NEVER FORGET

City holds flag raising ceremony in remembrance of 9/11

The terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 have left an indelible mark on this country with many remembering exactly where they were and what they were doing when passenger airplanes struck both of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The city of San Marcos hosts an annual ceremony not to remember the terror inflicted on this country but to remember the heroes that saved lives in the twin towers and those that prevented a fourth plane from striking the White House.

San Marcos City Manager Stephanie Reyes acknowledged the sadness of the day while recognizing the beauty of remembrance.

“As I stand here today surrounded by my neighbors, colleagues, elected officials and some of our local heroes, I am reminded of the preciousness of life and our fortune to live in a country that values truth, representation and freedom of expression,” Reyes said. “Today, we are here to honor those who perished as a result of the attacks against our fundamental values. We will never forget the precious lives that we lost at ground zero, on flight 93 in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.”

San Marcos Assistant Fire Chief Jim Matano dedicated his speech to the lives of both heroes and victims that were lost during 9/11.

“Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the attacks where a total of 2,977 people were killed in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. Of those who perished during the initial attacks and subsequent collapses of the towers, 343 were New York City Firefighters, 23 were New York City Police Officers and 37 were Port Authority Police Officers,” Matano said. “On the back of all of our fire trucks, you'll see where it says, ‘Keep back 343 feet.’ That's the small way that we remind everyone of that number. It's because of the 343 firefighters that died doing their best to save those in the twin towers on Sept. 11. Never forgetting means never forgetting it.”

San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge decided to remind the community of the heroes aboard United Flight 93 that prevented that plane from crashing into the White House. The hijackers were able to breach the cockpit and forced all of the passengers to the rear of the plane while the terrorists remained at the front. The passengers were making phone calls in which they found out the magnitude of what had been occurring with the other hijacked flights.

“The phone calls between family members continue for minutes, and according to the persons who were on those receiving phone calls, they received notification that the passengers had agreed to do a sustained assault on their own volition with no training, going against hijackers that they knew were armed with what they believed were knives, which were actually box cutting instruments,” Standridge said. “So at 9:57 in the morning, our peers, our moms, our dads, our brothers and our sisters, took decisive action, and they began a passenger assault. One of the passengers was still on a phone call when he says, and I quote, ‘Everyone is running up to first class, I've gotta go bye.’ Everybody was a part of this sustained assault.”

Standridge said the hijackers then realized their plans could not be accomplished, and according to the cockpit recorder, decided to crash the plane where they were.

“Ultimately, at 10:02 they are traveling [and] continued heading to Washington, D.C. They are just a mere seconds from able to breach that cockpit when the terrorist decides, ultimately, that they are going to take the aircraft down. Consequently, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 580 miles per hour — 20 minutes from reaching Washington, DC. The terrorist objective was to crash the airliner into symbols of the American republic, specifically the Capitol or the White House,” Standridge said. “They were defeated by unarmed passengers of United 93 who we know as American heroes. They remind us that freedom is never free. In fact, freedom is incredibly costly.”

San Marcos Firefighters raised the same flag that was flown on Sept. 11, 2001.