Americans paused to mourn and remember 9/11 on Monday, 22 years after the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, both at ground zero and in events across the country.
Nearly 3,000 people died that cold morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when Islamist hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
Dozens of people gathered in New York early Monday morning as the bell tolled, honoring the thousands of lives lost in this unthinkable tragedy.
Six moments of silence were also observed, recognizing when each of the WTC towers was attacked, when the Pentagon was attacked, and when hijacked Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville.
Iliana Flores, 60, was at ground zero to remember her little brother, Carlos R. Lillo, who was part of the 49th EMS Battalion.
“I have this magazine from 22 years ago. I went to the supermarket to buy a magazine to remember. When I was looking at it and I got to this page, there was my brother. And that’s when I knew he was here working,” he told The Post.
“That’s when we realized something happened to him there,” Flores added, pointing to photographs of his brother that appear in Newsweek.
“He told my mother a month before, if I die, I want to die doing my job. And she loved her work. “She loved helping people,” she said.
Vice President Kamala Harris with Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul at a 9/11 memorial ceremony.REUTERS
Relatives of victims pay tribute and participate in the reading of names.Matthew McDermott
People paying tribute to the victims of 9/11 on the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist attacks at Ground Zero in Manhattan on September 11, 2023.Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
A member of the US military placing a flower near Ground Zero before the memorial ceremony. Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
A ceremony to honor the victims of 9/11 at an FDNY fire station in Manhattan. Paul Martinka
Another mourner, James Giaccone, said it is crucial for him to attend the ceremony with his family each year in memory of his brother, Joseph Giaccone.
“If their name is said out loud, they don’t disappear,” he said.
“I hope I never see the day when they minimize this. It is a day that changed history.”
Throughout the solemn event, people stood with signs and photographs of their loved ones. Some brought flowers and wore T-shirts adorned with photographs of those they lost.
The granddaughter of firefighter Robert James Crawford, who was part of Security Battalion 1, Randall’s Island, read the names, including her grandfather’s, during the ceremony.
“Being your granddaughter is something I will always be grateful for and a title I am lucky to have. I am very proud to be a part of you and to be able to take you wherever I go. Our hero, we love you to the moon and back. Please continue to take care of us,” she said.
Noticeably absent from the New York City commemoration at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum plaza, however, was President Joe Biden.
Instead, the president was scheduled to deliver a speech later Monday at a ceremony in Anchorage, Alaska, after concluding a five-day trip to India and Vietnam.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pays tribute to the victims at the Pentagon.REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Biden’s decision was a departure from what had been a standard for presidents and makes him the first president to commemorate Remembrance Day in Alaska, rather than the traditional events in New York City, Virginia or Pennsylvania.
In her place at ground zero was Vice President Kamala Harris to watch as the victims’ families read the names of the dead.
Some of the bereaved family members also criticized the politicians who did not attend or who did not stay for the entire ceremony.
Flags at half-staff near the Capitol building in Washington, DC to honor the anniversary of the attacks. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Harris pays tribute to victims at the World Trade Center with other New York officials, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Family, friends and politicians attend the 22nd memorial service for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Matthew McDermott
“Thank you all for coming and thank you Mayor Bloomberg for staying,” one woman said.
Another man at the end of the reading of the names noted: “I wish that the others [politicians] “I would have stayed a little longer.”
Harris’ husband, First Gentleman Doug Emhoff, is expected to attend a wreath-laying ceremony in Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed.
The National Flight 93 Memorial in Stoystown, operated by the National Park Service, now offers a new educational video, virtual tour and other materials for teachers.
Members of the NYPD and FDNY participating in a ceremony at Ground Zero. Matthew McDermott
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani attends the memorial ceremony in Manhattan.ADAM GRAY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
More than 10,000 students have registered to access the free “National Learning Day” program, which will be available through the fall.
“We need to get the word out to the next generation,” said monument spokeswoman Katherine Hostetler, a National Park Service ranger.
First lady Jill Biden will also lay a wreath at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.
With postal cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn