Patriot Day September 11

In working as an ASVAB tutor, I see the significance of honoring American federal holidays as well as military holidays, observances, and anniversaries.

Today, September 11, is Patriot Day.  It is a day we must never forget.

It is a federal holiday that was designed to commemorate those who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia and those who lost their lives when the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.  Approved on December 18, 2001, under Public Law 107-89, Congress designated September 11 of each year as Patriot Day and by Public Law 111-12, April 21, 2009, Congress requested the observance of September 11 as an annually recognized “National Day of Service and Remembrance.”  2,996 people died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.  2,977 were victims and 19 were the hijackers who committed murder-suicide.  Thousands more were injured.  Of the 2,977 fatal victims, 2,753 were killed in the World Trade Center and the surrounding area.  184 were killed at the Pentagon.  40 were killed in Pennsylvania.  Of the 2,977 victims, 343 were firefighters of the FDNY, 37 were police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, 23 were police officers of the NYPD, 8 were EMTs from private emergency medical services, 4 were police officers of the New York State Office of Tax Enforcement, 3 were NYS Court Officers, 1 was a Patrolman from the New York Fire Patrol, 1 was a Special Agent from the FBI, and 1 was a Special Officer of the United States Secret Service.  As an American, this was the greatest tragedy I witnessed as a New Yorker.  I worked in a NYC public school as a teacher at the time.  We saw the Twin Towers from our school.  First one was attacked.  Then the second.  Then the second one fell.  Then the first one fell.  The children who witness this drew it in their drawings, built it with their Legos even months later.  They asked questions like, “Will they blow us up next?”  I will never forget the stillness in the air that day.  We needed to stay after school until every child was picked up.  There was a deadly silence in the air as I drove home from work that day.  It was a terrible day that I will not forget.