USA TODAY International Edition
Emotional tributes mark 15th anniversary of 9/ 11
NEW YORK — Emotionally charged ceremonies at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon in Virginia and a rural field in western Pennsylvania marked the 15th anniversary Sunday of the most deadly terror attack in U. S. history.
Bells tolled across much of the nation at 8: 46 a. m. ET, the moment the first plane struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Thousands gathered here to listen as family members, after a moment of silence, began solemnly reading the names of the almost 3,000 victims.
Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump attended the ceremony, but this event wasn’t about them. Lionel Keaton traveled by bus from North Carolina with 50 relatives to remember his niece Tamitha Freeman, 35, who died in the South Tower.
“We just decided as a family since it was the 15th anniversary that we would all get together and make a bus trip to New York to celebrate her life,” Keaton said.
At the Pentagon, President Obama participated in a wreath ceremony and paid tribute to the victims. “No deed we do can ever truly erase the pain of their absence,” Obama said. “Your stead- fast love and faithfulness has been an inspiration to me and our entire country.”
Defense Secretary Ash Carter vowed to hunt down all who attack Americans. “Wherever they are, they will surely, no matter how long it takes, come to feel the righteous fist of American might.”
In Pennsylvania, Gordon Felt lost a brother on United Airlines Flight 93, which flew out of Newark bound for San Francisco. The 9/ 11 Commission determined the hijackers were heading for a target in Washington, D. C., when the plane went down. “Patriotism and heroism” were on display that day, Felt said.
“I hope we don’t move beyond. We can’t leave the events of Sept. 11 behind,” Felt said. “It will always be bittersweet for me.”
In New York, the names of the 2,977 people who died that day, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, are read every year. The solemn process was paused at 9: 03 a. m. ET to recall the moment a second plane hit the South Tower. Another pause, at 9: 59 a. m., marked the moment the South Tower fell, spewing steel and dust across Lower Manhattan. The silence was broken by a flautist playing Danny Boy.