America Remembers

Twin Towers of light will rise over Manhattan as America marks 14th anniversary of 9/11

A name-reading ceremony will be held at Memorial Plaza in Manhattan Thursday morning, punctuated by six moments of silence. This year, the Memorial Plaza will be open to the public on September 11 from 6am until midnight. Tribute in Light will illuminate the skies over the Financial District from sunset to early Friday morning. A ceremony of remembrance will take place at Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Relatives of those who perished in Pentagon will take part in private memorial attended by President Obama.

Two blue columns of light representing the devastated World Trade Center illuminated the skies over Lower Manhattan Wednesday night – a vivid tribute to the nearly 3,000 slain innocents - as the United Stated prepared to mark the 13th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Like every year, relatives of victims will come together at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza for a somber name-reading ceremony honoring every one of the people who perished in the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and inside the plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

During the ceremony, six moments of silence will be observed marking the strikes on the towers, and the Pentagon, the collapse of the skyscrapers and the time Flight 93 went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

In Memory of Sharon Ann Carver

Sharon Ann Carver was 38 years old and from Waldorf, Maryland. (Born: Columbia, South Carolina).

Things were looking up for Sharon when she showed up for work at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A 16-year federal employee, Sharon had spent the last decade working as an accountant for the U.S. Army and had recently received a master's degree in business administration from Strayer University.

Sharon was only days back from an annual family vacation at Disney World when she had her life and all of its potential cut short. Terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the west side of the Pentagon, killing 125 people inside and all 64 people aboard the Boeing 757 jet.

 Sharon was very industrious and took great pride in doing her job well. She loved her country and was very patriotic. "She went to Florida and had fun with the whole family," her nephew, Sean Carver, said.

In Memory of Diane M. Simmons

Diane M. Simmons was 53 years old and from Great Falls, Virginia. Diane was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77.

On September 11, 2001, Diane and her husband, George, boarded American Airlines Flight 77 at Dulles International Airport headed for Los Angeles, the first leg of a journey to Hawaii. Diane's father had recently died, and she was going to spread her father's ashes alongside her mother's.

In Memory of Bernard C. Brown II

Bernard C. Brown II was 11 years old and from Washington, D.C. (Born: Tampa, Florida). Bernard was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77.

Bernard was clever, a quick wit, the kind of boy who kept his teachers on their toes. Estella Cleveland, who taught his fifth-grade class at Leckie Elementary School in Southeast Washington, loved him.

"He used to give the fourth-grade teacher fits. But he turned it around last year. Everybody noticed it," Cleveland said.

That's why Cleveland gave Bernard's name to her best friend at Leckie, sixth-grade teacher Hilda Taylor, when Taylor asked whom she should take on a 4 day National Geographic trip to California.

"He was fun-loving," she said. "He was the joy of the class."

Sinita Brown (Bernard's mother), recalls September 11, 2001:

"Everybody was calling me at my job because they knew my husband worked at the Pentagon". A golf outing had Bernard Sr. out of the office that day. But Sinita Brown's relief quickly turned to grief when she learned it was her son's flight that hit the Pentagon.

In Memory of Stephen V. Long

Stephen V. Long was 39 years old and from Alexandria, Virginia. Stephen was a Major in the United States Army.

On September 11, 2001, Stephen was attending a biweekly meeting in the ODCSPER executive conference room at the Pentagon. After American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon, Stephen crawled towards the Pentagon's E ring and there he died while trying to rescue others.

Major Stephen V. Long is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 64 with the other victims of September 11 at the Pentagon.

In Memory of Zoe Falkenberg

Zoe Falkenberg was 8 years old and from University Park, Maryland. Zoe was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77.

Zoe, along with her parents, Charles Falkenberg and Leslie Whittington, and her 3 year-old sister, Dana, were on their way to Australia for a two month stay.

On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon killing everyone on board.

The night before Zoe climbed aboard Flight 77, she phoned her friends Katie and Camila with big news. She wanted her girlfriends to know she had got to ride around town in a limousine.

All the girls, and sometimes their friends, would read with their parents before bed, often Harry Potter books, and then they'd sing "Puff the Magic Dragon."

In Memory of Molly L. McKenzie

Molly L. McKenzie was 38 years old and from Dale City, Va. Molly worked at the Pentagon as a civilian budget analyst for the Army. She had worked for the Army for 14 years.

At 9:37 am on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 was crashed into the western side of the Pentagon, killing 125 people working in the building.

Red - A Canine hero of 9/11

While there were hundreds of human heroes in the days following the September 11 attacks, there were four legged heroes too. The dogs who searched for survivors and bodies in the rubble of buildings and planes. There were over 300 canine search and rescue teams who worked in the days and weeks following September 11, 2001.

Red, a 12 year-old labrador who searched the rubble of the Pentagon with her handler, is among those now retired as an active search dog. Her legs are not as spry as they once were but in her temperament Red still appears to have that same devotion to the search.

Not long after American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, Red was at work. She was only 18 months old, yet she discovered dozens of bodies.

Also read about Roselle - The Thunder Dog

Remember Arlington - Pentagon and Flight 77

At 9:37 a.m on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon.

Victims at the Pentagon and on Flight 77
Pentagon 125
Flight (77) 59