Pentagon leaders honored the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in multiple ceremonies on the 23rd anniversary of the dark day that saw nearly 3,000 Americans die and shaped the U.S. military in the 21st century.
“On a Tuesday 23 years ago, the Pentagon awoke to a day like any other,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said during a ceremony alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III.
But on Sept. 11, 2001, at 9:37 a.m., a 757 jetliner, American Flight 77, flew into the side of the Pentagon, as horror also unfolded in New York and Pennsylvania.
“We don’t just work near a memorial. We work in a memorial,” said Austin, a retired four-star Army general who commanded troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Every day, we serve in the only surviving building struck by al-Qaeda on 9/11. And every day, we carry a powerful sense of purpose.”
Austin and Brown remembered 184 victims who were killed in the attack, either in the Pentagon or as passengers and crew aboard Flight 77 at the Pentagon Memorial, located outside the western side of the Pentagon where the building was hit and partially collapsed.
Around 6 a.m., as the sun rose, a giant American flag was unfurled near where Flight 77 crashed into the building, honoring an act by first responders more than two decades ago during recovery efforts.
“It is a constant reminder that 9/11 isn’t a part of our distant history,” Austin said, noting he has a piece of wreckage in his office to remind visitors of the losses. “It is entwined in the Department’s mission. And it’s captured in the stories of those who were here. We continue to honor the beloved teammates whom we lost, the first responders who raced toward the flames, the families who humble us with their resilience, and the survivors who continue to inspire us all.”
Elsewhere on that day in 2001, al-Qaeda-hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York, which were destroyed. Flight 93, hijacked and headed towards Washington, crashed before it could reach its target after passengers intervened.
Though the Pentagon was repaired and the memorial opened seven years later, 9/11 profoundly shaped an entire generation of troops who went off to the Middle East as part of America’s Global War on Terror—with many service members enlisting after the attacks.
“In the year that followed 9/11, more than a quarter-million Americans with no prior military experience enlisted in the military and, with countless others, made a commitment to public service,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said on Sept. 10 during a ceremony for Pentagon employees.
U.S. troops continue to combat al-Qaeda, its affiliates, and other terrorist groups inspired by similar ideologies. Austin led a moment of silence for the thousands of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11.
“We are the United States of America,” Austin said. “We do not bend to terror.”
Later in the day, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Austin, and Brown participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.
