11 September, 2024 by Eric Dunkelberger

My morning today began at 5AM with my Bible. As the sun began to rise, I lowered my flags to half staff. It was 23 years ago that terrorists commandeered four jet airliners, flying them into each of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The fourth plane flew into the ground in Pennsylvania, after passengers, realizing the scope of the events, heroically rebelled against the terrorists, thwarting the plans to fly the plane into another important target. The lowered flags honors the response in the aftermath!

Immediately, First Responders rushed to the scenes in New York City, Washington DC and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In NYC, Police and Firefighters ran into the damaged buildings in an effort to rescue their fellow citizens, with no thought of their own safety. Tragically, the Twin Towers fell, resulting in 2977 deaths, including 343 FDNY firefighters, 71 NYPD law enforcement officers and 37 members of the Port Authority Police Department.

Every generation has its definable moment that everyone remembers. The people from 1914-1918 had World War One. The late 1920’s to 1940 had the Great Depression. Those from 1941 to 1945 remember World War Two. Everyone remembers where they were when John F Kennedy was shot and killed. I certainly remember it, as well as when Ronald Reagan was shot less that 20 years later. Those who were at least 15 years of age and above more than likely remember those events of September 11, 2001.

On that morning, I had started my day arriving at work around 8AM. I was the Human Resource Manager for the company and I was checking in with the sales staff. I worked for a construction staffing service, placing journeymen construction workers on jobsites across the country. After the first plane hit the North Tower, our receptionist called me to tell me what had just happened. I rushed into the breakroom, where the TV was on. Fifteen minutes later, the second plane crashed into the South Tower and everyone in the room knew we were under attack! Shortly after, The phone started ringing in my office. We had between 25%-30% of our jobsites on military bases. After the second plane, the military went on high alert and closed all bases to everyone not military personnel. Our construction workers were being escorted off bases.

My flags, the flags of the nation, today, are at half staff, as I mentioned. It is to honor those who lost their lives that day. It’s to honor those who have lost their lives from the toxic environment from the subsequent clean up. We continue 23 years later to lose people from that day’s events. But we honor the spirit America showed immediately after all those initial lives were lost. Within hours of the collapse of those towers, I began getting phone calls from workers wanting to volunteer their services toward the clean-up. We had been hit, but we were not down! That spirit is still there today.

That day, we began to say “Never Forget” and “Always Remember”. We need to honor that. People who are 30 or below were either not born then or too young to remember that day. We need to tell them what happened. We need to tell them of the heroes that day and who came later. Let’s honor them by remembering!