US marks 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.
The milestone anniversary brought memorial rituals -- wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names -- and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll. On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Elsie Caldwell carried a photograph of her son Kenny Caldwell to the trade center to hear his name and all the others read aloud Friday morning. She last spoke to him that morning a quarter-century ago.
“Mom, I just want to let you know that I love you,” her son told her in a final phone call, she recalled. His remains, like those of many other victims, have never been recovered.
The attacks brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers -- icons of U.S. economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth -- and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military’s fortresslike headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane was headed for Washington, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.
“Sept. 11 reminded us of the terrible power of hate,” President Donald Trump said Friday at the Pentagon’s anniversary ceremony.
“The 25 years since have shown us the even greater power of the American spirit to endure and prevail, and to win,” added the Republican, who was in his native New York on 9/11.
Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on 9/11, attended the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, along with former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and current Vice President JD Vance. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wiped away a tear as he revisited the place where the attacks killed 658 of his colleagues -- including his brother, Gary Lutnick -- at the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum laid a wreath at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania after hailing the courage of the plane’s passengers and crew: “The actions they took should inspire us all.”
GROUND ZERO TRIBUTE
For Angilic Casalduc, attending the New York commemoration “helps to show you’re not alone.” She lost her mother, Vivian Casalduc.
“There’s no timeline for grief, and unfortunately, no one can say how you can grieve, but coming here once a year makes it feel just a little bit better,” she said.
Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the ground zero commemoration, where victims’ relatives read aloud the long list of names and added personal messages. They thanked first responders and the military, invoked religious faith, appealed for national unity and touched on the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia. The kingdom was the homeland of most of the hijackers but denied any involvement in the attacks.
Mostly, relatives spoke of, and to, loved ones -- whom some were too young to remember.
“You dreamed my whole life for me, and you only got eight months of it,” said Trisha Pakkala, who lost her mother, Deepa Pakkala.
Kiersten Haub, who was 16 months old when the attacks killed her father, firefighter Michael Helmut Haub, said: “I carry you through every milestone.”
Besides moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline, this year’s ceremony added another moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.
It’s a reminder of how the attacks’ long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.
The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan -- the latter Washington’s longest war -- and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but the accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.
The attacks changed U.S. air travel, led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom.
Sept. 11 engendered a culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan, ” If you see something, say something,” while a wave of patriotism propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments and police forces.
Casey Kloepfer was 4 when his father, police Officer Ronald Kloepfer, was killed at the trade center. The son became an officer himself this June, wearing his dad’s badge number.
“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” he said by phone this week.