National Marine Corps Museum honors 25th Anniversary of 9/11
TRIANGLE, Va. — Interrupted by staff while reading to children at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, President George W. Bush stood up and explained he had to leave, saying, “Today we’ve had a national tragedy.”
Two hijacked passenger planes struck the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, and a third crashed into the Pentagon 34 minutes after the second strike. The South Tower burned for 56 minutes before collapsing, while the North Tower collapsed 102 minutes after the first plane struck. The attacks unfolded on television screens across the nation, profoundly affecting generations of Americans.
For many, the pain witnessed across the United States affected communities and shaped a generation of service members and civilians.
Twenty-five years later, memorials stand at the World Trade Center site and across the nation, including the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ 9/11 Memorial. To honor the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the museum held a wreath-laying ceremony.
“It’s always important to recognize events like this,” said Scott Gardiner, chief of the visitor center with the National Museum of the Marine Corps, in an interview.
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Daniel McGrath, a chaplain with Marine Corps Base Quantico, led a prayer, and a wreath was placed next to artifacts recovered from the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, including a piece of stone and a support beam that was damaged during the attacks. The ceremony concluded with a moment of silence.
“Here in this gallery, we come face to face with sacred relics from 9/11,” McGrath said. “Let these investments of time, talent and treasure that they made inspire generations to come to devote themselves to great acts of love and service.”
Following the ceremony, attendees were invited to explore the gallery’s memorials and artifacts, including recovered fragments of tools, equipment and building materials. The gallery also features personal stories honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice during the attacks.
Museum guests also attended the official launch of “Legacy of 9/11: The U.S. Marine Corps and the Terror Attacks of September 2001,” an anthology published by the Marine Corps History Division. Editors and contributors were present to discuss the publication and sign copies for attendees.
“The inclusion of combat art, imagery and firsthand accounts provides readers with more than a historical timeline,” said Mary Rose, chief of strategic communications for the Marine Corps History Division. “It conveys a shared experience among Marines who remember that day.”
Rose said the anthology provides an opportunity to focus on the attacks and their significance to the Marine Corps, separate from broader work on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. She said the publication was intended to mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks and help bridge the experience gap between senior leaders who lived through that period and junior Marines who were not yet born.
Readers who want to learn more about the anthology can find additional information through Marine Corps University’s publishing resources at https://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usmcu.edu%2FHDPublishing.
For those who want more information on the 9/11 memorial or other exhibits at the NMMC, please visit https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usmcmuseum.com.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
