Law enforcement, firefighters, emergency management, and other first responders took time briefly this morning to recognize the 22^nd anniversary of September 11, 2001.

Randall Dye, chaplain for the Cumberland County Fire Department, presided over the brief ceremony.

It was held at the 9/11 Memorial across the street from the Cumberland County Fairgrounds.

The ceremony coincided with the time American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the north tower of the World Trade Center (8:46 a.m. EST).

Cumberland County Mayor Allen Foster gave a statement to those in attendance.

“Tuesday, September 11, 2001, began much like any other day. People rushed to their jobs at the World Trade Center, Pentagon, Port Authority, fire and police stations, and emergency medical services. Others were waiting for their flights to leave the airports. They were all occupied with their plans for the day with no clue of what was to come.

On that day Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger airliners. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers, and one was flown into the Pentagon. After a heroic attempt by passengers to regain control of the plane, the fourth aircraft crashed to the ground near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This bravery prevented the terrorists from killing more people in Washington, D.C., the plane’s intended destination.

The human loss was a total of 2,977 people representing 70 different nations. Among the 2,753 victims from New York were 343 firefighters, 60 police officers from the New York Police Department and Port Authority, and 8 emergency medical services personnel. At the Pentagon, 184 people died, and another 40 perished in Pennsylvania.

Our community is both proud and humbled to honor these victims and their families from around the world with this steel beam, which emerged from the rubble of the World Trade Center. It is etched with the firefighters’ Maltese Cross and fittingly placed by our Cumberland County Fire Department headquarters.

We will never forget.”

These words are on a plaque in front of the steel beam at the 9/11 Memorial in Crossville.

Crossville Fire Department Chief Chris South gave his comments on the memorial service:

The ceremony ended with a moment of silence.