The Coast Guard’s large brass bell rings five more times, each toll representing a major event of Sept. 11, 2001. That’s when a Muslim militant group hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon near Washington D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Base Kodiak Fire Chief Aaron Griffin walks the crowd of more than a hundred Coast Guard servicemen and women through the symbolism.
“The third toll for American Airlines flight 77, impacting the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., instantly killing all 59 onboard and 125 personnel in the building," Griffin said.
All five hijackers also died on that plane.
Griffin remembers exactly where he was that day – on duty at then-Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, just waking up to a morning alarm.
“‘Hey, everybody wake up, turn on CNN,’ was actually what they piped over to all seven stations, so we all did. And just about as we got it turned on is when the second tower got hit," Griffin said. "And my staff sergeant turned to me and said, ‘Aaron, we’re at war.’ Like that fast.”
Reflecting 25 years later, Griffin said he still remembers people coming together and helping each other. He remembers in Anchorage, donations pouring in, including tons of diapers at a local shelter.
“Like they didn’t know what to do, they didn’t know how to do it, but they did what they could. And when I think about the charity of the response, that’s what I’m speaking to," he said. "We didn’t respond by licking our wounds. We responded by loving on each other.”
About 35 junior ROTC cadets from Kodiak High School attended the Sept. 11 ceremony – they weren’t alive in 2001.
Griffin advises them to be prepared for a future event.
“Like the same way we learned from when Pearl Harbor was attacked, we learned from this event and that we should be ready," Griffin said. "Don’t make the same mistakes we did but be ready to steel their hearts for what’s coming.”
Alaska’s lone representative in the U.S. House, Nick Begich III, also spoke briefly during the ceremony. He said it’s important to remember all those first responders on the ground.
“Remember the firefighters, police officers, paramedics, service members and ordinary citizens who ran toward danger when every instinct told them to run away," Begich said. "Remember the families whose lives were forever changed.”
