The Patriot Line: Remembering a 4,300-mile walk to New York 25 years after 9/11

MESA, Ariz. - When Elle Deveraux felt helpless thousands of miles away after the Sept. 11 attacks, she decided to do something about it.

What we know:

Originally from Portland, Oregon, and now living in Mesa, Deveraux created a plan to bring communities across the country together in the aftermath of 9/11 — by putting the American flag in the hands of first responders. On New Year’s Day 2002, she launched the "Patriot Line," a 4,300-mile, 147-day journey from Portland to New York, organizing first responders and communities along the way to carry the flag through their own towns and honor those who had been lost.

"Went on for days where I kept telling myself, ‘No, this isn’t real,’ "Deveraux said. "Because it was more than what my mind could accept."

‘Unity and patriotism’

Deveraux said she believed the country needed to heal.

"The two themes were unity and patriotism, and I imagined the whole country, and that came together with a flag and a relay," Deveraux said.

Deveraux said the first responders carrying the flag faced storms, and she often spent nights in fire stations along the trek. She said she didn’t realize how big the event would become until thousands of people across the country began joining the walk.

"The very first department to put anything on here was actually Salt River, here in Arizona," Deveraux said.

"They were coming out and waiting all this time because they wanted to touch that flag, and they just wanted to be a part of something that was going to New York," Deveraux said. "And that flag is filled with tears, it’s filled with love, and it’s filled with hope because people were showing up and hugging the flag and kissing it."

Big picture view:

While Deveraux orchestrated the route and handled the logistics behind the scenes, she said the Patriot Line was never about her. It was about giving first responders and communities a way to heal, honor those lost, and bring a divided and grieving country together during one of its darkest moments.

""It was about what Americans were capable of doing together during one of the most painful periods in our nation’s history," Deveraux said. "Thousands of people took responsibility for that flag, sometimes for only a few miles, and then placed it into the hands of the next person. That was the entire meaning of the Patriot Line."

Deveraux said strangers began sharing their grief, including stories about loved ones lost in the towers.

"The people needed to share their story with someone, and they wanted in line to walk with me all day and tell me their stories," Deveraux said.

The flag eventually made its way across the country, through Washington, D.C., and past the Statue of Liberty before landing in the hands of the New York Fire Department in Manhattan.

‘I will never be the same’

Twenty-five years later, Deveraux said the scars of 9/11 remain, but so does the hope she found along the way.

"I will never be the same because of what 9/11 first took from me, and then what 9/11 gave to me after," Deveraux said. "I’ll never be the same person I was before. I was changed on the day of 9/11, and all of these people were such amazing people. I have a part of them in me."

While Deveraux still keeps the flag pole that made its way across the country, she says the flag remains with the New York Fire Department Union.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify Deveraux's role in carrying the American flag on a trek from Oregon to New York.

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