As survivors, friends and family of those killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 arrived at a remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon on Sunday, the noise from jetliners bound for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport drowned out conversation, and served as a somber reminder of the crash that took so many lives that day. But at 9:37 a.m. — silence.
The quiet marked the moment American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon 10 years ago and killed 184 people.
On Sunday, the American flag hung on that west side just as it did in the month following the terrorist attack as a symbol of the country’s perseverance.
At the ceremony, where some families and friends wore T-shirts bearing the portrait of their loved one, officials spoke of sacrifice and the American spirit.
Vice President Biden compared the generation of soldiers who emerged after 9/11 to the Great Generation of World War II veterans.
“The 9/11 generation ranks among the greatest our nation ever produced, and it was born, born, born right here on 9/11,” he said.
Biden, who lost his wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972, also acknowledged the difficulty of coming back to where so many lives were lost.
“I know what it’s like to receive that call that the dearest one in your life is gone,” he said. “This brings it all back.”
Military leaders paid homage to those who died here on 9/11, but also to the more than 4,700 troops who have been killed so far in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed. More than 2 million men and women have been deployed there over the last decade.
“Like those [victims] of 9/11, we will always remember that they paid the ultimate sacrifice for America,” said Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
The service honoring the victims of the Pentagon attack included a ceremony with soldiers laying yellow and white wreaths one at a time at all 184 benches memorializing each victim.
John Allen Jr., 26, whose mother, Samantha Lightbourn-Allen, was a Pentagon employee, said he thought that was the most moving part of the service.
President Obama also laid a wreath at the memorial later Sunday afternoon after visiting the site of the World Trade Center attack in New York, and Shanksville, Penn., where a plane meant for the White House crashed after passengers wrested control back from the hijackers.
At the Pentagon, Allen said the morning ceremony speeches were nice, “but words don’t really change anything.”
The Clinton, Md., resident said he tries to memorialize his mother by following her example of working hard and being a good provider.
Joan Tepestilli, whose son-in-law Capt. Robert Dolan worked in the Pentagon, said after the morning ceremony it’s hard to tell those who were not directly affected by 9/11 how they have coped.
“You don’t go on,” she said. “You move forward.”
