America remembers its fallen
From The Daily Mail UK By Becky Evans, David Mccormack and Associated Press Reporter
Emotions run high as relatives of 9/11 victims gather at Ground Zero twelve years after tragedy
In New York, the moving tribute started at 8:46 a.m. – the time when the first plane hit the twin towers back in 2001
Families of the victims started reading aloud the names of the almost 3,000 people who died
A second bell tolled at 9:03 a.m. to mark when the second plane hit the towers, then the reading of names resumed
Several politicians attended, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but none gave an address
In Washington, President Obama marked the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with a moment of silence
At the Pentagon Sept. 11 memorial in Arlington, Va., victims’ families, attack survivors and military officials laid a wreath and held a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m. to mark the moment that Flight 77 hit the building
In Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m., bells were rung and names of passengers and crew members were read at the Flight 93 National Memorial
Relatives of the September 11 victims gathered at ground zero in New York City today to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the attack that killed almost 3,000 people.
The moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. Wednesday marked when the first plane hit the twin towers on a clear, sunny day in 2001. Then, families of the victims started reading aloud the names of those who died.
Along with the names of those who died when the hijacked jets crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were read out the names of those killed in the hijacked Flight 93 and the victims of the 1993 trade center bombing.
A second bell tolled at 9:03 a.m. to mark when the second plane hit the twin towers. Then the reading of the names resumed. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Gov. George Pataki attended, as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. Anthony Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
President Barack Obama marked the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House.
Obama, along with first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden, walked out of the White House at 8:46 a.m., EDT, the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center tower in New York a dozen years ago.
They bowed their heads to observe a moment of silence, which was followed by a bugler playing taps.
‘It is an honor to be with you here again to remember the tragedy of 12 Septembers ago, to honor the greatness of all who responded and to stand with those who still grieve and to provide them some measure of comfort once more,’ Obama said.
‘Together we pause and we give humble thanks as families and as a nation.’
The president then attended a Sept. 11 observance at the Pentagon where he laid a wreath during a ceremony marking the 12th anniversary of the worst terror attack on the U.S.
While Obama made no direct mention of the crisis in Syria, he vowed to ‘defend our nation’ against the threats that endure, even though they may be different than the ones facing the country during the 2001 attacks.
‘Let us have the wisdom to know that while force is sometimes necessary, force alone cannot build the world we seek,’ Obama said during a ceremony at the Pentagon.
Among those gathered at the Pentagon on Wednesday where family members of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Many wore red, white, and blue striped ribbons and some cried as the president spoke.
‘Our hearts still ache for the futures snatched away, the lives that might have been,’ Obama said.
The president also paid tribute to the four Americans killed one year ago in an attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, asking the country to pray for those who ‘serve in dangerous posts’ even after more than a decade of war.
In a commemorative event at the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder called on an audience of several hundred employees to remember ‘the nearly 3,000 innocent people whose lives were lost’ and to pay tribute to the 72 law enforcement officers who were killed trying to save others.
Prior to the morning ceremony at the two-year-old memorial plaza in New York City, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, musician Billy Joel, firefighters and others had joined in a tribute motorcycle ride from a Manhattan firehouse to ground zero.
‘Daddy, I miss you so much, and I think about you every day,’ Christina Aceto said of her father, Richard Anthony Aceto. ‘You were more than just my daddy, you were my best friend.’
Near the memorial plaza, police barricades blocked access to the site, even as life around the World Trade Center looked like any other morning, with workers rushing to their jobs and construction cranes looming over the area.
‘No matter how many years pass, this time comes around each year – and it’s always the same,’ said Karen Hinson of Seaford, N.Y., who lost her 34-year-old brother, Michael Wittenstein, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee.
‘My brother was never found, so this is where he is for us,’ she said as she arrived for the ceremony with her family early Wednesday.
Continuing a decision made last year, no politicians will speak, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Over his years as mayor and chairman of the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum, Bloomberg has sometimes tangled with victims’ relatives, religious leaders and other elected officials over an event steeped in symbolism and emotion.
But his administration has largely succeeded at its goal of keeping the commemoration centered on the attacks’ victims and their families and relatively free of political image-making.
‘Joe, we honor you today and all those lost on Sept. 11,’ said Kathleen O’Shea, whose nephew Joseph Gullickson was a firefighter in Brooklyn. ‘Everyone sends their love and asks that you continue to watch over us all, especially your wife.’
Memorial organizers expect to take primary responsibility for the ceremony next year and say they plan to continue concentrating the event on victims’ loved ones, even as the forthcoming museum creates a new, broader framework for remembering 9/11.
‘As things evolve in the future, the focus on the remembrance is going to stay sacrosanct,’ memorial President Joe Daniels said.
Hinson said she would like the annual ceremony to be ‘more low-key, more private’ as the years go by.
The 12th anniversary also arrives with changes coming at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, where officials gathered Tuesday to herald the start of construction on a visitor center.
Around the world, thousands of volunteers have pledged to do good deeds, honoring an anniversary that was designated a National Day of Service and Remembrance in 2009.
When Bloomberg and then-Gov. George Pataki announced the plans for the first anniversary in 2002, the mayor said the ‘intent is to have a day of observances that are simple and powerful.’
His role hasn’t always been comfortable. When the ceremony was shifted to nearby Zuccotti Park in 2007 because of rebuilding at the trade center site, some victims’ relatives threatened to boycott the occasion.
The lead-up to the 10th anniversary brought pressure to invite more political figures and to include clergy in the ceremony.
By next year’s anniversary, Bloomberg will be out of office, and the museum is expected to be open beneath the memorial plaza.
While the memorial honors those killed, the museum is intended to present a broader picture of 9/11, including the experiences of survivors and first responders.
But the organizers expect they ‘will always keep the focus on the families on the anniversary,’ Daniels said.
That focus was clear as relatives gathered last September on the tree-laden plaza, where a smaller crowd was gathering Wednesday – only friends and family of the victims were allowed.
Bruni Sandolval carried a large photo of childhood friend Nereida DeJesus, a victim.
‘We grew up together on the Lower East Side and I come every year with her family,’ she said. ‘Coming here is peaceful in a way.’
Denise Matuza, who lost her husband on Sept. 11, said people ask her why she still comes to the service with her three sons.
‘It doesn’t make us feel good to stay home,’ she said. Her husband called after the towers were struck. ‘He said a plane hit the building, they were finding their way out, he’d be home in a little while. I just waited and waited,’ she said.
‘A few days later I found an email he had sent that they couldn’t get out.’
In Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m., bells were rung and names of passengers and crew members were read at the Flight 93 National Memorial.
The families of the passengers and crew aboard United Flight 93 recalled their loved ones as heroes who made history with unselfish and quick actions.
‘In a period of 22 minutes, our loved ones made history,’ said Gordon Felt, the president of the Families of Flight 93, whose brother, Edward, was among the 33 passengers and seven crew members aboard the hijacked plane on Sept. 11, 2001.
Families of those aboard the plane, along with nearly 200 more people, read the names aloud and bells tolled, as they marked the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it was hijacked with the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol.
As passenger Todd Beamer issued the rallying cry ‘Let’s roll,’ he and several fellow passengers rushed down the airliner’s aisle to try to overwhelm the hijackers after learning of the coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The 9/11 Commission concluded that the hijackers downed the plane as the hostages revolted.
As the names were read, a light haze began to burn off the surrounding hills. The memorial wall of white stone has each victim’s name engraved on a separate panel, and the scene was framed by yellow wildflowers behind the stones.
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell recalled the sacrifice the passengers made.
‘We never know when we’ll be called to lay down our lives for others,’ she said, speaking of the bravery of passengers and crew who fought back against the hijackers.
The reading of names and tolling of bells was the first part of the Flight 93 National Memorial’s plans to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Later Wednesday, park rangers and volunteers will give presentations about Flight 93 and the creation of the memorial park, which is located in Shanksville, about 75 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
A groundbreaking for a 6,800-square-foot visitor center was held Tuesday. The building will be broken in two at the point of the plane’s flight path overhead. It is expected to open in late 2015.
The first features of the memorial in Shanksville were completed and dedicated in September 2011, including new roads and a Memorial Plaza near the crash site. Forty memorial groves of trees have also been planted, and large sections of the park have been replanted or reforested.
The tale of the courageous actions of everyday people aboard Flight 93 helped provide a measure of optimism for the American public in the dark days and weeks that followed the terrorist attacks.
It also inspired a 2006 docudrama, ‘United 93,’ the first big-screen dramatization about the terrorist attacks that used a cast of unknown actors and played out roughly in real time from the passenger check-in to the crash.
Visitors to the park have left more than 35,000 tributes at the site, and they have been collected as part of an archival collection.
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