‘Our country came together’
On anniversary, Greenwich vows to never forget 9/11
GREENWICH — At a 9/11 memorial ceremony Friday evening outside the Glenville Fire Station, the speakers urged the gathered crowd to remember the 33 people with ties to the town who died in the terror attacks that day and to remember the first responders who put their lives on the line to help.
But they also challenged the crowd of over 150 people to remember the sense
of community that brought the country together in the days after the terror attacks.
“Twenty years have gone by, and it’s a day that changed Americans forever,” said Glenville Volunteer Fire Company Chief Mike Hoha, with a giant American flag unfurled behind him from a fire truck.
“We have not forgotten those who perished that day,” Hoha said. “But today is also a day of remembrance. Remember how our Glenville community, our town, our state, our country came together and supported each other after the dark days of 9/11?”
First Selectman Fred Camillo also reflected on the terror attacks two decades ago on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., calling it a “solemn day for us all.”
“It’s been said many times over the last 20 years that those who attacked us did so to break our spirit — but exactly the opposite happened,” Camillo said. “Americans came together with a resolve to never forget that day or those attacks and never take for granted our freedoms. They served notice to all that Americans will always fight to protect our freedoms. The resolve that was born on Sept. 11, 2001, will remain for as long as people gather to remember in venues like this.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a town resident who was heading to work just a few blocks away from the World Trade Center when the attacks occurred, reflected on what it means to never forget.
He spoke about never forgetting the thousands of innocent Americans who lost their lives in the attacks and said it was “enough to shake your sense of justice.” Himes spoke about never forgetting the first responders and said the firefighters who were in full gear about to head upstairs in the World Trade Center after the planes hit didn’t know they were living the last hours of their lives.
“That’s the world that our first responders, our police officers and our firefighters live in, and we can’t just remember them and the nobility of their mission on anniversaries of 9/11,” said Himes, D-4th District. “We remember that every day. We never forget that.”
Himes also spoke about remembering the “selfless service” of those in the U.S. military all over the world.
And he reminded the crowd to remember how the country felt on Sept. 12, 2001. That is what Himes said he will work hardest to remember. He recalled how even in a “tough town” like New York, on Sept. 12, everyone was thinking about donating blood, taking food to firefighters, reassuring police officers and helping others.
“In that moment when we were attacked, we remembered that we are family,” Himes said. “We have our disagreements, but fundamentally, when horrible things happen, we’re there for each other.
“We’re in a very angry time right now. I’ll be angry later and you’ll be angry later because of the pandemic and masks and vaccines and Biden this and Trump that. We’re in a very angry time,” he said.
“So maybe the legacy we can all undertake on behalf of those lives lost and those first responders and our military service people is that tonight or tomorrow when we get angry, stop a second and remember Sept. 12,” Himes said. “Remember that feeling that we had, and we’ll be better people and worthy of the sacrifices that all of those people made for us.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. and a town resident, echoed that theme.
“We can still recover that spirit of Sept. 12,” Blumenthal said. “It is in us as Americans. We are here, regardless of what our differences are, because we’re reaffirming those values and that spirit of that day.”
Bluementhal noted the work of the thousands of firefighters, police and first responders who went to ground zero after the attacks to recover victims. Many became sick, and now more people have died from the effects of the toxic material at ground zero than were killed in the attacks, he said.
“We owe them justice and should never forget them,” Blumenthal said.
The crowd gathered near a piece of steel from the World Trade Center that has been turned into a Sept. 11 memorial outside the fire station. Hoha and Susan Wohlforth, a town resident whose husband, Martin Wohlforth, was killed in the attacks, placed a wreath by the memorial.
Volunteer fire company member Frank Napolitano, who served as master of ceremonies, paid tribute to the memory of company life members Carl Peck and former town fire chief and Emergency Management Director Dan Warzoha, who recently passed away.
“Both of them were our twin towers,” Napolitano said. “They were the heart and soul of Glenville.”
Other town officials at the ceremony included state Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-36; state Reps. Kimberly Fiorello, R-149, Stephen Meskers, D-150, and Harry Arora, R-151; Selectwoman Lauren Rabin; Selectperson Jill Oberlander; former Selectman John Toner; Chief of Police James Heavey; Fire Chief Joseph McHugh; and GEMS Executive Director Tracy Schietinger.
The memorial was built with private fundraising and with the support of the families of the local victims. It was then given as a gift to the town and erected in the park, overlooking the harbor.
Saturday’s ceremony in Cos Cob follow the time frame of the attacks, beginning exactly at 8:46 a.m., with a cannon shot and a bell ring to mark when the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
Another bell rang at 9:03 a.m., when the second tower was hit, followed by another one on 9:37 a.m., when the plane hit the Pentagon. Bells also rang at 10:03 a.m. for the plane crash in Shanksville, Pa., and at 10:28 a.m., when the first tower collapsed.
Those in attendance placed flowers at the base of the memorial, an annual tradition.
The names of the 33 people connected to Greenwich who were killed in the terror attacks were read aloud at the ceremonies in Cos Cob and in Glenville.