SAN ANGELO, TX — Police, firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and airmen gathered Friday at the city’s 9/11 monument to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed.
The 9:30 a.m. service was held near Celebration Bridge along the Concho River, next to the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.
It was hosted by the San Angelo Police Department, San Angelo Fire Department, Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office and Goodfellow Air Force Base. Col. Matthew A. Norton, commander of the 17th Training Wing at Goodfellow, told the crowd that Sept. 11 remains “a permanent dividing line in history.”
He said 2,977 people were killed and cited the inscription at the National September 11 Memorial in New York: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”
Norton, then a newly commissioned second lieutenant stationed at Goodfellow, said he watched the towers fall and understood his career — and the country’s — had changed. He later deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa. He also recalled May 1, 2011, when he heard the code word “Geronimo” announcing that Osama bin Laden had been killed.
Most of the young service members now training at Goodfellow were not born on Sept. 11, 2001, Norton said. That, he said, makes it more important to teach what was lost and how the country responded.
“We must teach that our dedication to defending this nation and its values will always prove stronger than any act of terror,” he said.
Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, a San Angelo native and former Air Force fighter pilot, said he was finishing flight training at Laughlin Air Force Base when the attacks occurred. Three of his 31 classmates later died in the wars that followed, he said.
Pfluger pointed to the passengers on United Flight 93, who forced the plane down in a Pennsylvania field after learning of the other attacks.
“When they said, 'Let’s roll,' and they came together to make sure that airplane did not cause further damage,” he said, they showed that people who may disagree can still defend what the flag represents. “Freedom is never free.”
The phrase came from passenger Todd Beamer, who told a phone operator that he and others on United Flight 93 were about to rush the cockpit; “Let’s roll” later became a national rallying cry after the plane went down in a Pennsylvania field.
City Manager Phillip Urrutia said he remembered watching the second plane strike the South Tower live. Years later, he said, a visit to a Times Square-area firehouse that lost all 15 firefighters on that shift made the first-responder death toll personal. He asked the crowd to remember not only Sept. 11 but the day after, when flags went up, and strangers helped one another.
Honor guards from the police department, fire department, and sheriff’s office posted the colors, accompanied by bagpiper Chris Morgan. Morgan Christo sang the national anthem with the Angelo State University string quartet.
Before the program, organizers marked the attack timeline while the string quartet played: 7:46 a.m., Flight 11 hit the North Tower; 8:03 a.m., Flight 175 hit the South Tower; 8:37 a.m., the Pentagon was struck; 8:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed; 9:03 a.m., Flight 93 crashed; and 9:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed. A moment of silence preceded the service. Emergency vehicles were displayed along 300 S. Oakes St.
Retired New York Police Department Officer Wesley Mak and Norton laid a wreath at the monument. After the wreath was laid, a Goodfellow honor guard played Taps.
The monument was dedicated Sept. 8, 2003. City officials say it is one of the few 9/11 memorials in Texas that includes steel from Ground Zero. The original artifact was stolen in 2016. The Velez family donated a replacement piece in 2017.
You can find a photo gallery and more visuals from the event by clicking HERE.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Post a comment to this article here: