South Lake Tahoe holds 9/11 ceremony at American Legion

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Area first responders were honored during the South Lake Tahoe 9/11 ceremony held at the American Legion Monday.

"This is our opportunity to say 'thank you' as a united community," said the American Legion Post Commander Tom Millham. He recognized those in attendance from South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Lake Valley Fire Protection District, El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, Fallen Leaf Lake Fire, California Highway Patrol, Cal Fire, and the Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District.

Like the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President Kennedy, people will always remember where they were and what they were doing when the airplanes hit the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001:

8:46 AM – Flight 11 crashes into the World Trade Center’s North Tower. All passengers aboard are instantly killed, and employees of the WTC are trapped above the 91st floor.

9:03 AM – Flight 175 crashes into the WTC’s South Tower. All passengers aboard are killed instantly and so are an unknown number of people in the tower.

9:37 AM – Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. All passengers aboard are instantly killed and so are 125 civilian and military personnel in the building.

9:45 AM – US airspace is shut down under Operation Yellow Ribbon. All civilian aircraft are ordered to land at the nearest airport.

9:59 AM – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

10:02 AM – Flight 93 plows into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Although its ultimate target is unknown, it was likely heading for either the White House or the US Capitol.

10:28 AM – The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

SLTFR Chief Jim Drennan led the striking of the Four Fives which started in the late 1800s when a firefighter died in the line of duty. Headquarters would transmit five bell strikes, repeated in four series, with a slight pause between each series.

343 New York City firefighters died on Sept. 11, 2001, with 341 more members of the FDNY dying since then from related causes. 72 police officers died with about 3,000 people losing their lives in the tragedy.

"There is always unity afterward," said Drennan. "Quickly and totally the county came together," he said of the days and weeks after the attacks.

Kenny Curtzwiler shared the shadow box he made of items from the World Trade Center, something that was on the wall of SLTFR and is now moving to LVFPD.

American Legion Chaplain Curt Emrie rang the bell once for each of the wars Americans have been involved in from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terrorism.

Rosemary Manning from the Daughters of the American Revolution, El Dorado County Supervisor Brooke Laine, and Bob St. Angelo of the American Legion also spoke.

South Lake Tahoe City Councilmember Scott Robbins, a New York City native, recalled being in school when the first bombing of the World Trade Center happened in 1993, then returning to his hometown after 9/11. He said he walked in the area of the World Trade Center towers, reflecting on the monumental destruction around him, and the gray dust that was everywhere. He saw Tower 5 where a cross-section had fallen away, showing how normal things had been at the offices before the airplanes hit.

"It was a reminder of how quickly things can change," said Robbins.

Three South Lake Tahoe men died in action after the September 11 attacks: Sgt. Timothy Michael Smith, 25, died on April 7, 2008, after his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad. Pfc. Phillip Brandon Williams, 21, was killed on October 9, 2006, by a sniper's bullet in Iraq and Spc. Garrett Fant, 21, died September 26, 2011, after his unit was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. Williams, Fant, and Smith are memorialized by Gold Star Peak in the Lake Tahoe Basin.