Troy VFW, first responders remember 9/11
Members of the Troy Veterans of Foreign Wars, law enforcement and fire departments held a solemn ceremony on the evening of Monday, Sept. 11, to remember those who died in the terrorist attacks in 2001. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
In a moving and solemn service, members of the Troy Veterans of Foreign Wars and first responders from police and fire departments in the Troy area held their annual ceremony Monday, Sept. 11, to recall the terrorist attacks on our country in 2001.
The "Fireman's Prayer was read, a recorded version of "Amazing Grace" using bagpipes was played and Troy Volunteer Fire Department members presented the colors of the United State, state of Montana and its department.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks carried out by 19 terrorists from al-Qaeda who hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed them into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
According to 911memorial.org, after learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about 20 minutes by air from Washington, D.C.
The attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 nations, including 2,753 people in New York, 184 people killed at the Pentagon and 40 people were killed on Flight 93.
The 9/11 Memorial opened on Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It is located on the western side of the former World Trade Center complex where the Twin Towers once stood. The memorial was designed by two architects, Michael Arad and Peter Walker, whose proposal was selected in a design competition out of 5,201 submissions from 63 countries.
The Memorial Plaza surrounds two enormous reflecting pools set within the footprints of the North and South Towers. This is where the towers used to stand. The pools feature 30-foot waterfalls—the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. The water cascades into reflecting pools, finally disappearing into the center voids. The names of people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and on Flight 93, as well as in the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center, are etched in bronze around the edges of the pools.
The plaza is lined with cobblestones and has more than 400 swamp white oak trees, creating a space for reflection separate from the sights and sounds of the surrounding city. The trees were selected from within a 500-mile radius of the WTC site, including nurseries located in New York, Pennsylvania, and near Washington, D.C., to symbolize areas impacted on 9/11.
The 9/11 Memorial Museum opened on May 21, 2014. It is located beneath the Memorial Plaza. Visitors enter the Museum through the Pavilion, where two steel “tridents” — remnants of the North Tower’s façade — stand in the building’s Atrium Terrace.
The main exhibition space is located seven stories below the 9/11 Memorial at the bedrock foundations of the World Trade Center. The Museum offers displays of artifacts from the WTC and 9/11 attacks, interactive exhibitions, contemplative areas, and programs that convey individual and collective stories relating the experiences of survivors, first responders, area residents, and eyewitnesses. A memorial exhibition honors the individual victims of the attacks.