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Members of the Powell community and American Legion Post 26 gathered last week to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in a …
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Members of the Powell community and American Legion Post 26 gathered last week to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in a series of coordinated attacks by al-Qaeda on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a thwarted attempt to strike a building in Washington, D.C.
“They were taken from this earth way too soon,” Post Commander Tim Heine said during Wednesday’s ceremony at Washington Park, “so on this day and every day, please keep them [and their families] in your prayers.”
Among the dead were 441 first responders, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The firefighters, police officers and medical workers who rushed to help, “all of them placed the lives of others before their own,” Heine said, and their heroism “showed a glimmer of hope on the day’s horrendous events.”
Their sacrifices and courage should be celebrated, he added, and one way to honor their memory “is by showing our appreciation for their brothers and sisters in service — our own local first responders.”
Heine, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, recalled being stationed at Camp Pendleton in California, when he heard the news that a plane had crashed into one of the towers at the World Trade Center.
“At first we thought it was some kind of freak accident,” he said, but he and his colleagues knew something was more seriously wrong when they watched another plane crash into the second tower on live TV.
“As a service member at that time, you immediately, your heart just stops, because you know what’s about to happen,” Heine said.
A month later, he said he waved goodbye to some of his close friends and a cousin as they loaded onto a plane and headed to Afghanistan for the start of what proved to be a lengthy military conflict.
As the brief ceremony came to a close, Heine said it’s important to commemorate 9/11.
“It’s something we need to hold on to,” he said. “It’s something we need to remember forever.”
