“Today marks the 25-year anniversary of 9/11; a day that changed the lives of every American—a day that changed our lives forever,” said Col. David Gaugush, garrison commander during Fort Jackson’s Patriot Day ceremony. “Our country was never the same, and neither were we.”
Gaugush was the keynote speaker at the Sept. 11 event where he would place wreath at the Fort Jackson Fire Station Headquarters.
He was joined by Sgt. 1st Class Edgar Aguayo, Army Training Center and Fort Jackson Drill Sergeant of the Year, and Master Sgt. Sergio Arredondo, Directorate of Emergency Services senior enlisted leader, in laying a wreath during the ceremony.
“After a quarter century, time has placed space between us and the events of 9/11,” Gaugush said. “But we can never allow the day when 9/11 comes and passes like another day; or when the video of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center doesn’t make us wince, and tear our guts out, or a day when the thought of the attacks doesn’t evoke a desire to hunt our enemies and make them pay for their transgressions.
“We need to ensure our children know the story of 9/11, the impact it’s had on our lives, how it changed American society, and how out of the ashes rose a stronger and more united Nation.”
At 8:46 a.m. the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
“A cowardly group of despicable al-Qaeda terrorists sought to destroy the American way of life, using our freedoms against us, filled with hate, misguided by their extreme religious beliefs, killed 2,977 innocent men, women, and children,” Gaugush said.
The terrorist woke the very thing they sought to extinguish, but they had awakened the American people with a vengeance, he said.
Gaugush was a young second lieutenant leading his platoon back from a field training exercise at Fort Lewis, Washington when he heard of the attacks.
“What our enemies failed to recognize was how the American people would respond,” he added.
After the attacks, young Americans flocked to the recruiting offices to join in the cause of protecting freedom.
September 11, 2001 is a day everyone can say where they were. They were in grade school, in uniform and in civilian jobs. For many it would spur patriotism and be a call to service.
“It was so shocking that we were attacked on our own ground the way we were, that all of us all of us were affected,” said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Angel Berrios, deputy garrison chaplain.
Berrios was a civilian chaplain at the time ministering to patient in Annapolis, Maryland.
“Sure enough, looking up on the television screens in the hospital, I saw the second plane hit the second tower,” he said. It would forever change him.
Capt. Ebony Stone, with the Army Training Center, was in fifth grade at the time and it took a little while for what happened to sink in.
“It really didn't hit me, being that I was so young,” she said. “Once I continued to watch, I just started crying because I had just seen all the people losing their lives. I knew I wanted to be a part of something so beneficial to the world and to be able to be a leader and be one of the people to honor our country.”
The wreath laying honored New York's “bravest and finest” who went into the World Trade Center as the twin towers burned. It paid homage to the passengers and flight crews of American Flight 77, American Flight 11, United Flight 175, and United Flight 93 who gave their lives. It also honored those killed in the attacks on the Pentagon, and the Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, who volunteered for this great Nation.
The ceremony also honored all the innocent victims and those who lost their loved ones and for all the children who lost their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters on that tragic day.
Stone, who helped set up the event, said remembering was “very important.”
“It is an honor just to be remembering those that made that sacrifice,” she said.