Ceremony in Harford remembers 9/11 victims
Moment of silence follows wreath-laying at county government HQ Tuesday
Tuesday dawned gray and misty in Bel Air, but Harford County Executive Barry Glassman remembered it being much different 17 years ago — on Sept. 11, 2001.
“It was the brightest and bluest sky,” said Glassman, recalling the morning when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people in attacks against the United States in New York, Northern Virginia and Pennsylvania, using hijacked jetliners.
Between 75 and 100 people attended a wreath-laying ceremony Tuesday in front of the Harford County administration building.
The event was one of many held throughout the region; officials marked the occasion in Annapolis, Baltimore, Towson, Westminster and elsewhere.
The 9/11 attacks were carried out by members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Tuesday’s ceremony in Harford included a moment of silence around 8:46 a.m., the moment when the first of two planes struck the World Trade Center towers. The Pentagon also was struck by a hijacked airplane and a fourth plane, United Flight 93, crashed in western Pennsylvania after passengers tried to retake the cockpit.
Tuesday’s ceremony honored those who died on 9/11, including three with ties to Harford County.
Joseph V. Maggitti, an Abingdon resident, died at the World Trade Center and Willie Q. Troy, who lived at Aberdeen Proving Ground, died at the Pentagon. Deborah Jacobs Welsh, whose husband Patrick grew up in Bel Air, was a flight attendant who perished on Flight 93.
Glassman noted those losses and also others with connections to Harford whom he said have died while serving in the military following the 9/11 attacks.
“We have lost a lot of American boys and girls that went over to bring justice to the terrorists that brought down those build- A group of Harford County employees, led by County Executive Barry Glassman, joined by veterans, firemen, police officers and others, stand and bow their heads during a moment of silence to honor those lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ings, but also to root out and find the culprit, which we did,” said Glassman, referring to the death of then-al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was shot and killed in 2011 when Navy SEALs raided his compound in Pakistan.
“As we lay this wreath, we thank God for the blessings that America has brought to us and that we have risen above those terrorist attacks, and we are stronger today,” Glassman said. “We all are Americans, and we stand together in these times.”
Hundreds of first responders — firefighters, EMSworkers and police officers — died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York.
The attacks changed how first responders approach their job, not only by incorporating terrorism into emergency planning but also in the ways that agencies share information and interact with those they serve.
Edward Hopkins, director of the county’s Department of Emergency Services who also has worked for the county sheriff’s office and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, said firefighters and emergency medical personnel must con- sider their own safety as well as the needs of those in peril when responding to a scene. That’s not only because of 9/11, but also because of the increase in mass shootings and assaults on first responders in recent years.
Still, on the anniversary of a day when the nation saw first responders as heroes against an attack on the nation, he recalled the bravery of those who died that day, and those who continue to serve.
“9/11 reminds us we can never be complacent,” he said.