.
“I think it gave me more validity that as first responders, we’re it,” he said. “All those guys who responded, the ambulance guys, the port authority – you didn’t see the president or all of the other people there until a few days later. These guys are it. When we have some kind of event, big or small, we’re going to hold the ground.”
Schadt said he was so touched by the events surrounding 9/11 he displays all of the firefighters’ last names on his Harley Davison motorcycle and travels throughout the country to memorial events.
“All of their last names are there,” he said. “Family members come up and find their kid, their brothers or husbands on that and take pictures of the bike. I cry and they cry.”
Schadt said he will take six to eight months off before deciding how he will spend his retirement year, but did say that he could go back into the firefighting field.
“I want to take some time to breathe for a while,” he said.
Schadt said he wants all his friends to celebrate his retirement on Dec. 6 at Junkanoos beginning at 2 p.m.
“I’ve worked up and down the Beach on my days off for 25 years,” he said. “Anybody that knows me or knows any of us is welcome. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people over 25 years and some of them I’ve lot track of.”
He says the Junkanoos is a firefighter tradition.
“We’ve probably had a half dozen or 10 weddings here where they’ve taken very good care of us – we’ve even had funerals here,” he said.