9/11 Anniversary September 2021 by Lewiston Tribune

Forever remember COMMEMORATING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACKS ON AMERICA FRIDAY, SEPT. 10, 2021

A PU BL IC ATION OF

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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INSIDE

Attacks on America still resonate

he emotions and memories from that tragic day remain just below the surface. It was the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and terrorists, piloting hijacked passenger airliners, pulled off a series of coordinated attacks that led to the death of thousands on U.S. soil. It also started 20 years of military action that only recently concluded with President Joe Biden withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. In the following pages, the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News have pieced together a series of stories that include eyewitness accounts provided by locals who were in New York and Washington, D.C., on 9/11, how some have chosen to commemorate the annual

anniversary, views and recollections from veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the personal memories and emotions shared by first responders and readers of the Tribune and Daily News. We also have included articles from the archives of the two publications that provide a glimpse at how things were in the days that followed the attacks. This special section, titled Forever Remember, hopefully in some small way fulfills a pledge made by many that horrific day now two decades ago: “We will never forget.” Craig Clohessy Managing editor Lewiston Tribune

‘Everything came to a stop’ ......................................................................... 3-5 Shadow of death; terrorists attack from the sky ........................................ 6-8 Area ﬁreﬁghters take ‘never forget’ seriously .......................................... 9-10 No one knew where the next attack could happen ................................... 11-12 Air travel brought to unprecedented standstill ............................................ 13 Attacks triggered changes to life in U.S. ...................................................... 14 Grangeville alone has a busy airport ........................................................... 15 Memories from being there .................................................................... 16-18 Time has passed, but memory still fresh of that day in D.C. ........................ 19 Prayer vigils bring Americans together ................................................... 20-21 Palouse gatherings demonstrate unity ......................................................... 21 Veterans compare terrorism with Pearl Harbor ........................................... 22 Sharing the stories of “common people” ................................................. 23-25 Looking back on their service ................................................................. 26-27 Dark debut for an enlightening program ..................................................... 28 “We will lose a lot of freedoms” ................................................................... 29 The sleeping giant of 1941 and of America today ......................................... 30 As the decades pass, our memories evolve ............................................ 31-32

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PREMIUM EDITION STAFF Publisher ................. NATHAN ALFORD: (208) 848-2208 / alford@lmtribune.com Marketing director........DOUG BAUER: (208) 848-2269 / dbauer@lmtribune.com Tribune editor..... CRAIG CLOHESSY: (208) 848-2251 / cclohessy@lmtribune.com Daily News editor... CRAIG STASZKOW: (208) 883-4642 / cstaszkow@dnews.com Archivist .............. DUSTY OSBORNE: (208) 848-2238 / dosborne@lmtribune.com Photo editor ................ PETE CASTER: (208) 848-2279 / pcaster@lmtribune.com Production editor ..........BRIAN BEESLEY: (208) 848-2241 / beez@lmtribune.com

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

‘Everything came to a stop’

Associated Press

Smoke billows from one of the towers of the World Trade Center as debris explodes from the second tower in this Sept. 11, 2001, ﬁle photo. In one of the most horrifying attacks ever against the United States, terrorists crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center in a deadly series of blows that brought down the twin 110-story towers. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

9/11 attacks a defining moment for 21st century America By WILLIAM L. SPENCE

OF THE TRIBUNE

It was a day like any other, until it became a day unlike any in our nation’s history. War had come to America before, but never like this — never in hijacked airplanes and suicide attacks that specifically targeted the civilian population. Twenty years ago Saturday, 19 radical Islamist terrorists changed all that. In coordinated strikes, they seized four commercial airliners and flew first one, then another, into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. A third struck

the Pentagon, while a fourth just went to work like they crashed in Pennsylvania. would any day, and look at how Around the country, people many lives were changed.” stood in front of television The Asotin district, which sets watching the Twin is staffed almost entirely by Towers burn, their stunned volunteers, celebrated its 50th disbelief turning to horror as anniversary in July 2001. two of the tallest buildings The morning of the in the world collapsed. attacks, Hardin — who Nearly 3,000 people had already been with the Hardin died. Among the fatalities district 17 years by that were 343 New York City time — drove to Lewiston firefighters and another 68 police for his regular Tuesday meeting and emergency personnel. with fire chiefs from around the “For the first responders, it was valley at the Waffles n’ More cafe. a normal day that turned into a “The place is usually packed, disaster,” said Noel Hardin, chief of but that morning there was hardly Asotin County Fire District 1. “They anyone there,” Hardin recalled.

“They had a small black-and-white television set up on the counter. It was eerie, just watching it on TV. It was like everything came to a stop.”

A good place to be Lewiston native Jimmy Farris was in San Francisco at the time, trying to make it as a wide receiver in the National Football League. A multisport standout for the Lewiston Bengals, Farris played college ball with the University of Montana Grizzlies. After graduating the previous spring, he’d been signed

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4 > Continued from Page 3 as an undrafted free agent by the San Francisco 49ers. He’d been released by the team on Sept. 2, just before the first game of the season, but was added to the practice squad two days later. “My life at that time was pretty great,” Farris recalled. “I remember being very thankful and hopeful. All I ever wanted in football was an opportunity. My goal was to make the final roster. That didn’t happen, but I was still part of the team, playing every day. I was part of an organization that had an incredible culture, and I’d developed some close relationships with my teammates.” When the 9/11 attacks occurred, Farris was Farris living with Terrell Owens, the 49ers’ AllPro wide receiver. He got up early that morning to drive a friend to the airport. On the way, they heard a radio report about a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers. “I remember the announcers were making light of it, wondering how some idiot pilot managed to hit a building,” Farris said. “This was before Twitter and smartphones, so nobody knew (the extent of the attacks).” He dropped his friend at the airport and drove home. By the time he arrived, the second plane had hit. “Everyone realized this wasn’t just a lost crop duster,” Farris said. His friend called an hour later and said all the commercial flights had been canceled. He picked her up and came back to Owens’ place. “Tuesday was our day off, so we spent the whole day on the couch in his living room, watching TV,” Farris said. “I remember looking over at Terrell. Everyone was in shock.” Owens had a private chef who stopped by a couple of times each week, making meals for the days ahead. She’d been there on Monday, so they didn’t even need to go out for food. “We just hung out at the house,” Farris said. “It was a good place to be.”

‘Nobody knew where to go’ C.L. “Butch” Otter spent much of that Tuesday in a

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F R I D A Y, S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 2 1 where to go. So four or five of us got in the back and we sped down the street. He took us to a building, I think it was the headquarters for the Capitol Police. There were concrete bunkers in the basement.” Several other senators and representatives were in the room. The Senate sergeant-atarms came by and gave them a briefing on the situation. He noted that all commercial jets in U.S. airspace had been ordered to land, whether they had reached their destination or not. “That affected about 4,600 airplanes,” Otter said. “Of those, three couldn’t be accounted for. We couldn’t leave the bunker until they were located, because they thought they might be heading for D.C.” Two of the planes had already landed. The third was United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania as passengers and crew fought to regain control of the plane. “They figure it was probably headed for the Capitol,” Otter said. “We were supposed to go into session that morning at 10, so we all would have been there. I don’t know how much damage it would have done (had the aircraft impacted the building), and I don’t want to know. I just thank God for those patriots on the plane.”

United we stand As was the case in New York City, Tuesday began as a normal day in north central Idaho and southeastern Washington. Asotin County residents learned that the county commissioners had agreed to put a $6.75 million bond levy proposal on the November ballot to build an aquatics center. In Pullman, what was Associated Press then the Pullman Memorial Fireﬁghters are deployed near the site of the World Trade Center in New York, in this Sept. Hospital board began its public outreach efforts on 12, 2001, ﬁle photo. another ballot measure, a safe place as well, although it the car, the second tower it. I mean, it was chaotic. $8.2 million construction lacked the same amenities. had been hit. But I never Nobody knew where to go.” bond for a new hospital. Otter, who would go on for a moment imagined He met with his staff in a Washington State to serve three terms as we were under attack.” nearby building, watching University students were Idaho governor, was back He returned to the U.S. on TV as the two towers still rejoicing after the in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol and joined several collapsed. Then Montana Cougars’ 41-20 victory over time, serving as a freshman other congressmen in Congressman Denny Boise State University the representative for the state’s a previously scheduled Rehberg came by and said previous Saturday. During 1st Congressional District. news conference. It took everyone was supposed the preseason, the team had “I was speaking to a group place outside the building, to go to a safe house. been picked to finish last in that morning about a block in a spot that overlooked Otter wasn’t convinced the Pac-10 Conference that and a half from the White the Potomac River. about that, so he went outside year. Instead, the Cougs House,” Otter said. “My press “We were standing and talked to a U.S. marshal, went on to have a recordguy came up and whispered there with our backs to the who was directing traffic. tying 10-2 run, capping the to me that an airplane had hit Pentagon when we heard “I asked if he knew season by defeating Purdue the (north) tower of the World an explosion,” Otter said. anything about a safe house,” 33-27 in the Sun Bowl. Trade Center. Naturally, we “The Pentagon had been hit. he said. “Right about then In Lewiston, supporters thought some small plane That set off a panic, with (California Rep.) Darrell Issa were scrambling to gather had lost its way. By the time people running everywhere. came by in his pickup truck enough signatures to put a we finished and got back to I’d never seen anything like and said jump in, he knew strong mayor initiative on the

F R I D A Y, S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 2 1 November ballot. The deadline for submitting signatures was Sept. 17. And after the 67th Lewiston Roundup completed another successful year on Sunday, Roundup Queen Cathy Jo Pottenger — now Cathy Jo Witters — was looking forward to Tuesday night’s appreciation dinner. “We did an afternoon performance on Sunday, and everyone was exhausted,” Witters recalled. “But I was really looking forward to the appreciation dinner. Then Tuesday morning, the world changed and the dinner was canceled.” Witters was a senior in high school at the time. Her teachers wheeled TVs into the classrooms, and students spent the day watching events unfold. “I wasn’t sure what life was going to be like from that point forward,” she said. Witters had been named Roundup queen the previous October. She and her court attended various regional events over the winter, marketing the Roundup. After the Asotin County Fair in April, they had events scheduled pretty much every weekend. “I’m sure we ended up attending 50 or 60 events,” Witters said. Her reign was supposed to end a week after the Lewiston Roundup, at the Pendleton Round-Up. After the attacks, there was talk about canceling the rodeo, but organizers ultimately chose to go forward. Witters subsequently wrote about the decision, saying she’d “never been more proud to be a member of the Lewiston Roundup queen and court, an ambassador of the great sport of rodeo and an American than I was that Friday. Our directors, our court and our stagecoach loaded up and headed to the Pendleton Round-Up.” Before 9/11, she’d only been thinking about Pendleton as the end of her time as queen. After 9/11, it became a symbol of something much grander. “I remember being in the stands, listening to the national anthem. We were all crying. It was powerful,” Witters said. “I recognized that what I was experiencing was so much bigger than anything I could ever have imagined. There were still a lot of unknowns, so much we didn’t know. But we were united. We felt it.”

The return to normalcy In the aftermath of the attacks, prayer services took place all across the region. Wednesday evening, thousands of people attended candlelight vigils in Moscow and Pullman. Moscow Mayor Marshall Comstock and Pullman Mayor Mitch Chandler both urged the crowds to come together as Americans. “We stand as a community and a country made of many diverse groups and religions,” said Comstock, according to a Sept. 13 Lewiston Tribune story. “Now we need to stand together in the face of these attacks.” “We have all been moved in deep sorrow and immense anger,” Chandler said. “These events won’t be

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Associated Press file

On Sunday, Sept. 23, 2001, Dallas Cowboys safety George Teague, (31), carries an American ﬂag onto the playing ﬁeld at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas, before kickoff of an NFL game with the San Diego Chargers. “I remember that being part of the conversation in the NFL, about whether we would play the next weekend,” Farris said. “We didn’t want terrorists to think they’d stopped our way of life. We weren’t going to let Osama (bin Laden) feel like he’d won.” But there was time for mourning CATHY JO WITTERS and reflection as well. Hardin’s crew took up a collection and sent him to New York City to easy to put behind us, but we can use “After that, it seemed like once represent the Asotin Fire District this demonstration of our solidarity a week we’d practice exiting during a memorial service for all the to embrace our best qualities.” Congress,” Otter said. “We all had fallen firefighters and police officers. The decision to ground commercial different places we were supposed to “They had a procession through flights nationwide led to a unique go, so we’d march out of the Capitol downtown New York, with situation in Grangeville, which and head off in different directions.” firefighters and police officers according to a Sept. 14 Tribune story He was assigned to a group of about from all around the world,” Hardin unofficially became the busiest 3,000 members, staff and employees said. “I remember that morning nonmilitary airport in America. who were assigned a secure location it was pouring rain, and we were A mobile air traffic control tower by the Capitol Power Plant. walking down the streets past had been set up at the Grangeville “We’d walk down the street all these people. New Yorkers airport on Monday, to help manage towards the plant, and we did lined the streets, sobbing. It was retardant bomber flights on the that every time,” Otter said. “You definitely a moving experience.” 1,300-acre Earthquake Fire. They could have parked a Volkswagen For Hardin and other firstwere allowed to continue, despite bus there with a bomb and taken responders who were alive at the the airspace restrictions. out the whole lot of us. It was the time, Sept. 11 became their Pearl With 16 flights on Tuesday stupidest thing I’d ever seen.” Harbor, a day that will forever live and another 56 on Wednesday, For Farris, who would go on to play in infamy, never to be forgotten. the story said, Grangeville was six seasons in the NFL, life returned “What happened that day was certainly the busiest airport to normal fairly quickly. Games were an attack on America, and the in the Pacific Northwest, and canceled the weekend after 9/11, but police and firefighters were the likely in the entire country. resumed the following weekend. first line of defense,” Hardin said. “Each takeoff required two phone “When we came back (on Sept. 23), “Does it have the same impact calls to the FAA in Boise,” noted the there was a big pregame presentation today as it did then? It does for me, (but) I have firefighters who story. “Each pilot had to submit a and moment of silence,” he recalled. weren’t even born when it took detailed flight plan, and was tracked “After that, the attacks were still place. I hope it doesn’t become just by the FAA and the North American fresh in our minds, but it was back another page in a history book.” Aerospace Defense Command.” to business. We had games to win.” Back in D.C., Congress returned And for many Americans, that Spence may be contacted at bspence@ to work on Sept. 12, authorizing a return to normalcy brought a lmtribune.com or (208) 791-9168. national day of unity and mourning. sense of relief, as well as pride.

“I remember being in the stands, listening to the national anthem. We were all crying. It was powerful.”

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Shadow of death Terrorists attack from sky; World Trade Center and Pentagon are scenes of massive destruction This story ran Sept. 12, 2001, in the Lewiston Tribune, the day after the terrorist attacks. ———

By D. CRARY AND J. SCHWARTZ OF T HE ASSOCIAT ED PRESS

ABOVE: An airliner heads for the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City as its twin tower smolders in the background on Sept. 11, 2001. Smoke and debris erupted from the south tower, as it collapsed less than an hour after the impact. Terrorists crashed two airliners into the towers that morning in carefully timed attacks. RIGHT: People run from a cloud of debris from the collapse of a World Trade Center tower in New York. Associated Press

NEW YORK — In the most devastating terrorist onslaught ever waged against the United States, knife-wielding hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center on Tuesday, toppling its twin 110-story towers. The deadly calamity was witnessed on televisions across the world as another plane slammed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed outside Pittsburgh. “Today, our nation saw evil,” President (George W.) Bush said in an address to the nation Tuesday night. He said thousands of lives were “suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.” Said Adm. Robert J. Natter, commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet: “We have been attacked like we haven’t since Pearl Harbor.” Establishing the death toll could take weeks. The four airliners alone had 266 people aboard and there were no known survivors. The Arlington County, Va., fire chief said deaths at the Pentagon ranged between 100 and 800. In addition, a union official said he feared 300 firefighters who first reached the scene had died in rescue efforts at the trade center — where 50,000 people worked — and dozens of police officers were missing. “The number of casualties will be more than most of us can bear,” a visibly distraught Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.

F R I D A Y, S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 2 1 Police sources said some people trapped in the twin towers managed to call authorities or family members and that some trapped police officers made radio contact. In one of the calls, which took place in the afternoon, a businessman phoned his family to say he was trapped with policemen, whom he named, the source said. Firefighter Rudy Weindler spent nearly 12 hours trying to find survivors and only found four — a pregnant woman sitting on a curb and three others in the rubble of a building in the trade center complex. “I lost count of all the dead people I saw,” Weindler said. “It is absolutely worse than you could ever imagine.” No one took responsibility for the attacks that rocked the seats of finance and government. But federal authorities identified Osama bin Laden, who has been given asylum by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, as the prime suspect. Aided by an intercept of communications between his supporters and harrowing cellphone calls from at least one flight attendant and two passengers aboard the jetliners before they crashed, U.S. officials began assembling a case linking bin Laden to the devastation. U.S. intelligence intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters discussing the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, according to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The people aboard planes who managed to make cellphone calls each described similar circumstances: They indicated the hijackers were armed with knives, in some cases stabbing flight attendants. The hijackers then took control of the planes. All of the planes were bound for California and thus loaded with fuel. At the World Trade Center, the dead and the doomed plummeted from the skyscrapers, among them a man and woman holding hands. Shortly after 7 p.m., crews began heading into ground zero of the attack to search for survivors and recover bodies. All that remained of the twin towers by then was a pile of rubble and twisted steel that stood five stories high, leaving a huge gap in the New York City skyline. “Freedom itself was attacked this morning and I

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The Federal Reserve, seeking to provide assurances that the nation’s banking system would be protected, said it would provide additional money to banks if needed. In Afghanistan, where bin Laden has been given asylum, the nation’s hardline Taliban rulers rejected suggestions he was responsible. Bin Laden came to prominence fighting alongside the U.S.-backed Afghan mujahedeen — holy warriors — in their war against Soviet troops in the 1980s. But former followers say he turned against the United States during the 1991 Gulf War, seething at the deployment of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War campaign to oust Iraq from Kuwait. He has repeatedly called on Muslims worldwide to join in a jihad, or holy war, against the United States. Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said he received a warning from Islamic fundamentalists close to bin Laden, but had not taken the threat seriously. “They said it would be a huge and unprecedented attack, but they did not specify,” Atwan said in a telephone interview in London. Eight years ago, the World Trade Center was a Associated Press terrorist target when a truck In this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo, Chief of Staff Andy Card whispers into the ear of President bomb killed six people and George W. Bush to give him word of the plane crashes at the World Trade Center, during a wounded about 1,000 others. Just the death toll on the visit to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla. planes alone could surpass the 168 people killed in the Mideast in the past year of have come across body parts assure you freedom will be 1995 bombing of the federal Israeli-Palestinian fighting, by the thousands. I came defended,” said Bush, who building in Oklahoma City. with Washington widely across a lady, she didn’t was in Florida at the time of This is how Tuesday’s remember her name. Her the catastrophe. As a security seen as siding with Israel mayhem unfolded: against the Arab world. face was covered in blood.” measure, he was shuttled to At about 8:45 a.m., a At the Pentagon, the For the first time, the a Strategic Air Command hijacked airliner crashed symbol and command center nation’s aviation system bunker in Nebraska before into the north tower of the for the nation’s military was completely shut down leaving for Washington. trade center, the 25-year-old, force, one side of the building as officials considered the “Make no mistake,” he glass-and-steel complex that collapsed as smoke billowed frightening flaws that had said. “The United States was once the world’s tallest. over the Potomac River. been exposed in security will hunt down and pursue Clyde Ebanks, an The first airstrike — on procedures. Financial those responsible for these insurance company vice the trade center — occurred markets were closed, too. cowardly actions.” president, was at a meeting shortly before 8:45 a.m. Top leaders of Congress More than nine hours on the 103rd floor of the EDT. A burning, 47-story were led to an undisclosed after the U.S. attacks began, south tower when his boss part of the trade center location, as were key officials said, “Look at that!” He explosions could be heard complex, long since of the Bush administration. north of the Afghan capital turned to see a plane slam evacuated, collapsed in Guards armed with automatic into the other tower. of Kabul, but American flames just before nightfall. weapons patrolled the officials said the United “I just heard the building Emergency Medical White House grounds States was not responsible. rock,” said Peter Dicerbo, a Service worker Louis and military aircraft “It isn’t us. I don’t bank employee on the 47th Garcia said initial reports secured the skies above know who’s doing it,” floor. “It knocked me on indicated that bodies the capital city. National Pentagon spokesman the floor. It sounded like a were buried beneath the Craig Quigley said. Guard troops appeared big roar, then the building 2 feet of soot on streets Officials across the world on some street corners started swaying. That’s around the trade center. condemned the attacks in the nation’s capital. what really scared me.” “A lot of the vehicles but in the West Bank city Evacuations were ordered The enormity of the are running over bodies of Nablus, thousands of at the tallest skyscrapers disaster was just sinking Palestinians celebrated, because they are all over in several cities, and highin when 18 minutes later, chanting “God is Great” the place,” he said. profile tourist attractions the south tower also and handing out candy. The Said National Guard closed — Walt Disney was hit by a plane. United States has become member Angelo Otchy of World, Mount Rushmore, >> Continued on Page 8 increasingly unpopular in the Maplewood, N.J., “I must Seattle’s Space Needle, the

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Associated Press

The north tower of New York’s World Trade Center shows the impact left by a hijacked Boeing 767, American Airlines Flight 11, in this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo. A person is just visible, standing at the bottom of the gaping hole. >> Continued from Page 7 “All this stuff started falling and all this smoke was coming through. People were screaming, falling, and jumping out of the windows,” said Jennifer Brickhouse, 34, from Union, N.J. The chaos was just beginning. Workers stumbled down scores of flights, their clothing torn and their lungs filled with smoke and dust. John Axisa said he ran outside and watched people jump out of the first building; then there was a second explosion, and he felt the heat on the back of his neck. Donald Burns, 34, was being evacuated from the 82nd floor when he saw four people in the stairwell. “I tried to help them but they didn’t want anyone to touch them. The fire had melted their skin. Their clothes were tattered,” he said. Worse was to come. At 9:50, one tower collapsed, sending debris and dust cascading to the ground. At 10:30, the other tower crumbled. Glass doors shattered, police and

firefighters ushered people into subway stations and buildings. The air was black, from the pavement to the sky. The dust and ash were inches deep along the streets. Bridges and tunnels were closed to all but pedestrians. Subways were shut down for much of the day; many commuter trains were not running. Meanwhile, at about 9:30 a.m., an airliner hit the Pentagon — the five-sided headquarters of the American military. “There was screaming and pandemonium,” said Terry Yonkers, an Air Force civilian employee at work inside the building. The military boosted security across the country to the highest levels, sending Navy ships to New York and Washington to assist with air defense and medical needs. A half-hour after the Pentagon attack, United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 jetliner en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, crashed about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Airline officials said the other three planes that crashed were American

Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 from Boston to Los Angeles, apparently the first to hit the trade center; United Airlines Flight 175, also a Boeing 767 from Boston to Los Angeles, which an eyewitness said was the second to hit the skyscrapers; and American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from Washington-Dulles to Los Angeles that hit the Pentagon. “We’re at war,” said Gaillard Pinckney, an employee at the Housing and Urban Development office in Columbia, S.C. “We just don’t know with who.” Giuliani said it was believed the aftereffects of the plane crashes eventually brought the buildings down, not planted explosive devices. Hyman Brown, a University of Colorado civil engineering professor and the construction manager for the World Trade Center, speculated that flames fueled by thousands of gallons of aviation fuel melted steel supports. “This building would have stood had a plane or a force caused by a plane smashed into it,” he said. “But steel melts, and 24,000 gallons

of aviation fluid melted the steel. Nothing is designed or will be designed to withstand that fire.” At mid-afternoon, Giuliani said 1,500 “walking wounded” had been shipped to Liberty State Park in New Jersey by ferry and tugboat, and 750 others were taken to New York City hospitals, among them 150 in critical condition. Well into the night, a steady stream of boats continued to arrive in the park. “Every 10 minutes another boat with 100 to 150 people on it pulls up,” said Mayor Glenn Cunningham. “I have a feeling this is going to go on for several days.” Felix Novelli, who lives in Southampton, N.Y., was in Nashville with his wife for a World War II reunion. He was trying to fly home to New York when the attacks occurred. “I feel like going to war again. No mercy,” he said. “This is Dec. 7th happening all over again. We have to come together like ’41, go after them.” The attack on Pearl Harbor claimed the lives of 2,390 Americans, most of them servicemen. n

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Area firefighters take ‘never forget’ seriously Pullman fire captain attends Manhattan memorial held annually at first fire station to respond to Sept. 11 attacks By SCOTT JACKSON

OF T HE DAILY NEWS

Zach Wilkinson/Daily News

Fire Capt. Mark Johnson poses for a photo as he leans against a ﬁre truck outside of Pullman Fire Department Station 1. Johnson tries as often as he can to attend an annual memorial of 9/11 in Manhattan.

All of us at

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As often as he can manage, Pullman Fire Capt. Mark Johnson makes a point of attending an annual memorial held in Manhattan at the first fire station to arrive at the base of the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Johnson said one of the driving reasons he makes the effort to attend is echoed in a familiar phrase uttered in the days and years that followed the attack. In his mind, “never forget” is as much a reference to the sacrifices made by emergency personnel responding to the scene as it is an admonishment to remember the nearly 3,000 innocent lives lost that day. Among the casualties were more than 400 firefighters and police officers who answered the call for help in New York. “We all say we’re not going to forget — that was the big mantra that day, and ever since — and for me, it’s just truly about not forgetting what those guys did,” he said.

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the pilgrimage where they will meet with Benmoussa and his crew, and he’s glad Johnson doesn’t make it every they will have the chance to year, but the trips to the East share in that camaraderie. Coast began when a former While hundreds of first deputy training chief with the responders lost their lives the Pullman Fire Department, day the towers fell, Benmoussa Gabriel Benmoussa, brought a pointed out that hundreds group from Pullman on the 15th more have died from cancer anniversary of the attacks. linked to exposure to toxins at Both Benmoussa and Johnson ground zero in the years since. were young firefighters — 28 When in Pullman and now with and 31 years old respectively his department in Georgia, — the day the Benmoussa said he also began planes struck, a tradition of wearing FDNY and they said (Fire Department New York) the experience T-shirts through the month of watching of September — the sales the devastation proceeds of which go to first unfold on responders and their families. television has Johnson said he’s wanted to be stuck with them a firefighter since he was a child, ever since. and he enjoys the fact that it’s a “You Benmoussa challenging job that allows him want to be to think on his feet and tackle a there,” Benmoussa said. wide variety of tasks. However, Associated Press he said the first thing most When he talks to his two teenage sons about that day, A ﬁreﬁghter holds a shovel as he walks through the rubble in the aftermath of the firefighters will say when asked Benmoussa tries to give Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. why they do what they do is they them an impression of the want to help people — and it’s anguish of that day, and of reflect and kind of remember why the importance is of that sacrifice.” why first responders didn’t flinch the bravery that was on display. we do what we do and obviously Now the fire chief for the that morning in September 2001. “I just try to describe to my remember our fellow Americans. city of Milton, Ga., Benmoussa “We get a call in the middle of boys what that day was like from a It’s also a fellowship (opportunity) continues to take groups from his the night, and that person may be firefighter’s perspective,” he said. for us to connect with the people.” department to the service and having the worst moment of their “We were sitting there on shift and life right at that moment — and Johnson agreed that the event these trips have become a valuable they invite us in to help,” he said. watching these guys walk into the is a good opportunity to tap into experience for everyone involved. “That’s a pretty big honor.” building. Most of those guys knew a camaraderie shared among “I have firefighters that were what the outcome was going to be — firefighters and first responders 2 years old when that happened,” Jackson may be contacted at sjackson@ nationwide. This year, he said 343 of them didn’t come back out. I he said. “It’s an opportunity to dnews.com or at (208) 883-4636. his sons will accompany him on educate, it’s an opportunity to just try to explain to my kids what

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Remembering those who sacrificed their lives on that infamous day.

Bravery is something we never forget. To all the courageous men and women who serve, and the first responders on that fateful day of September 11, we would like to thank you for your bravery and sacrifice.

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

U.S. Army veteran Joseph Frye holds his helmet from the military outside his home in Genesee.

No one knew where the next attack could happen Joseph Frye, of Genesee, was in the Army stationed at Boise and, like soldiers nationwide, he spent the weeks following the Sept. 11 attacks on high alert that point, having joined immediately after high school during Operation Desert Storm. He was aware of the Joseph Frye was on his way to work potential for terrorist attacks — on Sept. 11, 2001, at the ammunition mainly because of the first bombing supply point at the Orchards of the World Trade Center in 1993. Training Center near Boise when he When the second plane hit the heard about the first attack on the second tower, Frye said, “I knew Twin Towers in New York City. exactly what it was and who it “Like everybody else, when I was. I knew it was terrorists.” heard about the first tower I thought A short time later news filtered it was pilot error; maybe fog or an through of a third plane, American accident,” Frye, 49, said. He’d been Airlines Flight 77, hitting the western in the U.S. Army nearly a decade at side of the Pentagon, followed by

By KATHY HEDBERG

OF THE TRIBUNE

a fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashing into a field in rural Pennsylvania after its crew and passengers fought back against the terrorists. Suddenly. the pandemonium broke out at Frye’s duty station. “It was a pretty coordinated attack, so we didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said. Ordinarily it would take personnel arriving at the ammunition supply point five minutes to get through the security checkpoint. “But that morning it took two or three hours just to get onto post. Everybody was armed. They were searching everything,” Frye said. Bomb-sniffing dogs were brought onto the scene. Armed military police stood guard while others

August Frank/Tribune

checked underneath vehicles with mirrors, looking for explosives. Frye and his team were four or five hours late relieving the previous shift. The ammunition supply point where he worked is where all of the ammunition for the state of Idaho is stored, including rockets and artillery shells — a “pretty high security” area, he said. “When I made it out to the ammunition supply point out in the desert we had live ammunition given to us. We thought other installations could be attacked. “The days just sort of melted together. We went from working eight hours a day to 16, 17 hours. It was just crazy. Nobody knew what was going on. We didn’t know what to expect or what was going to happen. “The week or so afterwards we were on high alert and I was just guarding the ammunition. We were coming up with contingency plans. It was absolute chaos.” Beginning in October, Frye was one of 20 soldiers assigned to guard the Boise airport. Soldiers assisted the federal Transportation Security Administration as airport security

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artifacts of Babylon and relate some of that to stories he knew about in the Bible. was intensified. Barricades Finally, after returning were installed and passengers home in 2005, he met his were scrutinized to a level that wife, and married and moved had never been seen before. to Genesee, where he lives Frye said he eventually now. He retired in 2019 came to believe that “if after “27 years, 11 months anything were to happen in and 1 day,” in the Army. He Idaho, I thought it would have has worked for Schweitzer already happened. I thought Engineering Laboratories Idaho was a low priority since but is taking a few target — not like Virginia or months off for knee surgery. California or Seattle. I did not Public perception of military feel that Boise was a target. personnel following 9/11, he “But because we didn’t said, was vastly different from know for sure we had to take what his father experienced precautions. An ounce of during the Vietnam war. prevention is worth a pound of “People would see you cure. So we didn’t know, but the in uniform and they would entire nation was on high alert ask you all the time about and every military installation it,” he said. “Even a year in the world was on high afterward it was still a big deal. alert because we didn’t know Patriotism was really high. what was going to happen.” “In Idaho, people have In 2004, Frye was shipped never had a bad regard for to Iraq where he worked in Associated Press the military. I have never logistics helping with supplies and also assisting the Judge In this photo taken Sept. 11, 2001, a helicopter ﬂies over the Pentagon in Washington, had anybody look down on me or talk bad to me and Advocate General’s Corps, D.C., as smoke billows over the building. tens of thousands of times which provides legal services I’ve had people shake my to all members of the military. “I was involved in a lot of convoys Frye said most of the Iraqi people hand and thank me for my service. In that role, Frye joined service to Baghdad and back, taking he met were friendly and grateful It was not like my dad, who did members who communicated with vehicles or personnel up where for the American support. But he two tours in Vietnam. We came the people of Iraq and assisted the Kurds (an Iraqi ethnic group) did witness the ethnic tensions back to parades and people were with many humanitarian needs, were. Nobody really did their real between the Sunnis and Shias and happy to see us. The way we such as housing. Duty assignments, job unless you were a medic.” anti-American sentiment from were treated was really good.” he said, were often fluid. He also helped out when the some of the religious groups. “We were a heavy armored Iraqis held their first free election One of the most memorable Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@ brigade but we were used in in January 2005 following the experiences, he said, was being gmail.com or (208) 983-2326. stability operations,” Frye said. fall of Saddam Hussein. able to view some of the ancient

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More than a decade has passed since the terrorist attacks of September 11 shocked our nation and the world, forever changing so many lives and the course of history. Today we pause to honor the memory of those who perished, and salute those who answered the call of duty. Their courage and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Air travel brought to unprecedented standstill This story originally ran Sept. 12, 2001, in the Lewiston Tribune. ———

By SHARON CONEN

OF THE ASSOC IATE D P RESS

CHICAGO — Air traffic around the nation was halted for the first time in history Tuesday as stunned travelers watched televised pictures of the smoking ruins of New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, both attacked by terrorists. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered all outbound flights grounded following the fiery twin disaster at the World Trade Center around 9 a.m. The FAA said the ban would not be lifted until today at 9 a.m. PDT, at the earliest. All domestic commercial flights — other than the four that were crashed by terrorists — had reached their destinations by early Tuesday afternoon, according to the FAA. Some airports were evacuated. “Anybody that is planning on going somewhere isn’t going anywhere at least for now,” said James Kerr, deputy director at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee. When flights resume, passengers won’t be able to check luggage at curbside, there will be more security officers and random security checks, said Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. “These terrorist acts are designed to steal the confidence of Americans,” he said. “We will restore that confidence.” On Tuesday, thousands of passengers gathered around TV sets at airports, staring silently at images of smoke billowing over Manhattan’s skyline, flames shooting from Pentagon windows and people covered with soot running in the streets. “I’m sitting here with shivers down my spine,” said Dan Weiland, of Lewisville, Texas, an American Airlines passenger at Boston’s Logan Airport. He said he called his children to reassure them. Steve Hyatt, 55, of San Antonio, was stunned when he heard the news at Denver International Airport. “I just felt like I went into a trance and a dream,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting to see what our country does in light of what took place with Pearl Harbor and comparing this to Pearl Harbor,” he added. “But who do you fight, who do you get mad at?” Around the nation, airports were put under heightened security as officials considered the tremendous security breach that had allowed Tuesday’s terrorist attacks. Logan Airport — the departure point for two of the doomed planes — underwent a security sweep. Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airports were evacuated except for essential personnel, according to officials. At Chicago’s O’Hare Airport,

ABOVE: The empty American Airlines terminal at Dallas Fort Worth Airport on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all nonmilitary air traffic in the United States following the terrorist attacks. LEFT: With its air traffic control tower in the background, Los Angeles International Airport was shut down the same day. Associated Press

passengers were barred from entering the gated areas, and police patrolled with dogs. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Denver’s airport, concourses were closed. In New Orleans, passengers were not allowed into the airport, but it was not evacuated. Officials said the Trade Center apparently was hit by two planes, both Boston-to-Los Angeles flights, carrying a total of 157 people: United Airlines Flight 175, with 65 people on board, and American Airlines Flight 11, with 92 people aboard. The Pentagon was hit by American Flight 77, which was seized while carrying 64 people from Washington to Los Angeles. And in Pennsylvania, United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, crashed about 80 miles southeast of

Pittsburgh with 45 people aboard. The four planes carried 266 people. There was no word on survivors. At the Pentagon, about 100 people were believed dead. The devastating assault on America’s centers of government and commerce renewed longstanding concerns about flaws in airport security. The General Accounting Office warned in April 2000 that “serious vulnerabilities in our aviation security system exist and must be adequately addressed.” And Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead reported in January that the FAA needed to improve training for airport security screeners and develop guidelines for installing bomb-detection machines. The inspector general’s office announced in August it would

assess what the FAA was doing to make sure airlines were thoroughly screening passengers and baggage. Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, said Tuesday that before the August congressional recess, he had called for a complete review of airport security. “Some of the training and actual deployment of equipment has been far from adequate,” Mica said in an interview. Those concerns were on the minds of travelers Tuesday. “You don’t ever think about somebody that would actually attack the U.S.,” said Tom Fickard, 29, of Shreveport, La., a passenger at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. At many airports, hundreds of stranded travelers stood in long lines, waiting to call families and friends. “Someone is trying to make a serious statement and I hope we do likewise,” said Scott Gilmore, 55, who had planned a trip to Washington, D.C., from the DallasFort Worth International Airport. n

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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Attacks triggered changes to life in U.S. Air travel was one of many everyday activities that were altered after 9/11 By ERIC BARKER

OF THE TRIBUNE

Life changed following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The biggest and most lasting impacts, of course, were to the families of the nearly 3,000 people who died during the terrorist attacks and the thousands of service members who died in the resulting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the attacks brought myriad changes to laws, regulations and attitudes that are still in place two decades later. Here is a brief sampling of the ways in which the attacks changed American life.

1. Air travel and security Following 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration was created. Responsibility for screening airline passengers and providing air travel security was transferred from private security companies to the new federal agency. Cockpit doors were fortified and the number of federal air marshals on flights was increased. Air travelers were exposed to an evolving set of security measures based on new threats and foiled terrorist plots. Regulations prevented some carry-on items such as anything that could be construed as a weapon. There was a short-lived ban on liquids, gels and aerosols. That was relaxed and passengers were allowed to carry a maximum of 3.4 ounces of liquids, gels and aerosols. More recently, the agency has allowed passengers to have larger volumes of hand sanitizer. Only ticketed passengers were allowed to proceed past security check areas. To get there, they are now subjected to screenings that include X-ray examination of carry-on luggage and their shoes, and they must pass through metal detectors. Some passengers are pulled aside for increased levels of screening. There was a time when travelers could show up to airports shortly before their flight departure times. Now they are expected to arrive two hours before their flights and must have verified identification.

ABOVE: Travelers wait in line as they enter the security checkpoint at the LewistonNez Perce County Regional Airport. LEFT: Checked luggage at the airport is screened. Safety measures increased at airports and elsewhere following 9/11. Tribune file photos/Kyle Mills, Barry Kough

response from firefighters and police who rushed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, Americans became more aware of the risks endured by first responders of all types. More than 400 firefighters and police officers died when the towers collapsed. First responders around the country were recognized for their service and the day-to-day risks they take. That increased awareness also applied to members of the military as they deployed to Afghanistan and later to Iraq. Those wars took a heavy toll on the country’s all-voluntary military with some soldiers, airmen and sailors being deployed for multiple tours of duty. But it also led to a wave of patriotism that still exists. The war in Afghanistan lasted nearly 20 years and the war in Iraq lasted a decade.

4. Security vs. Liberty 2. Who are you? The Real ID Act of 2005 set federal standards for state-issued identification. Starting May 3, 2023, airline passengers will be required to have identification that is compliant with the federal law. That means that residents of many states have to update their driver’s licenses if they intend to travel by plane or access certain federal facilities.

3. Hero recognition Following the 9/11 attacks and the valiant

Congress quickly passed the Patriot Act following the 9/11 attacks. The new law gave the government broad authority to surveil Americans and foreigners alike, sometimes without their knowledge and without a court warrant. The Department of Homeland Security was created out of dozens of federal agencies as was the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. All that led to increased scrutiny on Americans, foreign nationals and immigrants.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Using a portable control tower, air traffic controllers Hyrum Wadsworth of the Tri-Cities and Kurt Jacobs of Spokane help one of several fixed-wing spotter aircraft depart the Idaho County airport for the nearby Earthquake Fire. With nationwide air traffic at a standstill following the 9/11 attacks, Grangeville may have been the busiest nonmilitary airport in the country. Tribune file photo

Grangeville alone has a busy airport With flights across country grounded, the firefighting must go on at rural terminal This story originally ran Sept. 14, 2001, in the Lewiston Tribune. ———

By JODI WALKER OF THE TRIBUNE

GRANGEVILLE — With air service across the nation shut down until late Wednesday, Idaho County airport at Grangeville became, unofficially, the nation’s busiest nonmilitary airport Tuesday and Wednesday. After a late start Tuesday, there were 16 flights with 56 more Wednesday, according to Bud McConnaughey, air support group supervisor for the incident management team on the Earthquake Fire near Grangeville. Hyrum Wadsworth, an air traffic controller of the TriCities, was working at a portable air traffic control tower at Grangeville Thursday. The 1,300-acre Earthquake Fire is being supported by an immense air team, since the terrain is steep

and rocky, making it difficult for equipment and personnel to fight it on the ground, McConnaughey said. Because of the large number of airplanes and helicopters assigned to the fire, the management team asked for a mobile air traffic control tower Monday. Tuesday’s attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon only heightened the airport’s need for air traffic control. It also helped to have extra people figure out what needed to be done to begin flying again Tuesday. Just getting the planes into the air was an exercise in patience after Tuesday’s morning attacks. Each takeoff required two phone calls to the FAA in Boise. Each pilot had to submit a detailed flight plan and was tracked by the FAA and by the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Just how closely air movement was being monitored became

apparent when a lead plane was called to a fire in Montana. A lead plane flies ahead of retardant planes to help locate drop spots. The pilot filed a flight plan, complete with his call number. He dropped below radar near the Montana border, though, and when he regained altitude, the pilot saw an F-16 fighter jet off his wing, asking for identification. “They were friendly but they were also letting him know they meant business,” McConnaughey said. By Thursday planes were able to get clearance from the local tower as restrictions eased a bit. Firefighting efforts were not hindered by the restrictions, McConnaughey said. “Considering the situation, the FAA has been extraordinary in trying to accommodate emergency situations,” he said. Firefighting aircraft were in the air on the Earthquake Fire by 3 p.m. Tuesday. The distance from the attacks on the East Coast certainly had a lot to do with that, McConnaughey said. But all flights were carefully documented, and pilots were recorded by name and Social Security number. The two air traffic controllers

at Grangeville admitted that directing air traffic when the air space was closed was really a different experience. “I’m going to include this in my memoirs,” Wadsworth said. Although no official word had come down that Grangeville was the busiest airport, he and fellow controller, Kurt Jacobs of Spokane, both believe it to be true. “We were definitely under the impression we were the busiest airport, at least in the Northwest,” Wadsworth said. Mobile air traffic control towers are nothing new to the FAA, which for years has made them available to the Forest Service to assist in firefighting efforts. Air traffic controllers are brought in from airports across the region to man the stations. “It’s a coveted position,” Wadsworth said. Both Wadsworth and Jacobs were on their first assignment with a mobile tower. The tower will remain in place as airspace opens again and air traffic increases. The Earthquake Fire doubled in size Thursday, creating a need for all the fire resources to remain on site. n

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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Memories from being there

Promenade was almost deserted and the lights of Lower Manhattan were coming on. We stopped across from the World Trade Center and had a very impressive view of the Twin Towers. They loomed up twice as tall as anything around them.” The next morning Emily Stegner and her mother left for the dress fitting. Her apartment was a few blocks from the river, within easy walking distance of the subway station. The first stop down the line was directly under the trade center. “There was a big six-story complex under the towers that was a major intersection for all the subways heading into the city,” Joe Stegner said. “But they had a little time, so rather than head directly for the subway they stopped at a coffee shop.” While there, Emily Stegner heard on the radio that a plane had collided with the north tower. “I thought they might have been talking about a small plane, about something that happened in the past,” she said. “But we were only a couple of blocks from the Promenade, so we decided to walk down and take a look. As we were coming around the last corner, we heard the second plane hit. We turned the corner and saw the explosion and the debris falling. I remember a woman running away, screaming and crying.” It was 9:03 a.m., the moment when everyone in the America realized the country was under attack.

While most West Coast residents watched attacks from a distance, several local folks were in New York and D.C. on that fateful day This story was originally published Sept. 11, 2011, in the Lewiston Tribune, marking the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. ———

Shock quickly turns to concern

By WILLIAM L. SPENCE OF THE TRIBUNE

For Emily Stegner, the day was supposed to start with a wedding dress fitting. The 29-year-old bride-to-be was getting married that Saturday. Her parents and one brother were already in town. Other guests, including two more siblings, were flying in that morning. Stegner’s fiance, Ben Schwartz, worked as an attorney in lower Manhattan, in an office a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center. She was scheduled to meet him after the dress fitting, so they could pick up the marriage license. On Sept. 11, 2001, she was thinking how perfect their wedding was going to be. It’s been 10 years since that day, 10 years since the infamous Tuesday attacks that killed 2,977 people in New York, Washington, D.C., and an empty field in Pennsylvania.

New York life centered around World Trade Center Stegner, the daughter of state Sen. Joe Stegner of Lewiston and his wife, Debbie, began the day at her condominium apartment in Brooklyn. She’d moved to New York five years before, after graduating from the University of Idaho with a degree in architecture. She’d lived in San Francisco for a summer, but didn’t find what she was looking for. “It wasn’t big enough,” she said. “I wanted to feel overwhelmed by a city.” New York did its best to accommodate her — and the World Trade Center was a major part of that. As an architect, she was fascinated by the Twin Towers, the way they rose straight up, more than a quarter-mile tall, without any step-backs to support the upper floors. She made a point of taking visitors to see them, having them put their toes against the buildings and look up. “They were so tall, you’d actually fall backwards,” Stegner said. “From the top, you could see planes flying below you. It was difficult to grasp the scale. You felt lost.” Joe Stegner remembers strolling back to his daughter’s place the night before the attacks, after having dinner with some of Schwartz’s Irish relatives who’d flown over for the wedding. “We were walking down the Brooklyn Promenade,” he said. “It’s this long, wide sidewalk that runs along a bench above the East River, directly across the river from the Lower Manhattan financial district. There must have been seven or eight of us. It was a beautiful evening, the

ABOVE: The Statue of Liberty can be seen at first light Jersey City, N.J., as the lower Manhattan skyline is seen through thick smoke filling the early morning sky in this Sept. 15, 2001, file photo. Associated Press

FAR LEFT: Joe Stegner escorts his daughter, Emily Stegner Schwartz, at her wedding, which was postponed to November after the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. LEFT: This view toward Manhattan of the World Trade Center on ﬁre was a shocking sight for Stegner, of Lewiston, who was in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, for the wedding of his daughter Emily. photos courtesy Joe Stegner

Emily Stegner and her mother returned to the apartment to collect her dad and brother, Joseph. Then they all rushed back to the Promenade. “There must have been 10,000 people there, all packed in together,” Joe recalled. “Smoke was pouring out of both towers. For the most part everyone was very quiet and somber, but there was an altercation between a couple of people who were walking their dogs. They were having a shouting match, which just seemed surreal. Here they were, right in front of this spectacle, this human disaster, and they were arguing about their dogs.” People were listening to radios and talking on cellphones, passing information back and forth through the crowds. Joe said it wasn’t immediately apparent that the planes had been commercial jets, but once that was confirmed “it passed through the crowd almost instantaneously.” “The second we found that out, we asked ourselves what time Annie and Matt were getting in,” Joe said. “They were our two youngest kids. Well, they were on a red-eye flight from the West Coast and were supposed to be landing right about then. So that caused an immediate panic.” They quickly returned to Emily’s apartment and started making calls, trying to find out where the plane was. Matt eventually borrowed a cellphone and let them know he and Annie were all right. “As their plane was landing, they passed over Manhattan and Matt could see the towers (unharmed),” Joe said. “By the time they landed and got to the baggage area, both towers were on fire. So they shared air space with the planes that hit the towers.” Emily’s fiance had called as well, and they’d learned that Joe’s brother, District Court Judge John Stegner of Moscow, had gotten stuck in Chicago with his family. With everyone OK and accounted for, they decided to go back to the Promenade. “As we were leaving, we ran into one of the service guys who worked at the condominium complex,” Joe said. “He was distraught because he had friends who worked in the maintenance department at the World Trade Center. He was going up to the roof, which was five or six stories high, so we followed him. That’s where we saw the towers fall.” Weakened by fire, the structural supports on the South Tower failed at 9:59 a.m. and the building collapsed in a shower of rubble. The North Tower followed at 10:28 a.m. “The whole time I’d been wondering how they were going to put the fire out,” Joe said. “The collapse

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Continued from Page 17 was a huge shock, (but) I was more concerned about my daughter. She started crying. My reaction was to try and comfort her and tell her it would be all right. Then I thought, how foolish is that statement? Clearly, everything wasn’t going to be all right.” Ash floated across the river and fell on them, he said. There was a rancid, burning odor and an enormous amount of paper suspended in the air. It looked like confetti. From the roof of Emily’s condo, Joe could look down onto the Brooklyn Bridge, which was about a half-mile away. The road was covered with people walking away from Manhattan. “There were a few cars and taxis, but mostly it was just thousands of people walking,” he said. Emily’s fiance was part of that crowd. “He experienced more of the mass chaos,” she said. “There were people jumping onto cars as they left the city, trying to get away. There were billows of smoke and dust while he was on the bridge. But he never felt any personal danger.”

‘There was tremendous fear’ in D.C. That wasn’t the case in Washington, D.C., where Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, was on his way to work. “I live a few blocks from the (U.S. Capitol Building), on the House side,” Crapo said. “I was walking through

the Capitol to get to my office. It was apparent something was wrong, but not what. People were still moving along, going to their offices and meetings. “Then the Capitol Police must have gotten word there was a third plane coming. They started shouting for everyone to evacuate. ‘Get out! Get out now!’ People started running, they were very fearful. It instantly turned into an active evacuation.” Outside, people were streaming into the streets from nearby office buildings. Crapo started walking home. He tried calling his staff, but cellphones weren’t working. His Blackberry did work, though, and he eventually learned everyone was safe. “While I was walking down a side street, there was a huge explosion,” he said. “It was so startling, I remember people screaming and running. It wasn’t pandemonium, but there was tremendous fear.” Crapo still isn’t sure whether the explosion came from the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, or possibly a sonic boom from fighter jets that had been scrambled over the city. Susan Fagan of Pullman was also in D.C. that morning, watching television coverage of the Twin Towers from her hotel room in Pentagon City, a complex of hotels and high-rise apartment buildings located about a halfmile from the Pentagon. Now a state representative for Washington’s 9th Legislative District, Fagan at the time was director of public affairs for Ed Schweitzer

at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. They were both in town for business meetings. “I would have been on Capitol Hill, but my meeting was canceled, so I was working in my hotel room,” Fagan recalled. “I was glued to the television when the second tower was hit. Then a trailer came across the bottom saying there’d been an explosion and fire at the Pentagon. I looked out the window and could see black smoke rising. It was a very eerie feeling.” She doesn’t remember hearing the plane fly over or the explosion from the crash. “Being that close, you’d think I would have felt the impact or noticed something, but I didn’t,” she said. A highway ran through the area, past her hotel window. Fagan watched cars creep out of D.C. all day. People were coming out of the buildings and tapping on windows, looking for ways to get away from the city. She and Schweitzer had flown in on a company plane, but all flights were grounded after the attacks, so they decided to start driving home in a rental car. They hoped the plane would catch up with them somewhere along the way. “We left at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning and drove to Chicago the first night,” she said. “The next day we stopped in Madison, Wis., to pick up one of our engineers. We spent that night in the Dakotas somewhere. We got home Friday evening and beat the plane back. It felt really good to be home.”

Joe Stegner: ‘It was all very moving’

Remembering Those Who Sacrificed

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In New York, Emily Stegner and her fiance spent the days following the attacks trying to decide whether to go ahead with their wedding that weekend. Guests who hadn’t already

F R I D A Y, S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 2 1 arrived were calling to say they were rescheduling flights and still planned to make it, Stegner said, “so we felt like we had to go forward.” On the other hand, some of the caterers had lost friends in the attacks and the church where they were getting married “had too many funerals lined up,” she said. The office that issued marriage licenses was also closed, and the flight Schwartz’s sister was on was grounded in Newfoundland. With all that, they decided by the end of the week to reschedule the wedding for November. “Somehow my mother-in-law, who was in her 70s, managed to make it from Grangeville to Lewiston to Chicago and then to New York by Friday afternoon,” Joe Stegner said. “When we picked her up at the airport we told her the wedding was canceled.” In the days following the attacks, he said, shrines and memorials sprang up all across the city. “There were thousands of them,” Joe Stegner said. “Fences, telephone posts, anyplace with a flag, the walls outside every police and fire station all became places people would leave their thoughts and prayers or requests for information. There were candles, flags, poems, photos. It was all very moving.” He and his wife finally flew home to Lewiston the following week, after the restrictions on commercial flights were lifted. “We’d been told to get to the airport at least two hours early because of the massive security precautions,” Joe Stegner said. “So we did, but there were no passengers there. We went through security in about eight minutes, and there were as many crew members as passengers on the plane. I’d never felt safer.”

Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com.

A 9/11 REMEMBRANCE Attacks triggered a ‘life is short’ moment

news unfolded and intensified. Oddly, I don’t remember if/ what we told the children as I didn’t have any media on while the school day progressed, but I I prepared for work that Sept. 11 know we tried to keep our day as morning of 2001, so I didn’t know calm and normal as possible. the horrible news that would greet Three months after this event, me when I arrived at my school. I accepted and changed my job When I got to our classroom one location and position. It was a “life half-hour before the students filed is short” moment that honored the in, I noticed that our classroom TV victims, survivors and responders. was on, which was a rarity, espeSixteen years later, I visited the cially before the school day began. memorial at the World Trade CenMy supervisor sat mesmerized ter and solemnly along with many watching the news and quickly filled other people recalled the events that me in that an American Airlines inspired and rebuilt this history. Flight 11 airliner had crashed into True to the somber events, the the the Twin Towers at the World site is subdued and respectful. Trade Center in New York City. Nonetheless, it’s hard It was hard to wrap my head to view and recall. around these images, as my co-work— Nancy Orton ers and I watched in horror as the Lewiston

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Time has passed, but memory still fresh of that day in D.C. Former WSU graduate student Jennifer Burek Pierce recalls the sound of the jetliner slamming into the Pentagon By JOEL MILLS

OF THE TRIBUNE

As a professor at a Midwestern university, each anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks gives Jennifer Burek Pierce a reminder of the ever-increasing age gulf between her and her students. “So we’re now at a point where for the entering freshmen in a college cohort this year, 9/11 was two years in the past by the time they were born,” said Burek Pierce, an associate professor at the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science. “They know it as a historical event, and you know it as an event you participated in and experienced.” Burek Pierce did some of her graduate studies at Washington State University in the years before the attacks, and Burek Pierce had moved to Arlington, Va., with her husband by the time they struck. Matt Pierce was working at the Capitol as a chief-of-staff for former U.S. Rep. Baron Hill of Indiana when a jetliner slammed into the side of the Pentagon, but Burek Pierce was at home just a few miles away from the impact. In a telephone interview the day after the attacks with the MoscowPullman Daily News, Burek Pierce gave an eyewitness account of the chaos that ensued after she heard that shocking explosion. “Things got pretty hectic pretty fast,” Burek Pierce said on Sept. 12, 2001. The “boom” of the impact was so loud it sounded as if it came from her own backyard. Later, residents of her Arlington neighborhood watched from highway overpass pedestrian bridges as police and emergency vehicles began pouring onto nearby Interstate 395, the odor of burning jet fuel drifting through the air. Residents who gathered at impromptu meeting places shared the latest pieces of information they had gathered from various sources in an attempt to make sense of the situation,

Associated Press

Three unidentiﬁed rescue workers walk away from the crash site at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., in this Sept. 11, 2001, ﬁle photo. In the most devastating terrorist onslaught ever waged against the United States, hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center, toppling its twin 110-story towers. The deadly calamity was witnessed on televisions across the world as another plane slammed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed outside Pittsburgh. Burek Pierce said at the time. “Everyone was really pretty shocked,” she said. “It was a lot to process all at once.” Now in her mid-50s, Burek Pierce said that even though she was right in the thick of the aftermath of the attack on the Pentagon, she has learned over the years that everyone has their own unique memories and experiences from that day. “And for them, it also has that deep feeling,” she said. “They knew they were together when this big, horrific thing happened, and it really seemed to create a stronger sense of community and connection because they experienced it together. I think it affects all people who were present with one another and had to try and make sense of it in the moment.”

Still, the shared memories of the attack from the perspectives of those who were actually there possess their own power. Communications in the aftermath were “fragmented and strange,” she said, and some cellphones just stopped working for a time. So she spent much of the day with a friend. “Being together through that experience and connecting and supporting each other in such a time of stress, it’s been a bond that’s continued to shape our friendship,” Burek Pierce said. “(Sept. 11) is still a touchstone for us, even if we haven’t been in the same spaces and been able to be in touch. We still try to connect again, if nothing else but a quick phone call in the evening on the anniversary of 9/11.” Life this year has been hectic,

Burek Pierce said, so the 20th anniversary kind of snuck up on her. But the topic did come up recently during a conversation with a colleague who wondered what it was like to be present in the nation’s capital that day. And that helped her realize that even though the tragedy was a shared experience for the entire country, witnessing it firsthand was ultimately different. “His experience is such that he doesn’t know what it sounds like when a plane slams into an office building,” she said. “That’s a good thing, that other people don’t walk around with this as part of their world experience, as far as I’m concerned.”

Mills may be contacted at jmills@ lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2266.

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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Prayer vigils bring Americans together Hundreds gather at region’s churches This story originally appeared Sept. 12, 2001, in the Lewiston Tribune. ———

By REBECCA BOONE OF THE TRIBUNE

In Lewiston and Clarkston and around the region, hundreds of people gathered at churches to pray Tuesday night, some repeating “God Bless America” throughout their entreaties to a higher power. And though the coordinated terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon has caused many to despair, the attitude among some area residents was hope. “This was a tragedy, but we can all learn from it,” said McGhee Elementary School Principal Dan Lejameyer at a vigil at the First Church of the Nazarene of Lewiston. “I see it as a wake-up call for America, showing how lucky we are with liberty and freedom and that God needs to be put back where he belongs, as our priority. You can approach this many ways,

Tribune file photo

People pray at a vigil held in a parking lot following the 9/11 attacks. and my approach is one of hope.” Lejameyer was one of more than 100 who attended the candlelight vigil in the parking lot of the Nazarene church. As staff members began passing out candles around 8

p.m., the group sang and prayed. “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrow like sea billows roll,” they sang, some wiping away tears. “Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, it

is well, it is well, with my soul.” They also sang “The Star Spangled Banner.” Jim Baughman, pastor of the church, led everyone in prayer before they divided into smaller groups. Like many in churches around the region, they prayed for President George W. Bush, the emergency workers struggling to save any survivors buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center, and the families and friends of the victims. They also prayed for themselves and that the United States would be protected from future attacks. “All of a sudden, tragically today, we awaken to the fact that there is a sinister force out there,” said Baughman. “We pray that you, oh God, would move into those homes that are shattered tonight ... that you would put an arm of protection over our country and make sure that these things do not happen again.” Lois Hodgson of Clarkston said she hopes the nation can manage to forgive those who launched the biggest terrorist attack against America in history. For Hodgson, getting the news of the plane crashes dislodged a rush of sad memories. “I was in bed and my neighbor

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Palouse gatherings demonstrate unity Evening vigils held at Moscow, Pullman This story originally ran Sept. 13, 2001, in the Lewiston Tribune. ———

By LEAH ANDREWS and EMMY SUNLEAF OF THE TRIBUNE

Thousands of residents in Moscow and Pullman responded to the worst terrorist acts in history Wednesday night at candlelight vigils with words of comfort and solidarity, hugs and tears. ——— MOSCOW — The Moscow vigil began as a march from the Student Union Building at the University of Idaho and swelled to a crowd of about 2,000 people at East City Park, where community and UI leaders spoke about tragedy and unity. “We stand as a community and a country made of many diverse groups and religions, and now we need to stand together in the face of the attacks,” said Mayor Marshall Comstock. For many in the crowd the gathering of the community was a necessary step in the process toward understanding and healing. “I think it fills a need. I think people are looking for an outlet for all of our pain, a whole realm of feelings,” said Hal Godwin, UI vice president of students. Although many came in search of healing, others came with different emotions. One sign at the vigil said: “1 find them, 2 kill them, 3 obliterate their support.” Others attended to be part of a community experiencing the same national nightmare together. “I needed it,” said Cheryl Scott, whose husband used to work in the Pentagon. “We are far from my family, who are all back East. I needed to share this.” Scott brought her children, Kelly and Robert, to the vigil. Kelly was impressed by the community’s response to the terrorist attacks. “It’s awesome that everyone

>> Continued from Page 20 called and told me to look at the television. It was just like World War II, when I was home in bed waiting to have my baby, watching the war start. “This is very nostalgic for me. My baby went to Vietnam, and lost his leg there. And he lost his life in January from a heart attack.” She attended the candlelight vigil because she was reminded of a Bible passage. “I thought a lot about a

People pray at a vigil in the days following the 9/11 attacks. is coming together like this.” Many parents pushed their children in strollers or carried them on their shoulders to the vigil. Jennifer Wallace hopes Adam, her 2-year-old son, will remember how his community responded to an ugly moment in his formative years. “I hope he remembers the positive things. I would like it if he remembers this walk.”

scripture that says in the last days there will be wars and rumors of wars, but not to be afraid because we have God’s love to turn to. The first thing I thought when I found out this morning was to pray.” For others, the catastrophe highlighted their view of a country fallen away from a foundation of beliefs like “In God we trust” and “One nation under God.” Sharee Kromrei of Lenore said she was devastated by the thought of being attacked. “It used to be that

Tribune file photo

America and the world will never be the same again, said UI President Robert Hoover, who encouraged community members to reach out to one another. ASUI President Leah ClarkThomas said her generation has never experienced war, assassinations of presidents or Pearl Harbor, but they will always remember Sept. 11. “This is it for us,” said Clark-

our country was built on faith and hope in God and freedom and being united in all things. And now it seems like very few families stand together. “People are so focused on working and making the almighty dollar ... and our family units have just gone to heck in a handbasket. We’re raising terrorists.” Kromrei said TV images of the attack and its aftermath wouldn’t be erased by the candlelight at the vigil, but that the community coming together to pray

Thomas. “The impact of this event has affected the entire world, and we are only a small part of this world, but it is the center of my world.” Teary-eyed Jillian Whiteman, a fourth grader at McDonald School, said the terrorist attacks has changed her world. “It may never ever be the same,” Whiteman said. “But we are safe here, and nothing can ever hurt us.” After singing “America, America” people wiped away tears, hugged and slowly filed out of the park. ——— PULLMAN — Hundreds of Washington State University students and community members recited the Pledge of Allegiance, hands over their hearts, and held a moment of silence Wednesday night at Reaney Park for the victims of the terrorist attacks. The candlelight vigil began at Terrell Friendship Mall on the WSU campus. Then WSU President Lane Rawlins, leaders of the university’s student body and international and diversity-related student groups led the walk of solidarity to the park. They were met there by many in the community, including Pullman Mayor Mitch Chandler and several of the community’s interfaith leaders from Muslim, Catholic, Jewish and Christian churches. “We have all been moved in deep sorrow and immense anger,” Chandler said. “These events will not be easy to put behind us, but we can use this demonstration of our solidarity to embrace our best qualities.” Rawlins urged everyone to be tolerant toward their neighbors and said the sign of solidarity will continue at WSU’s football game Saturday, where everyone attending will be encouraged to wear white. “The most effective tools for fighting ignorance and hate are education and understanding,” Rawlins said. “We are a community and we must take care of each other.” WSU counselors were available at the vigil to help anyone in need, as well as volunteers for the Red Cross, who took donations for the victims of Tuesday’s attack. n

was a hopeful step. “The whole town was still today — we have all been deeply affected by this. And you see the pictures of people pulling dolls out of the rubble and the destruction, and my heart just breaks. “That could have been my child’s doll. That could have been anyone.” Todd Johnson, a lumber buyer from Clarkston, said no matter what tragedies occur, in people’s darkest hours they will seek spirituality. He brought

a TV to the office where he works and throughout Tuesday, customers stopped to watch the latest news for 15 minutes or so. “It was kind of cool to watch how the news brought even the most rough, seemingly uncaring and toughest people down in a powerful way,” he said. “This was a horrible attack on America, and how do the people react? Do they crumble? They’re standing in church parking lots, praying.” n

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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Veterans compare terrorism with Pearl Harbor This story originally ran Sept. 13, 2001, in the Lewiston Tribune ———

By SANDRA LEE

OF THE LE W ISTON TRIBUNE

They speak of retaliation and commitment and patriotism, these people who protected their country, but always on foreign ground. “There is somewhere an enemy,” says Stanley P. Holloway of Pullman, one of the 17 U.S. Marines in the original 500-man 3rd Battalion, 10th Artillery — the Forgotten Battalion — who survived World War II. “They’ll have to exterminate him, of course, or a group.” James “Lou” Bigley of Lewiston joined the Navy at 16, two years after Pearl Harbor. He still remembers the beach in front of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in December 1943, strings of barbed wire mixed with debris in anticipation of another attack. The airliners should have three federal marshals on each flight, he says, one in the cockpit and two with the passengers. “It’s terrible these foreign governments can get away with this.” It’s worse than Pearl Harbor, even though that was terrible,

says Gordon Larsen counters. Her concern of Orofino, who was a now is how the nation 17-year-old Marine in the will react — if it will landing at Guadalcanal, rally as it did almost the first Allied offensive 60 years ago. in the Pacific war. Thornber is in the “I believe it’s going World War II history to take time, but I books as being among believe they will hunt the first four women Holloway Larsen Jensen Thornber down the culprits and who received Purple either retaliate against Hearts for injuries prepared for terrorism. Afghanistan itself or try caused by enemy fire “I think we’ll see some real to find the scoundrel who did this.” in the European Theater. groundshaking to see who’s He doesn’t fear it will lead When she volunteered, her responsible,” he says, hours before brother, two brothers-in-law and to yet another world war. No the announcements of suspects country that would declare war her future husband also signed and arrests began. “They’ve against the United States has up. It was a patriotic nation, with probably got good leads already.” the capability except through even those who stayed at home Marvin “Bud” Jensen of Lewiston, involved in the nation’s defense. terrorism, Larsen says. survivor of a torpedoed aircraft “I just hope and pray for “Everybody was patriotic in those carrier 59 years ago, believes the those who are in the rubble days, and everybody was behind motivation behind the attacks was and their relatives.” the troops here at home. ... religious, perhaps brought on by The flag he flies every day “It’s not like that anymore. For this nation’s support of Israel. outside his home is lowered to several generations, they haven’t “But I don’t think it’s like Pearl half-staff. “I’m glued to the TV been taught to be patriotic,” which Harbor,” he says of Tuesday’s and watching all the time.” includes the desire to defend attack. “We were already at It’s retaliation for the U.S. their country, Thornber says. war then. We should have been involvement in world peace, They don’t know the history of expecting something like that.” says Robert G. Berreman World War II or the other wars, When all the intelligence of Juliaetta, who served in and they may not understand agencies are sure of who the Persian Gulf War before when she and the others enlisted, did this thing, he says, “then retiring from the Washington their attitude was they would do something about it.” National Guard in 1992. teach the enemy a lesson. “How do you gear up for That lesson was: “You They both were sneak attacks, this?” Berreman says of being don’t fool with us.”  E. Mae Thornber of Lewiston

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Sharing the stories of

‘COMMON PEOPLE’ Former Tribune reporter Ralph Bartholdt spent time as a journalist embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq

ABOVE: A young boy rides the only bike in Kabani, Iraq, according to Ralph Bartholdt while he was embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq in 2004. LEFT: Bartholdt spent the summer of 2004 in Iraq as an embedded journalist.

By ELAINE WILLIAMS

OF THE TRIBUNE

The first time Ralph Bartholdt encountered a young U.S. Marine corporal called Skinny, he was eating popcorn and listening to radio communications. A seemingly casual demeanor masked high-level leadership skills that Bartholdt, an embedded journalist in the Iraq War, witnessed when he accompanied Steven “Skinny” D. Jordan on a mission. Skinny’s job was to lead convoys carrying millions of dollars in supplies over roads that had the potential to turn into death traps. The convoys always went after sunset to be less visible, took several hours and followed circuitous routes to avoid ambushes. That night, a rocket attack had hit Fallujah, the cargo’s destination, forcing the convoy into a holding pattern, carving into scant hours it

Photos courtesy Ralph Bartholdt

had to complete the trip before dawn. At one stage, the only direction Skinny had to follow was the hardto-spot glow of a cigarette butt. The convoy eventually strayed into a cul-de-sac and became

a sitting duck for an attack. Yet amid the danger and stress, Skinny formed a plan and began giving commands that turned around the entire convoy and got it headed in the right direction. None of the

vehicles drew enemy fire or collided. “I was blown away by this young man who took this tremendous responsibility and got the job done without calling anybody asking what I should do,” said Bartholdt, a former Lewiston Tribune reporter who now works at the University of Idaho as a communications manager. “He just took charge,” he said. “That’s so amazing to me. Every day you were there you saw this kind of stuff.” Skinny was the subject of one of many profile pieces Bartholdt wrote during the summer he spent in Iraq in 2004. His stories ran in the St. Maries Gazette Record where he was an editor and

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24 > Continued from Page 23 sometimes in the hometown newspapers of the Marines. In his late 30s with young children at home, Bartholdt covered his own travel expenses. He survived on his pay from the Gazette for weekly segments and the occasional check from the hometown newspapers. For him, the assignment was about more than money. “What I wanted to do in Iraq was get the stories of the common people that were fighting this war,” Bartholdt said. “That was my whole point. I didn’t care about tactics or politics or any of that.” His time in Iraq fulfilled a career goal that he had formed a decade earlier after reading the work of Michael Kelly. He was one of the few journalists who had been on the ground with troops during the Persian Gulf War in the early ’90s and died covering the Iraq War. Bartholdt spent months trying to be embedded before his application was accepted, competing against journalists from big networks like CNN. Then he selected the riskiest of three offers, choosing to accompany Marines who protected the convoys instead of being placed in the Green Zone

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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really afraid,” Bartholdt said. By focusing on the stories of individual Marines, he developed a rapport with them that led to a broader understanding of the war. He would get invitations to tag along when they were carrying out their duties. In one instance, he went to a supply depot called the Rock guarded by former officers of Saddam Hussein’s army, riding in a small caravan of three or four Humvees. Inside the depot, U.S. special forces from more than one branch of the military were overseeing the operations. “They had all these guys figured out that were working at the Rock,” Bartholdt said. “(One of the U.S. special forces people said) that guy there, we’ve got to watch him because we don’t trust him.” An Iraqi educated in Britain served as an Ralph Bartholdt interpreter during a meeting Bartholdt goes on a morning drive to Habbaniya while embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. over tea where the Americans heard grievances from the former officers of Hussein. men under his command Worries about his own at Baghdad or with pilots. They weren’t being paid were professionals who life were normally in the As a journalist, he was as well as they had been in would keep him safe. That background because of the unarmed when he was their previous positions and promise was affirmed by confidence he had in the working, wearing a flak were upset because they how the Marines he met Marines who surrounded jacket, a Kevlar helmet and couldn’t visit their families, conducted themselves with him, Bartholdt said. carrying cameras. The same who had been moved out the efficiency of seasoned A first sergeant who Marine usually accompanied executives, who carried of their hometowns to took him under his wing him, explaining to officers guns instead of briefcases. when he arrived in the war who he was and what he prevent them from getting “That’s why I was never zone had assured him the was doing, if necessary. killed for their cooperation

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F R I D A Y, S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 2 1 with the Americans. “They had to drive up to see their families,” Bartholdt said. “It was dangerous because they could get stopped by insurgents.” One of the Americans asked what they could do and was told the Iraqis needed to form their own militias. After this had gone on for a while, one of the U.S. special forces officers suddenly began cursing out the interpreter for intentionally not sharing what was actually being said. Bartholdt later asked what would have motivated the translator to be inaccurate. The translator, Bartholdt was told, wanted to gain land and have his own militia. “They all had their own leaders and were feuding with each other and had been for hundreds and hundreds of years,” Bartholdt said. Just as Bartholdt had no idea where he was headed the day he went to the supply depot, he had next to no notice the day he met Pullman native Gen. James Mattis who commanded the war effort. Bartholdt got pulled onto a helicopter at the last minute, leaving so quickly he didn’t have time to grab his camera gear. Soon they were flying over Fallujah so low they

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

about being glad that Bartholdt was there to write stories about the Marines. One of the things that stood out about Mattis was he was wearing beat-up boots, not the special ones manufactured by the company, Danner, for the troops. “I was kind of blown away,” Bartholdt said. “He’s the head guy. He’s running the whole show. It was unbelievable.” That brief meeting with Mattis and everything else he experienced in Iraq changed his perspective profoundly even though he never witnessed combat. He returned just before Labor Day in time to cover an annual parade in St. Maries with the usual entries like logging trucks. Amid the peaceful, friendly gathering, he was struck by how ignorant so many citizens Ralph Bartholdt are about their democracy. “I came back to the United A convoy security team consisting of Lance Cpl. Chris Musick on top of the Humvee, Cpl. States and I just looked at Steven “Skinny” D. Jordan and Lance Cpl. Arthur Morales are seen at a staging area before people and I was amazed leaving for Fallujah. how people lived without knowing what was going When a heavily armored tarmac with a Navy chaplain, could see people cooking on in these places and the convoy arrived, Mattis and a Marine, possibly the dinner, a strategy used so sacrifices these people were emerged, conferred chaplain’s bodyguard. that aircraft couldn’t be giving,” Bartholdt said. A sergeant major Bartholdt briefly with the sergeant heard until they were right major before walking knew quietly asked him over a building to reduce Williams may be contacted directly up to Bartholdt what the hell he was the chances of being hit. at ewilliam@lmtribune. and shaking his hand. doing there and Bartholdt Once they landed, The general said something com or (208) 848-2261. said he didn’t know. Bartholdt was standing on a

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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Looking back at their service Veterans reflect on war and aid efforts as U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan By ANGELA PALERMO

OF THE TRIBUNE

Twenty years after the United States launched its longest war, military personnel withdrew from Afghanistan completely in August. President Joe Biden addressed the nation Aug. 31 after U.S. involvement in the region came to an end. He urged the American people to never forget the sacrifices made on foreign soil. “I don’t think enough people understand how much we’ve asked of the 1 percent of this country who put that uniform on,” Biden said. “They will carry the cost of war with them their whole lives.” The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan felt personal for many veterans and aid workers who served in the war and helped the country rebuild. Eric Lumley, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran living in Lewiston, is still processing the tumultuous end to a conflict he risked his life for. “Everything that’s going on in Afghanistan — it’s a tough deal,” he said. “It feels like the sacrifices we made, the time and everything else we spent over there has been wasted.” Lumley joined the U.S. Army in 2005 and deployed to Iraq from 2006-08 as part of a field artillery unit. When something, or someone, was under attack, his team would respond quickly with assistance. He also participated in humanitarian missions like building schools and bringing supplies to local villages. At the time, Lumley said, there was a big push to recruit new soldiers for the war. During the time away from his family, he missed birthdays and other milestones. “Our battalion at the time was losing a lot of people,” he said. “The feeling on that first deployment was that, at any moment, it could be the end for you.” Just weeks after al-Qaida attacked the World Trade

ABOVE: Eric Lumley stands for a photo at his home in Lewiston. Lumley served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. August Frank/Tribune

LEFT: Doug Welch is seen in a photo taken in Afghanistan.

Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush announced the U.S. would bring leaders of the terrorist group to justice. Al-Qaida had planned the attacks from bases inside Afghanistan, which was

governed primarily by the Taliban at the time. Once inside the country, it didn’t take long for American troops to topple the Taliban government and disperse its fighters. From there, the U.S. “War on Terrorism”

morphed into an effort to rebuild the region and establish a Western-style democracy with new schools, hospitals and public facilities. When Lumley deployed to Afghanistan in 2018, the mission involved expanding

military bases and helping train members of the country’s army. His tour was extended to 15 months. “Up until that point, it seemed like everything we tried to do kept failing,” he said. “There’s a reason we were in Afghanistan for so long. It never felt like the Afghan army would actually fight for their country.” Ahead of the planned withdrawal in August, the Taliban’s military captured significant territory, forcing widespread surrenders by Afghan forces. In many cases, Lumley noted, their troops seemed to give up without a fight. At the same time, civilian and military casualties in the country reached a record high this year,

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

9/11 REMEMBRANCES

according to a report from the United Nations. While nearly 2,500 American service members died in Afghanistan, almost 48,000 Afghan civilians and 66,000 Afghan military and police members were killed amidst the decades-long strife. Doug Welch, a retired captain and medic in the U.S. Navy Medical Services Corps, is intimately familiar with the ways blood can be shed during war. He served in Iraq from 2005 to 2006 as deputy surgeon for the second Marine Expeditionary Force. During his time in Iraq, Welch worked with local medical professionals and any civilians who wanted to be trained. His team also took care of civilian and American military troops needing aid. “The fighting was still pretty heavy when I got there,” he said. “There were times where Iraqi children would get hurt because of military weapons lying around. Sometimes they got sick, and with any kind of life-threatening emergency, we did what we could to help them.” Before earning three degrees from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, he spent five years in the Idaho National Guard in the 1980s. By the time citizen soldiers from Headquarters Company at Lewiston flew out to start

ABOVE: Doug Welch is seen in a photo at a military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. LEFT: Various keepsake pins Eric Lumley earned during his time in the military sit out on a shelf in his home. August Frank/Tribune

their final training for the war in 2004, Welch was already on active duty. From 2011 to 2014, he served as deputy medical adviser at NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command headquartered in the Netherlands. There he oversaw medical operations, including the teams sent in to train local Afghan physicians, nurses and technicians. The Taliban would see anyone working with Americans as the enemy, Welch said, and treat them accordingly. “I’ve had patients get dragged out of the hospital to be killed or even killed in the beds,” he said. “And medical people who got in the way would get killed or hurt.” Welch never envisioned

the war ending the way it did in August, as civilians swarmed the airfield in Kabul with desperation. He certainly didn’t predict Taliban forces would take over so quickly. Even when planned in advance, he said noncombatant evacuation operations like the one carried out in Afghanistan can be very complex. “Honestly, I am both disappointed and angry at the way things have been handled,” he said. “But at some point you just need to get out, and we needed to get out of Afghanistan.” For him and many other medics, Welch said from his home in Lewiston, there’s “still a lot of emotion.” The thought of any doctors, nurses or translators

he worked with facing danger in the country keeps him up at night. Their fate, and the fate of so many other Afghan nationals, is again uncertain. “Everybody has put in a lot of effort and time to make things better,” he said. “They were working in good faith.” In the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal, Lumley encourages people to reach out to individuals in the military and see how they’re doing. He’s currently a sergeant in the Army Reserve. While he feels proud to serve his country, the level of sacrifice from his days in Afghanistan is still hard to explain. “It’s easy to feel forgotten at times,” Lumley said. “For the soldiers who spent time over there, it’s going to be a tough bit.”

Palermo may be contacted at apalermo@lmtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @apalermotweets.

My wife and I were sitting on a plane in Spokane waiting to taxi out when they had us deplane. We walked out into the concourse and saw people gathered around the TV. As we walked over and saw the tower collapse. The shock was overwhelming. We knew it was an attack immediately. Just not by whom. Some young men were watching it as if it was a video game and not realizing the seriousness of it. So I walked away to calm down and to gather my thoughts and stood near four older ladies complaining about their shopping trip to Seattle being ruined. I almost lost it but calmly pointed out to them that someone just declared war on us. That this was worse than Pearl Harbor and to be grateful it wasn’t a nuclear strike. 9/11 will stick out in my mind for the rest of my life. It was gut wrenching to watch it live as it happened. For the crazies, it was a plane and not a missile that crashed into the tower. I saw it with my own eyes. Replayed in slo-mo over and over again. Same as I saw what appeared to be Muslims celebrating in the streets in the USA on live video that same week. A city in New Jersey if I recall correctly. 9/11 should never be forgotten. Not for any reason. Especially political correctness. — David E. Root, Lewiston n

I was living in Arizona at the time, about an hour east of Tucson. I commuted there every day and was familiar with the rhythms of the local talk radio station, but that day I took off work so I could drive my late husband to the doctor in Tucson. As we were driving away from our house, the station was on, and I knew instantly that something big had happened. The second tower came down a few minutes later. I probably shouldn’t have been driving because all my attention was on the radio. The minute we got home a few hours later, I turned on the TV and was glued to it the rest of the day and night. The video of the planes going into the towers had been released by then. It was horrifying but seemed unreal, like a horror movie. I went to work the rest of the week and, of course, that was all anyone could talk about. Tucson is very active with aviation — passenger jets, small planes, Air National Guard and DavisMonthan Air Force Base, where the military did a lot of flight training. The silence of the skies the next week or so was beyond eerie. I also traveled a lot at that time in my career, and I was so grateful I’d been home. A friend of mine from Colorado was stuck in Washington, D.C., for several days. — Judy Parrish, Viola

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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Dark debut for an enlightening program Annual Everybody Reads library program got its start on 9/11/2001 We had chosen Sept. 11, 2001, as the date to debut our new community reading program, What if Everybody Read the Same Book? We invited all the local media to our press conference. It’s a bit of a rarity to hold a press conference for a library program, but in 2001 the concept of a communitywide reading program was brand new. I was in charge of bringing the coffee and tea for the morning’s big announcement, so I left extra early to make sure everything ran smoothly. National Public Radio was on as I backed out of the driveway. “What was the news reporter saying? Did he say that apparently a plane has crashed into one of the Twin Towers? That can’t be right.” I turned up the volume. It was right. I called my husband demanding he turn on the television. He was COMMENTARY stunned. I stopped at the Clarkston Albertsons to buy the coffee supplies and told the young cashier what had happened. He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. When I got to Asotin County Library, one of the librarians was frantically setting up a TV. We listened and then watched the second plane hit the towers, the coffee and pastries forgotten. Amazingly, reporters and community members showed up for our press conference. We were dumbfounded. Asotin County Library Director Jennifer Ashby asked, “Why are you here when there is earth-shaking news going on?” They replied that they couldn’t cover anything directly. People in New York were covering it. So, we got up and talked about our program, a fabulous program that continues to this day as Everybody Reads. After the press conference, the Tribune reporter told us that no one would absorb the article if it was published the next day, so they would hold it for two weeks. By then, some of the shock would have worn off and it would

Heather Stout

This year’s program features murder-mystery author Matthew Sullivan discussing his book “Midnight at the Bright Idea Bookstore.” Programs are planned for Nov. 2-5, with details available at www.everybody-reads.org.

ABOVE: Award-winning author David Guterson is one of the many authors featured over the years at the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley Everybody Reads program, which got its start on Sept. 11, 2001. RIGHT: “Riding the White Horse Home” by Teresa Jordan was the ﬁrst book chosen for the communitywide reading program. get more attention. While we thought the world was falling apart, the local media listened to us that day, and a community reads program was born. The program now known as Everybody Reads started in 2001 when Jim Hepworth, publisher of Confluence Press, contacted Ashby and myself (I was a librarian at the time with Lewiston City Library), to flesh out the idea of a community reads program. The goal of the program was to bring an author to the LewistonClarkston Valley for several days of literary events such as book discussions, writing workshops and school visits, providing various opportunities for individuals and families to interact, discuss and explore the selected book. The first book featured was “Riding the White Horse Home,” by Theresa Jordan. She discussed her novel at Asotin County Library, Lewiston City Library and was the featured author at the annual Wallace Stegner Lecture at Lewis-Clark State College. In those early years, program

memories include author John MacLean discussing his book, “Fire on the Mountain,” featuring a panel of area firefighters. Young adult author Chris Crutcher discussed his book, “Whale Talk,” with students at the Juvenile Corrections Center in Lewiston. Over the years supplemental programs were added. What If Every Child Read the Same Book was added and later morphed into LCSC’s annual Score a Hit with Reading program, in which all sixth graders in the valley and Lapwai read the same book and are visited by baseball players during the Avista NAIA World Series. Everybody Writes was a writing component to the program and

for years community members submitted their stories prompted by the Everybody Reads selection. Everybody Reads has grown to encompass libraries from all over our region. Highlights of past programs include author Gregg Olson serving cookies to attendees as he shared his award-winning book, “The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America’s Richest Silver Mine.” The program has also featured several award-winning authors, including C.J. Box, Jim Lynch, David Guterson, Emily Ruskovish and Molly Gloss. In 2015, Everybody Reads hosted Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr to discuss “All the Light We Cannot See.” This year’s program features murder-mystery author Matthew Sullivan discussing his book, “Midnight at the Bright Idea Bookstore.” Programs are planned for Nov. 2-5, with details available at www.everybody-reads.org. It has been 20 years since that fateful day in September. On that day, we had planned to celebrate the power of reading and our community. We were subdued and delayed, yet our communities supported the program idea. Since that horrid attack, communities on both sides of the river, up and down eastern Washington and northern Idaho have come together to share stories, engage in lively discussions and enjoy a good book. I look forward to seeing you all at the next Everybody Reads program.

Stout is a retired librarian, formerly with the Lewiston City Library.

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‘We will lose a lot of freedoms’ Retired naval reservist likens the effects of terrorism to ripples from a dropped rock This story originally appeared Sept. 13, 2001, in the Lewiston Tribune. ———

By SANDRA LEE OF THE TRIBUNE

The worst impact of the terrorist attack on the United States will be the things we do to ourselves, says D. Richard Wyatt of Lewiston, a retired U.S. Naval Reserve captain. “Unfortunately, we will lose a lot of freedoms in the future because of it.” Americans will never look at the world the same after this week, he says. “What they did today, they can do tomorrow.”

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Security at airports, an inconvenience now, will tighten. Pilots may be locked into titanium steel-lined compartments for the duration of flights. The nation may withdraw from foreign involvements and realize it has an obligation to take care of the American people. “The effect is like dropping a rock. ... “We knew it was going to happen sooner or later,” but the target was expected to be the Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City, Wyatt says. But shutting down the airports was overreaction, he says. “That’s playing right into their plans by playing on the psyches of Americans. To shut down Boise to Lewiston is ridiculous.” A concern has to be that this will bring out all the little guys, the reactionary groups that blow up biological labs, Wyatt says. In 27 years in the Naval Reserve, he had 32 active duty assignments and spent an accumulation of three years away from home. He spent 10 years attached to the

“I feel sorry for the Muslim people in this country. A lot will look at them and say, ‘You caused it.’ Well, they didn’t cause it, but it will be like the Japanese after Pearl Harbor.” D. RICHARD WYATT, RETIRED U.S. NAVAL RESERVE CAPTAIN North American Treaty Organization (NATO) acting in a support role for military exercises around the world. His son, Chris Wyatt, now is in the Naval Reserve assigned to an intelligence unit in Norfolk, Va. Wyatt laughs a little, not enough to cover the pain in his voice, as he remembers the news bulletins as the first commercial airliner hit the World Trade Center tower. He told someone, “This one will go down in history as the Pearl Harbor of the 21st century.” Minutes later, that’s what everyone was saying. “This was a highly, highly organized, incredible organization to accomplish that. And we didn’t have a clue.” Someone must have seen the airliner headed toward the Pentagon, which has missiles positioned to

protect it. “But do you think one of those guys would have fired on American Airlines coming in?” An American would think the aircraft might be having rudder problems that caused it to be in the wrong place. An American before Tuesday would not shoot down an American aircraft full of American civilians, Wyatt says. “When you live in a free country like we do, it’s almost impossible to fight that kind of enemy. They have no rules, they have no honor and integrity, and they’re faceless.” It was like this in Vietnam, he says, when young soldiers were confronted with the possibility of shooting a child because he might drop a grenade in a lunch box. “I feel sorry for the Muslim people in this country. A lot will look at them and say, ‘You caused it.’ Well, they didn’t cause it, but it will be like the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. “It’s difficult to fathom, but this is what other countries have been doing for a long time.” Londoners never knew where or when Hitler’s bombs would fall, and in the decades that followed the attacks have spread throughout the world. Osama bin Laden said he would bring to the United States the things other nations have felt, Wyatt says, “and he has.” “People have lived through this before. It’s just never hit the United States. “We will survive. ... It will bring us together.” 

We remain grateful to the heroes of 9.11 and to our men and women in uniform. We remain committed to the ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all. We remain united as Americans. Thank you for your service.

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

The sleeping giant of 1941 and of America today This editorial ran on the II, not just with the bravery of its Opinion page of the Lewiston warriors but with the astounding Tribune Sept. 13, 2001. productivity of its factories. ——— From Pearl Harbor forward, Not surprisingly, the terrorist it was just a matter of time attacks of Tuesday reminded before the United States and its many of what happened after allies moved inexorably all the Pearl Harbor — a way across the Pacific stubborn, unstoppable and into Japan itself. American response that What happened was actually forecast Tuesday is far different by Admiral Yamamoto, in some respects. Pearl who conceived and Harbor was the attack carried out that 1941 of one nation on another Japanese attack. with an obvious target for When the extent of retribution. Tuesday’s the success of his pilots attack probably was the became apparent and work of a small band OPINION underlings congratulated of fanatics. Worse, it is Yamamoto, the admiral, merely one of many little who had always doubted collections of bizarrely what he had been asked hateful people in many to do, saw the world more unrelated movements clearly: “I fear all we who periodically have done is to awaken attack institutions a sleeping giant,” he said. and innocent people in He was right, of course. The countries all over the world. attack on Pearl Harbor enraged, Nonetheless, the people of united and focused the nation this country — and apparently as never before. Japan had in most other countries — are foolishly attacked a large, strong, wide awake now, as they were wealthy nation, a nation that in the wake of Pearl Harbor. would win its part of World War There is suddenly a broad

Bill Hall

recognition that any number can play this savage game and all nations are targets. So the response will be multilateral, a unified sharing of information, tactics and military responses. Nonetheless, it is not insignificant that the terrorists this week have roused a sleeping giant on this continent in particular, a nation now 10 times as strong as the America attacked in 1941. This is today an extraordinarily wealthy nation that spent Soviet communism to its knees. Perhaps more significantly in the context of terrorists, this is an educated, technologically gifted nation that, when it bears down, is capable of making the precision work of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks look like children playing with crude toys. Once roused to the full potential of its bottomless resources, this is the last nation anybody would want on his tail. And it is now motivated in ways that should prove sobering to those who have done this and to any others who may trouble America or its friends. — B.H.

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9/11 REMEMBRANCE On Monday, Sept. 10, 2001, my wife, Rosemary, and I were returning to Pullman after a weekend family reunion in Iowa. We were traveling in our Beechcraft Bonanza and elected to remain overnight in Lewistown, Mont., after stopping for fuel. Flying weather was excellent for the completion of our flight to Pullman the next day. We awoke on the morning of the 11th to the shocking depiction of the first tower in flames. Shortly thereafter we saw the strike on the second tower. Realizing that a serious international incident had taken place and that attacks on America might continue, our immediate goal was to depart Lewistown quickly, for the safety of our Whitman County home. I was confident we could fly through the mountains to Pullman, undetected by radar and without otherwise disturbing the air traffic control (ATC) system. However, movement of our aircraft was blocked. When I asked the man in front of our airplane, “Who might you be?” He responded, “I might be the Lewistown airport manager.” Having previously been stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base, we rented a car and spent the next few days in Great Falls, Mont. The ATC system would open briefly from time to time, and we would return to Lewistown in unsuccessful efforts to get airborne. We ultimately reached Pullman on Friday evening, Sept. 14, using mandated instrument flight procedures. This caused a Horizon Dash 8 to have to hold west of Pullman for our little airplane to radio, “on the ground.” — Carleton B. Waldrop, Clarkston

We honor the dedication and service of our armed forces and our first responders.

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FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

As the decades pass, our memories evolve When loss and trauma are visited upon humans, the act of remembering takes many forms By TED ANTHONY ASSOC I AT ED PRESS

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Across the vast field where the plane fell out of the sky so many years ago, all is quiet. The hills around Shanksville seem to swallow sound. The plateau that Americans by the millions ascend to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial, to think of those who died in this southwestern Pennsylvania expanse, sits just above much of the landscape, creating a pocket of quiet precisely where quiet needs to be. It is a place that encourages the act of remembering. Twenty years have passed since United Flight 93 made its final descent, chaos unfolding aboard as buildings burned 300 miles to the east. Nearly one-fifth of the country is too young to remember firsthand the day that changed everything. At the edge of the memorial’s overlook, a burly man in a leather Harley Davidson vest talks to two companions. He points toward the patch where the plane hit. It is an intimate conversation, and it is hard to hear what he’s saying. But his first two words are clear: “I remember …” ——— Remembering is not merely a state of mind. As those who beseech us to never forget the Holocaust have long insisted, it is an act. And when loss and trauma are visited upon human beings, the act of remembering takes many forms. Remembering is political. Those who disagree about the fate of Confederate statues across the American South demonstrate that, as do those who dispute how much the war on terror and its toll should be part of discussions about 9/11 memories. Remembering wears many coats. It arrives in ground zero ceremonies and moments of silence and prayers upon prayers, both public and private. It shows itself in folk memorials like those erected at the sides

ABOVE: In this photo taken Sept. 11, 2013, Kellen Savoy, center, helps present the colors as students raise the flag at William Lloyd Meador Elementary School in Willis, Texas. Students and teachers gathered before school to raise the flag to half staff to mark the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. LEFT: In this photo taken Sept. 11, 2002, from left, Shannon Barry, Lisa Starr and Michelle Wagner, all of Hershey, Pa., comfort each other as they listen to a memorial service for victims of Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pa. Associated Press

of lonely roads to mark the sites of traffic deaths. It is embedded in the names of places, like the road that leads to the Flight 93 memorial — the Lincoln Highway. It surfaces in the retrieval of “flashbulb memories” — those where-were-you-when-thishappened moments that stick with us, sometimes accurately, sometimes not. There are personal

memories and cultural memories and political memories, and the line between them often blurs. And for generations, remembering has been presented to us in monuments and memorials like Shanksville’s, negotiated and constructed and fine-tuned to evoke and provoke the memories and emotions of people and

moments in certain ways. “Monuments are history made visible. They are shrines that celebrate the ideals, achievements and heroes that existed in one moment in time,” architectural historian Judith Dupre writes in her 2007 book about them — a book she first pitched to her publisher on, of all dates, Sept. 10, 2001. Yet while monuments

stand, remembering itself evolves. How 9/11 is remembered depends on when 9/11 is remembered. Remembering it on Sept. 15, 2001, or on Sept. 11, 2004 is different from remembering it on Sept 11, 2011 — or, for that matter, different from what it will be Saturday. What, then, does

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32 >> Continued from Page 31 remembering come to mean on a 20th anniversary, or at any juncture when an event like 9/11 starts to recede into the past — starts to become history — even as its echoes are still shaking the foundations of everything? “Our present influences how we remember the past — sometimes in ways that are known and sometimes in ways that we don’t realize,” says Jennifer Talarico, a psychology professor at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania who studies how people form personal memories of public events. Evidence of that is obvious in the events of the past five weeks in Afghanistan, where a 20-year war waged in direct response to 9/11 ended pretty much where it began: with the repressive and violent Taliban in charge once more. “If we were still in Afghanistan and things were stable, we would be remembering 9/11 in probably a very different way than how we will remember it this year,” says Richard Cooper, a vice president at the nonprofit Space Foundation who worked for the Department of Homeland Security for several years after the attacks and has watched many remembrances over the years. “That heartbreak and pain we felt on the morning of Sept. 12, 2001, is resurrecting itself,” Cooper says, “and that impacts how we remember it today.” ——— Even within more static forms of memory, such as the Flight 93 National Memorial, the question of how remembering changes and evolves hangs over so much. In the visitors’ center, visceral, painful artifacts of the moment still bring back the past with astonishing efficiency; twisted, scarred cutlery from in-flight meals is a particularly breathtaking sight. But the variety of remembering that is presented yards away at the quiet overlook and its thoughtful memorial feels more permanent, more eternal — and now, 20 years on, more befitting of something that happened a generation ago. Paul Murdoch of Los Angeles, the lead architect on the memorial, says it was carefully calibrated to resonate across multiple stages of memory about the event and its implications. “You can imagine a memorial approach that sort of freezes anger in time, or

FOREVER REMEMBER: 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

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contested — and will be for a long time to come. “Sober ceremonies should not mislead us into thinking the public remembrance of this horrific event is a settled matter,” 9/11 historian John Bodnar wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece in May. At a hinge point like a major anniversary, particularly with something as seismic as 9/11, it’s easy to fall back on an aphorism like this one from William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” But the saying has endured for a reason. Memory becomes history. And history — shared history — is held onto tightly, sometimes rabidly. It’s why so many people grasp tightly to comforting, nostalgic historical narratives — even when they’re shown to have been as destructive as they were productive. The act of remembering something like 9/11 involves exactly that delicate balance. When memory does become history, it can become more remote, like a Revolutionary War memorial for people whose passions and sacrifices have been sanded down by time. With Associated Press file distance, it can calcify. That’s not going to happen In this photo taken Sept. 11, 2001, the remains of the World Trade Center stand amid other with 9/11 for a long time, of debris following the terrorist attack on the buildings in New York. course. Its politics are still roiling. The arguments that cohesive and homogeneous. Batcho says, responded freezes fear. And that can it produced — and the ways It turns out that it’s much with stories about the be a very expressionistic more complicated than that.” they sent society hurtling piece of art. But I feel like for event. It was remembering in a different direction ——— as shared experience. something to endure over a — are just as intense as May 31, 2002, less than a And no wonder. So many long period of time, I think in those early days. year afterward. Former New first encounters with 9/11 it has to operate a different And when a nation York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the day it happened way,” says Murdoch, who pauses to remember the tells high school students were, in the tradition of co-designed the memorial morning 20 years ago when in Shanksville at their an information age, both with his wife, Milena. it was attacked, it is not only commencement: “A hundred “Now we have a generation separate and communal. looking over its shoulder. years from now, people are People in different parts of people who weren’t even going to come and want to see It is also looking around alive on 9/11,” Murdoch says. of the country and world, it. And they are going to want and wondering: What does “So how do you talk to people under vastly different this mean to us now? to know what happened.” of this new generation — or circumstances, watched the “What is important in Sept. 11, 2016, the 15th of future generations?” same live camera angles making a memorial, in anniversary. President That question is on the same few feeds and Barack Obama says: “Fifteen what you remember and particularly potent on this saw the same, now-indelible in how you remember 20th anniversary. Society views of the destruction in the years may seem like a long it?” J. William Thompson tends to mark generations same way. They experienced time. But for the families who lost a piece of their heart wondered in his elegant in two-decade packages, so it apart, but together. 2017 book, “From Memory that day, I imagine it can there’s an entire one that has That formed a communal to Memorial: Shanksville, seem like just yesterday.” been born and come of age memory of sorts, even if America and Flight 93.” That fundamental tension since the attacks. That hardly sometimes people who Any answers to that are, — it feels like yesterday, means they haven’t been saw the same things didn’t understandably, complex. But paying attention, though; remember them the same way yes, but it is also becoming behind all the formal words part of history for the long they “remember” too, even — a specific camera angle or and ways to commemorate a if they weren’t around. haul — is what confronts vantage point, a key figure’s day that upended the world, Krystine Batcho, a comments, the exact sequence us in the coming days as something more fundamental psychology professor many revisit and consider of events. Remembering lurks: a simple imperative at Le Moyne College in 9/11 and commit their own can be like that, experts like to hold onto a sense of what Syracuse, N.Y., studies Talarico say, particularly with acts of remembering. changed things, and how. how nostalgia works. She For those who were not at intense flashbulb memories On the cover of found something interesting the nucleus of 9/11’s horror like 9/11 that carve deep a couple years ago when grooves but aren’t necessarily and its pain but experienced it Thompson’s book, a man she was researching how as part of the culture in which stands looking at the accurate in the details. young people encountered Shanksville crash site, his they live, it can somehow “We reconstruct the stories that resonated with right arm raised. In his left manage to feel like both event through our own them — both personally yesterday and a long time ago he holds a hand-painted lens, and part of that lens is and through the news. all at once. And as with so sign etched with four words, very social,” Batcho says. Even those who lacked many acts of remembering, one declarative sentence: “You would think that the living memories of 9/11, it is still being debated and memories would be more “I did not forget.” n

9/11 Anniversary September 2021

Articles inside

“We will lose a lot of freedoms”

As the decades pass, our memories evolve

Dark debut for an enlightening program

The sleeping giant of 1941 and of America today

Looking back on their service

Shadow of death; terrorists attack from the sky

Area fi refi ghters take ‘never forget’ seriously

Time has passed, but memory still fresh of that day in D.C

Veterans compare terrorism with Pearl Harbor

Grangeville alone has a busy airport

‘Everything came to a stop’

Attacks triggered changes to life in U.S

Memories from being there