It’s difficult to believe it has now been 20 years since the awful tragedy of Sep. 11, 2001.
During the past two decades, I’ve personally attended many Patriot Day events that offered a tribute to the thousands of men and women who lost their lives on that tragic day.
Surprisingly, this past Saturday’s ceremony on the square in Mountain Grove was the first one I’ve ever attended where the names of every emergency personnel who were killed that day were read one at a time.
Mountain Grove firefighters took turns reading one page per person that was filled with names of so many heroes who died that fateful day.
As I stood there listening to each name being read, I felt the magnitude of the large number of emergency personnel who died that tragic day.
One report shows of the 2,977 victims in the Sep. 11 attacks, 412 were emergency workers in New York City.
Accompanying each name were the locations and units they represented. This included engine numbers, battalion numbers, division numbers, ladder numbers, rescue numbers and the list goes on. A lot of those numbers were read multiple times. My heart aches not only for the families of those who lost their lives, but for the colleagues that lost so many friends and co-workers to this tragic event inside their own units. A bell was also rung to remember the exact moment terrorists used hijacked airplanes to hit the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93.
It was a touching and impactful tribute. A big thanks to all who took part in making this ceremony a memorable one.
