Fort Sill community carries memory forward during 25th anniversary 9/11 Remembrance Run
FORT SILL, Okla. — Some remembered exactly where they were when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. Others standing beside them had not yet been born.
But on Sept. 11, nearly 4,000 Soldiers, family members, civilians, retirees and community members, from children to older veterans, gathered at Fort Sill with a common purpose: to remember.
They came to run four miles, ruck four miles or walk a mile during Fort Sill’s annual 9/11 Remembrance Run. Before anyone crossed the starting line, however, the morning began with reflection on the lives lost Sept. 11, 2001, the courage displayed that day and the years of service and sacrifice that followed.
Before the remembrance ceremony began, Brig. Gen. Patrick M. Costello, commanding general of the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, administered the oath of reenlistment to Cpl. Tiffany Stevens, a fitting reminder that the commitment to serve continues 25 years after the attacks that inspired a generation of Americans to answer that call.
The crowd then reflected on the first responders, service members and ordinary citizens who moved toward danger on Sept. 11, and on the unity, patriotism and spirit of service that followed one of the darkest days in American history.
A prayer honored those who sacrificed their lives and asked for strength and safety for those preparing to run. Then Cameron University student vocalist Divina D’Haiti sang the national anthem. The crowd grew still as her voice carried across the gathering, and some wiped tears from their eyes.
For those who lived through Sept. 11, the ceremony brought back a day they could still picture clearly. For younger Soldiers and family members who know it only through history, it offered something different - a connection to a defining moment whose consequences shaped the nation, the Army and the generations of service that followed.
Twenty-five years later, the responsibility of remembering is beginning to pass from those who lived through Sept. 11 to a generation that knows the attacks only through history.
Costello acknowledged that difference as he addressed the crowd before the run.
“For the younger Soldiers here, it might be something you grew up reading about,” Costello said. “But regardless of when you came in, that day defines why we wear this uniform. It shaped 20 years of combat, and it’s why we’re standing together right now.”
For Costello, Sept. 11 is also deeply personal.
He told the crowd he had been in the Army for about four years and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when the attacks occurred. At the time, he was considering leaving the Army. His mother was working in the Pentagon that morning, and his roommate, another field artillery captain, lost his college girlfriend aboard the plane that struck the Pentagon.
“There are a thousand stories across all of you sitting here or standing here this morning that talk to the importance of this day,” Costello said.
Those stories were reflected throughout the crowd.
Master Sgt. Adam Peters, 95th Training Division, was serving in Germany when the attacks happened. As the events unfolded thousands of miles away, his unit moved to a heightened security posture and prepared for what might come next.
For Peters, attending a remembrance ceremony is more than tradition.
“To me, it’s always more of a responsibility to show up in the remembrance of those who lost their lives than it is anything else,” he said.
Maj. Kevin Machal, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 75th Field Artillery Brigade, was in high school when the planes struck. The images and emotions of that day remain vivid, he said, and ultimately influenced the direction of his life.
“I was in high school when the planes hit, and for me, that’s a very vivid memory,” Machal said. “It’s exactly why I joined, why I volunteered.”
His sister was living in New York at the time. Hearing what she witnessed as a resident of the city gave the attacks an even more personal meaning and reinforced how suddenly Americans’ sense of security had changed.
For military spouse Stephanie Ortiz, the passage of 25 years became especially striking when she looked at her daughter.
Ortiz was younger on Sept. 11, 2001, than her daughter is today. Her daughter is now 16.
Ortiz remembers watching the attacks unfold and realizing she was witnessing the worst tragedy she had experienced in her young life. A quarter-century later, seeing another generation gather to honor those affected carries its own significance.
“To see that we can get together and honor those people, it means everything,” Ortiz said.
Retired service member George Huff did not have to think long about where he was that morning. He was already at Fort Sill.
Huff, who now works at Reynolds Army Health Clinic and has been associated with Fort Sill since 1990, was attending a class in Burleson Hall when televisions began showing the attacks.
Twenty-five years later, his thoughts extend beyond the nearly 3,000 people killed that day to those he personally lost during the wars that followed. As he prepared to run, Huff said those were the people he would carry with him along the route.
Master Sgt. Natalie Poloso brought another perspective. As a New Yorker and a Soldier with more than 20 years of service, she said participating allowed her to represent those who lost loved ones and remember those who sacrificed in the years after the attacks.
“As being a New Yorker, it means a lot to me,” Poloso said. “I love to be out here to represent everybody that has lost somebody.”
Capt. Deanna Hernandez said remembering becomes even more important as the military moves farther away from the generation whose service was directly shaped by Sept. 11.
She described the attacks as a defining event that motivated many Americans to enter military service and said remembering helps explain why that service still matters.
“It actually is almost like a definition of why we should serve and why we protect and defend our nation,” Hernandez said.
That generational transition was visible throughout the morning.
Some participants could describe the room they were standing in when the planes hit. Some remembered watching the news in school or from military installations overseas. Some lost friends during the wars that followed.
Others know Sept. 11 only through photographs, video, history lessons and stories handed down by parents, teachers, leaders and fellow service members.
But remembering does not require having witnessed the attacks firsthand.
For today’s young Soldiers, Sept. 11 is part of the history of the Army they chose to join, a history that shaped two decades of deployments, changed how the nation understood security and called a generation of Americans to serve. Remembering keeps that history from becoming simply a date in a textbook and connects today’s service members with the sacrifices that came before them.
Before the runners stepped off, Costello asked them to carry those stories with them.
“As you run this morning or walk, honor the fallen with every single step,” he said.
Then nearly 4,000 people did just that.
Children walked beside parents. Soldiers carried rucks. Veterans, civilians and military spouses moved along the course beside young service members whose lives began after Sept. 11, 2001.
They did not all remember the same day.
But 25 years later, they carried the memory together.
For more photos, follow the link to Flickr https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD4PGn
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