Photo Page: Remembering 9/11

from Northwest Observer / Sept. 16-29, 2021

by pscommunications

Crime/Incident Report

Sept. 11, 2021

Ceremonies for the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were held at the amphitheater in Oak Ridge Town Park and at Stokesdale Fire Department on Saturday, Sept. 11. In Oak Ridge, Special Events Committee Chairperson Patti Dmuchowski (left) recounted learning about the attacks while working her corporate job near Newark airport in New Jersey, and the deafening silence in the skies immediately afterward as well as the sense of patriotism that ensued in the weeks and months that followed as our nation both mourned together and united. Mayor Pro Tem Jim Kinneman spoke of the need to embrace cultural, political, religious and other differences rather than use them as wedges to divide. Members of Scouts BSA Troop 600B and Troop 219G, and Sea Scout Ship 3, participated in both the ceremony in Oak Ridge and in Stokesdale.

In photo below right, Smith Brown (Scouts BSA Troop 600B), Stewart Chipman (Sea Scout Ship 3), Dylan Hirko (Scouts BSA Troop 600B), and Lindsay Claspell (Scouts BSA Troop 219G) present the flag at the beginning of the ceremony in Oak Ridge and in middle photo, Andrew Gunter (Scouts BSA Troop 600B) plays Taps while standing on a hill overlooking the amphitheater. In photo far right, two Scouts ring a bell at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m., the times of the first and second plane crashes on Sept. 11, 2001.

In Stokesdale, former town councilman Frank Bruno, organizer of the annual 9/11 ceremony in the town, said he could remember everything he was doing the morning of the terrorist attacks, and in the days that followed. “As we were watching the news about the first plane, we saw a second plane hit the World Trade Center … and then we knew the world had changed,” he said. “… My cousin was in the first tower that was hit and we didn’t know for the first 12 to 18 hours if she was alive. All she remembers from that day is a firefighter running her out of the building and telling her to ‘run’ – and then he ran back into the building. So you think about all those first responders. I think, even if they knew those buildings were about to fall, they would have still run in there to help because that’s what they were trained to do and that’s what their lives were all about. It’s a sad thing to remember that day, but today is about paying tribute to those people.”

Over 100 people, including Scouts, town council members and first responders, attended the ceremony in Stokesdale. Near right, (L to R), Stokesdale Fire Deputy Chief Randy Southard, Mayor John Flynt (behind Southard), Pastor David Bailey and Stokesdale Fire Chief Todd Gauldin stand at attention as Scouts perform the flag ceremony.