JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Peter Lawless, fiscal officer and comptroller for Blount Island Command, shared his memories of New York on 9/11 during a remembrance formation Sept. 11, 2026, at Marine Corps Support Facility Blount Island, Florida, marking 25 years since the attacks.
“All they did was go to work that day,” said Lawless, a retired Navy captain and Iraq War veteran. He recalled a crowded subway commute, the smell of electrical fires lingering for weeks afterward and photographs of missing people accompanied by pleas from families searching for loved ones.
The observance centered on preserving the personal meaning of 9/11 through firsthand accounts.
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Shonor Burton, the command’s senior enlisted leader, emphasized that purpose as he gathered service members, civilians and contractors into a circle near the military installation’s flagpoles to hear a colleague’s experiences.
Lawless also urged those gathered to remember the lives lost at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, keeping the tribute broader than his own memories of New York.