Hampton Roads remembers 9/11

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. - It has been eight years since terrorists hijacked and crashed four commercial jets, ending nearly 3,000 lives in New York, in Arlington at the Pentagon, and in a field in Southwest Pennsylvania, and affecting millions more worldwide.

President Obama declared September 11, 2009 "Patriots Day" and a "National Day of Service and Remembrance."

Across Hampton Roads people of every walk of life took time to remember the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

On Friday morning public safety workers gathered at Portsmouth Fire Station One to pause for a moment of silence. Portsmouth Assistant Police Chief Harry Fremd reminded the group that “close to 2,900 military, civilian, and public safety personnel lost their lives.”

The work of first responders has changed in eight years.

Fire Chief Don Horton told WAVY.com, “Out of 9/11 came NIMS, the National Incident Management System. So we're better prepared as pertaining to training. We're better prepared as pertaining to planning and organizing, and how we address high rise incidents and how we address man-made and natural disasters.... Fire service is no more just put the wet stuff on the red stuff. We're involved in homeland security from HAZMAT material incidents as we look at the ports, and we're working with the airports. Everyone is working together to protect our localities.”

Hundreds of civilians filled neighborhoods and non-profit organizations with tools of transformation. ForKids staff members guided volunteers as they landscaped and painted transition homes for families with children.

Client Shelley Craft said, “People volunteering and actually giving up their day at work to get our landscaping - It's amazing to see just how much people care.”

Sherrie McCloud with the Norfolk law firm Wilcox & Savage placed mulch in front of one home as she said, “We're here just to help. Whatever ForKids needs, yard work, painting.”

Virginia Natural Gas employee Victoria Duffer said, “It is a day of service, and I think it's a great thing that we can all work together and remember what the day is for and all give back.”

The volunteers shared a moment of silence and the National Anthem before getting to work. Their efforts allow ForKids to keep up with cosmetic maintenance cut from the budget because of the downturn in the economy.

Whether it was in doing the every day service of protecting the community or the volunteer efforts to serve neighbors, Hampton Roads united with the spirit of kindness that filled the nation immediately following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The moment was not lost at Little Creek Amphibious Base either. One hundred people turned out for the Patriot Day Ceremony "In Memory of the Fallen."
Chief Select Tyrelle Hines lost his friend at the Pentagon eight years ago and he told WAVY.com, "We as a nation can't take freedom for granted because someone can take that from you in a blink of an eye."

Those loss in the attacks were remembered with four bell tolls at NAB Little Creek -- one for each of the attacks.

"I will never forget that day. A day President Roosevelt would call our second date of infamy," Capt. William Crow told the crowd.

Then, following tradition, the flag was retired.

Chief Select Kimberly Roberts attended the ceremony and told WAVY.com, "I'm very proud. When we as members of the military go into town people thank us for our service, and that means a lot to us."

In Hampton, the city held its annual "Day of Remembrance and Hope." It's a ceremony that honors military men and women who have died in the war on terror, along with civilians and military members who have died in the line of duty since. At this event, the names of victims were also read.

One of those victims was Sandra Murray White. She died while working on the first floor of the Pentagon. Her mother and father are from Hampton and were at the ceremony, Friday.

"I just means a lot. It just means that we're not forgotten. Not only my daughter, but everybody," says Gloria Murray.

Murray says she remembers September 11, 2001 like it was yesterday. She tells WAVY.com she went for a walk that morning and when she got home she turned on the news and saw the planes that hit the towers.

"I thought it was a movie, but whenever it got to the Pentagon I was able to see that plane. I didn't see the others, but I saw that and my daughter's office is on the first floor."

Norfolk's FBI office sent dozens of agents to the Pentagon in northern Virginia in search and recovery efforts. One hundred sixty-nine died there when a plane slammed into the military building that houses the governments top defense system. "The first thing you were hit with was the smell, the smell of jet fuel and the smell that something had been burnt," Agent Caty Rafferty told WAVY.com

Rafferty went on to say how hard it was to investigate such a massive tragedy while the country was in mourning. "We knew we had an undertaking that was going to require every ounce of strength we all had."

Eight years after the attacks, the FBI has changed dramatically, according to the Norfolk Division's Special Agent in Charge Alex Turner. "We're not reactive, we're more proactive." The agency, he said, is more in tune with other federal agencies,, much different than in 2001, with the help of its agents seen and unseen. "We have what we call our ambassadors out there; our eyes and ears in the community."

It's those communities, local, state, and federal Turner said where America's strongest fighters are in the effort to keep our country safe.

Rafferty added, "We can't let this happen ever again."

Click here to find out about Friday's volunteer projects