It was an event to honor the thousands of souls snuffed out in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil in history but many who attended Thursday’s 9/11 observance in Ceres came with heavy hearts over the assassination of conservation movement leader Charlie Kirk less than 24 hours before.
Kathy Casey, holding onto the arm of her husband, Councilman James Casey, was tearful. She openly questioned what is happening in America and said, “We need to pray for our country.”
Ceres American Legion Post Commander Pete Samaniego led the ceremony and also mentioned the Utah shooting witnesses by thousands.
“There’s no sense in carrying out the way individuals do and the way they think,” said Samaniego. “Like it was said, leave it at the voting ballot. The individual who carried this out yesterday is against our democracy and we are stronger than that. So we must stay united. God bless America.”
Samaniego recalled the horror of that day 24 years ago when Americans were shocked and mourning at another horrific news event.
“On this day, 24 years ago, America was attacked by a foreign terrorist group that did not approve of our democracy,” he said. “At approximately 8:46, on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767, loaded was 20,000 gallons of fuel crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Eighteen minutes later, the second plane hit the South Tower. Immediately it became clear that America was under attack.
“At 9:45, another plane crashed into the west side of the Pentagon. As the chaos was unfolding in Washington, United Flight 93 was hijacked after leaving New Jersey, crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pa. A total of 2,977 innocent people were killed in the 9/11 attack. Men, women, and children from all around the world lost their lives on that day. First responders took a heavy toll, including 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City Police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers. At the Pentagon, 125 military support staffs were killed. To this day, more have died from toxic exposure.”
Each year the death count from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks has inched upward due to the deaths attributed to the toxins which affected many when the planes brought down buildings.
About 50 persons – including many firefighters, police officers and city officials – gathered around the war memorials at Whitmore Park for the short remembrance on the 24th anniversary of the attack. It was hosted by members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Legion Friday morning at Whitmore Park. The ceremony included remarks by Ceres American Legion Commander Pete Samaniego, a 21-gun honor guard salute and the playing of taps.
Also attending the event at the Ceres War Memorial in Whitmore Park were members of the Hughson Post of the American Legion and Squadron 872 of the Sons of the American Legion.
The ceremony involved ringing of a bell four times after the roll call for those killed at the four locations, followed by the pronouncement, “No answer.”
The attack – accomplished when Islamic extremists hijacked three planes loaded with passengers and fuel and flew them into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon – was the worst in American history.
Thirty-seven innocent persons on Flight 93, which was en route from Newark, NJ to San Francisco International Airport and would have passed over Stanislaus County on its approach, was overpowered by passengers taking on the hijackers which brought down the plane into a Shanksville, Pennsylvania corn field. Today a national memorial pays tribute to the 37 innocent passengers who were killed instantly.
More than 2,990 people died at the World Trade Center in New York City, and 256 on the four planes were killed. In addition, 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority Police officers were killed.
As the fires raged inside the towers, some 100 to 200 people plummeted at speeds of 125 mph to 200 mph to their deaths rather than burn to death. Some eyewitnesses believe they saw people jumping in pairs or in groups, and one survivor claimed to have seen as many as six individuals all holding hands as they fell.
As of August 2013, medical authorities concluded that 1,140 people who worked, lived, or studied in Lower Manhattan at the time of the attacks have been diagnosed with cancer as a result of “exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.”
At the Pentagon, 125 military and support staff were killed when terrorists flew the plane into the building. Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army Deputy Chief of Staff, was the highest-ranking military official killed at the Pentagon.
The death toll of 2,997 surpassed the 2,403 killed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
The attack prompted the United States to go to war on Oct. 7, 2001.
