- Title: USA: 9/11 terrorist attacks are remembered at the Pentagon and in Shanksville
- Date: 12th September 2008
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CARL MAHNKEN, SURVIVOR WHO WAS INSIDE THE PENTAGON AT THE CRASH SITE, SAYING: "You kind of put it in the back of your mind because you have to go to work, you have to continue. You have to think about the Antoinette Shermans, the Meta Wallers, the Molly McKenzies, people you saw every day." (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEPHANIE DUNN DESIMONE, WIFE OF VICTIM PATRICK DUNN WHO DIED INSIDE THE PENTAGON, SAYING: "I had to redefine 'normal' that day. My whole life was destroyed by that event. I remember coming home at about three o'clock and my husband saying to me: 'Stay where you are and I'll come find you.' About three o'clock in the afternoon, I finally left work and I sat on the steps with our cat and said: 'I don't know what we're going to do but I think our lives just changed'." (SOUNDBITE) (English) STACEY MESA, SISTER OF VICTIM TODD RUBEN WHO DIED ON BOARD PLANE, SAYING: "It's quiet solitude, it's thought-provoking. It's sad but it makes you feel good at the same time. That no one's going to forget and it was beautifully done and it can represent him for the family and friends and those that don't know him, for the future." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANDY DILLARD, BROTHER OF VICTIM EDDIE DUNN WHO DIED ON BOARD PLANE, SAYING: "They attacked the United States, that should never happen again. My brother and many others gave their lives in many different places that day. What they should do is come and see the mark that was put on the United States it should never be something that should ever happen again. I am proud to be an American more today than ever."
- Embargoed: 27th September 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8XFGWW3WHHX3DGPS0OO41GI1G
- Story Text: Americans mark the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. which left nearly 3,000 people dead.
In a sombre ceremony outside the Pentagon, President George W. Bush on Thursday (September 11) dedicated the first major September 11 memorial on the seventh anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
"Seven years ago at this hour a doomed airliner plunged from the sky, split the rock and steel of this building and changed our world forever," Bush said.
"The years that followed have seen justice delivered to evil men in battles fought in distant lands."
To the accompaniment of choral music, military members in dress uniform unveiled the 184 granite-and-steel benches in the memorial park that represent each of the victims killed by the al Qaeda attack on the Pentagon.
The ceremony was the last time that Bush, who steps down in January, will lead the nation in recalling the attacks that prompted him to declare a global war on terrorism that has defined his presidency.
"Since 9/11, our troops have taken the fight to the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home," said Bush, joined at the ceremony by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was in the Pentagon during the attack.
The memorial, by New York designers Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman, also features maple trees and light pools in a park of gravel. The benches are arranged according to the victims' ages.
The attack on the Pentagon took place at 9:37 a.m. local time (1337 GMT), when American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington's Dulles International Airport smashed into the walls of the U.S. military headquarters.
The crash killed 125 people in the Pentagon, along with the plane's 59 passengers and crew and the five hijackers.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain attended a ceremony in Shanksville, a town in south-western Pennsylvania where the fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field, killing 40 passengers and crew and four hijackers.
McCain will fly to New York and join Democratic rival Barack Obama for a visit to Ground Zero, where the two U.S. senators will both lay wreaths but not give speeches, aides said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None