17 years later, marking that fateful day

Time has a way of dimming our collecive memories. But not the memories of this fateful September day.

Time has a way of dimming our memories. Not this one. Not the day that remains seared into our consciousness. Seventeen years ago today. A brilliant blue sky forever stained by a plume of smoke rising from the World Trade Center in New York City. Sept. 11, 2001. 8:46 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 slams into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

9:03 a.m.: Hijackers fly United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

9:37 a.m.: Hijackers fly American Airlines Flight 77 into the western façade of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

9:59 a.m.: The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

10:07 a.m.: United Flight 93, commandeered by hijackers headed for the nation’s capital, slams into the ground near the town of Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew attempt to take back control of the plane.

10:28 a.m.: The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, 102 minutes after it was struck. 102 Minutes. One hour, 42 minutes that changed our world forever.

The smoke that emanated from the lower end of Manhattan, the Pentagon, and Shanksville continues to swirl over a changed nation, one that now knows all too well it is not immune to terrorist acts.

This is the nation that pauses to make sure no one forgets what happened during those fateful 102 minutes.

America lost 2,996 citizens in the Sept. 11 attacks – 2,606 of them in the World Trade Center and surrounding area. Another 6,000 were injured.

Sunday in Somerset County, the heroism of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 was recalled with the dedication of a concrete and steel tower that reaches into the same sky from which they plummeted to their deaths, giving their lives to prevent the hijackers from completing their mission to Washington.

The Tower of Voices will ring 40 chimes, one for each of the voices of the 40 passengers and crew lost on Flight 93.

Tom Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania who went on to become President George W. Bush’s choice to lead the newly formed Department of Homeland Security in the wake of Sept. 11, was on hand.

Ridge referred to Sept. 11 as “the day that lives were lost so that other lives were saved,” a reference to the decision by passengers and crew to retake the jet. “Heroes were made over the skies of Shanksville.”

The chimes will generate a distinctive sound, and rows of trees surrounding the tower symbolize sound waves.

The tower, standing 93 feet tall to honor the doomed flight, is the finishing piece in the 2,200-acre national park, including the 44-acre fencedoff area of the impact zone, where Flight 93 slammed into the ground at 563 mph.

The Tower of Voices may be the most imposing reminder of that fateful day this year, but it is certainly not the only one.

In Delaware County, Edward Caleo focused on 9/11 as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Caleo took up the project to construct a memorial to those lost on 9/11 and also spruce up the Spirit of America Park in Ridley Park.

Caleo, who is starting his senior year at Ridley High School, wasn’t satisfied with simply cleaning up the park and restoring it, he wanted a lasting memorial.

The end result is two 6-foot-tall replica Twin Towers on an 8,000-pound concrete, pentagon-shaped base, with a dedication plaque in the shape of a keystone that represents each of the three sites struck by the hijacked jets.

A special unveiling event to be held Sunday got rained out. It has been rescheduled for noon Saturday.

Whether in Manhattan, Shanksville, Pa., Washington, D.C., Ridley Park or countless other communities , the sentiment will remain the same.

A sense of a changed world, one far more dangerous than most envisioned before that fateful day.

And one we mark each year with simple resolve and a two-word commandment.

Never Forget.