City of Carbondale commemorates the 20th anniversary of 9/11

By Jared Treece, Staff Photographer|September 11, 2021

Members of the Army and Air Force ROTC programs at SIU unfold the flag to be flown during the Patriot Day Ceremony held by the City of Carbondale to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021 at Altgeld Hall at SIU.

On a quiet Saturday morning, the City of Carbondale held a Patriot Day Ceremony that commemorated the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in 2001. The ceremony was held outside Altgeld Hall at Southern Illinois University that began with the hoisting of the American flag and had guest speakers Carbondale Mayor John “Mike” Henry and Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Dwyer.

“On September 11th, 2001, I was a sophomore physics major attending the University of Mary Washington college in Fredericksburg, Virginia,” Dwyer said, “My concepts in Biology class just started at 8:30am, and this is Eastern time remember, and let out at 10am. This means the time I left Jepson hall, both the World Trade Center buildings had been struck, as had the Pentagon. And the South Tower had collapsed.”

Dwyer would go on to tell a story of her uncle who was working in the South Tower when the North Tower was intentionally hit during the attack. The ceremony ended with a moment of silence and the ringing of a bell at 9:28am Central time when the North Tower fell in New York City.

Saturday marked two decades since the violent terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. that killed thousands of individuals including first responders who responded to the calls during the attacks as well as those who fought off the attackers and crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a part of flight 93.

Staff Photographer Jared Treece can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @JaredtMedia.

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