COURT HOUSE – At the county’s 9/11 Memorial Ceremony at the Cape May County Administration Building, the repeated message was to remember those who died Sept. 11, 2001, as well as those who respond to emergencies every day.
County, state, and federal officials, in turn, spoke about the great loss our nation faced when nearly 3,000 lives were lost from the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the forced crash of Flight 93 in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency would later link the attacks to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The suicide attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda militants.
U. S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd) referred to Flight 93 in his remarks, saying those who intervened in the terrorist takeover of the plane, ultimately forcing it to crash, were thinking of the lives they would save when they laid down their lives, 21 years ago.
Van Drew also spoke of individuals who escaped death from the initial impacts of the planes into the World Trade Center, getting out of the building alive; but who went back in several times in order to save others. These young men, he said, repeatedly risked their lives, and ultimately died in their heroic attempts to save others.
Capt. Warren Judge, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center (TRACEN) Cape May, also referred to first responders who gave their lives responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. Of the 2,977 victims who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, 415 were emergency workers.
In A Little Over an Hour, the Nation Was Changed Forever
Van Drew, County Commissioner E. Marie Hayes, and Board of County Commissioners Director Gerald Thornton all referred to the day starting out like any other workday. Van Drew said he first received a phone call from a friend who called and said a “prop plane” had crashed into the World Trade Center.
“We all thought it was some goofy accident,” he said.
Thornton said he was just finishing his breakfast cereal when he heard about the attacks over the TV news. He was reminded of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, during World War II, when 2,335 American military personnel lost their lives. Thornton, an Air Force veteran, worked in Air Traffic Intercept Control, and his mind went to the immediate military response to an attack in the airspace.
“I can tell you it’s a major, major response,” he said.
Thornton said he also considered the complications of shutting down all flights, both domestic and international.
Hayes said she was just settling into a morning meeting at her job in the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office when someone came in and told them to come and see what was being reported on the news. Again, their first understanding was that a small plane had accidentally struck one of the Twin Towers.
Her office soon became aware that four commercial airliners had been used in attacks on American targets. There was a call for assistance in the rescue effort. Members of her department were quickly on their way to New York City.
She said as they traveled up the Garden State Parkway, cars were pulling over for what was becoming a caravan of first responders heading for the Meadowlands, where out-of-town crews were assembling.
“People who were aware of what happened and where we were going were standing alongside the Parkway, waving and saluting,” Hayes said.
Hayes described how it became immediately silent when they saw smoke billowing from what would later be described as “ground zero” of the attack. She said another deafening silence would envelop them as they returned home after being told there was only a recovery effort, and no one to rescue.
“We could not help,” she said.
Judge told the audience, which filled the County Commissioners’ meeting room, that the Coast Guard was immediately pulled into action to respond to the attack in New York.
“The Coast Guard directed an evacuation of over 500,000 people – the largest maritime evacuation in history,” Judge said.
The events of the day resulted in the formation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with the U.S. Coast Guard being named as the lead maritime agency in the department.
County Commissioner Jeff Pierson, U.S. Army brigadier general (retired) served as master of ceremonies for the 9/11 Memorial Ceremony.
Thoughts? Email csouth@cmcherald.com.
