RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany —Before the first boots hit the pavement, every participant reached into a wooden crate and pulled out a lanyard.
Printed on each badge was a face, rank, and name of an emergency worker or first responder who ran toward danger on Sept. 11, 2001, and never returned. For the hundreds of service members, allied partners, and families gathered at Ramstein to mark the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the gesture made the morning’s mission personal: No one walked alone.
Ramstein’s seventh annual Sept. 11 Memorial March brought Kaiserslautern Military Community together for either a 3-kilometer route or an extended 6-kilometer march across the Woodlawn Golf Course.
Senior leaders from across the joint force joined the observance, including Lt. Gen. Mary Izaguirre, the Army surgeon general; Command Sgt. Maj. John Dobbins, U.S. Army Medical Command senior enlisted leader; Chief Warrant Officer 5 Terrence Ward, command chief warrant officer; and Brig. Gen. Denny Davies, commander of 86th Airlift Wing.
Davies opened the ceremony reflecting on the lasting bonds that Sept. 11 forged among service members and international allies. He then introduced the keynote speaker,Col. Labra, whose connection to the attacks and wars that followed became deeply personal.
Labra recalled being stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on Sept. 11, 2001, and watching the installation quickly transition to a heightened security posture. Six months later, while deployed, his own life changed dramatically.
"While investigating a site used for attacks against our base, a cinder-block wall collapsed on me,"Labra said. "It left me with compound fractures in my legs, a broken pelvis, and a broken spine. I was evacuated through Baghdad, Kuwait, and Ramstein, and eventually found myself on Ward 8D at Landstuhl, where I spent a couple of weeks."
The crowd listened in silence as Labra described the medical evacuation system that carried him from the battlefield through multiple levels of care and to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
“The care I received at LRMC changed everything for me,”Labra said.“Later, while recovering, I was asked to help a recently wounded friend from my unit who had been shot in Baghdad. In that moment, I realized that I could use what I had learned to help guide him through the tornado that had dropped into his life.”
As a patient, Labra said, he had learned how overwhelming severe injury, evacuation and recovery could be both for a service member and their family. Helping another wounded Soldier navigate that same experience gave him a new sense of purpose.
“That journey being broken, being rebuilt by military medicine, helping my fellow wounded and honoring the fallen compelled me to leave artillery, become a physician, and spend my life paying back the care that had been given to me and my family,” Labra said.
He compared the lasting effects of traumatic experiences to the way the human body heals after a serious wound.
“When tissue suffers a catastrophic wound, the body forms a scar,” Labra said. “The wound closes, but its structure changes. The scar enables survival, yet the tissue never looks or feels the same.”
His message connected the individual scars carried by service members and families with the broader national memory of Sept. 11, a day that changed the country and shaped a generation of military service.
Following Labra’s remarks, a Ramstein firefighter rang a ceremonial bell as the "Fireman's Prayer" was being read. The bell ceremony incorporated the traditional "four fives" signal historically associated with honoring firefighters who died in the line of duty.
Participants then stepped onto the course carrying the names of those emergency responders being remembered.
Young Airmen walked alongside experienced noncommissioned officers. Soldiers rucked across the course while families moved beside them, the memorial lanyards visible against uniforms or shirts.
The 3-kilometer route followed nine holes of the Woodlawn Golf Course, while the participants completing the 6 km march continued across all eighteen holes.
The physical challenge was modest compared with its significance. Each step allowed participants to honor those lost-on Sept. 11 and acknowledge the service members, first responders, and families affected by the attacks and subsequent conflicts.
As participants crossed the finish, the event ended much as it had begun with remembrance rather than celebration.
Twenty-five years after Sept. 11, the Kaiserslautern Military Community demonstrated that remembrance is more than looking back. It is a commitment carried forward by each generation that serves, remembers those who came before and continues to answer the call.
| Date Taken: |
09.12.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
09.12.2026 02:44 |
| Story ID: |
574517 |
| Location: |
RAMSTEIN-MIESENBACH, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, DE |
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11 |
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