Patriot Day ceremony remembers Sept. 11

Elementary students watched in awe as doves were released in front of City Hall on Sept. 11. They weren’t alive when planes truck the World Trade Center 14 years ago, but after the Patriot Day ceremony, they have a greater understanding of the significance of the date. 

“Sept. 11 is a reminder that evil and terror still exist, but it is also a reminder that when things are at their very worst, we are at our very best,” said Captain Christopher Tanner, the ceremony’s keynote speaker.

The annual Patriot Day ceremony rotates locations between Homewood, Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook. Last year it was held in Vestavia Hills.

Tanner, a Mountain book native, was a student at West Point in 2001 and later served in Afghanistan. He now serves as the executive director and assistant professor of military science at UAB.

“I remember the confusion, the horror, the anger and the uncertainty as we formed up outside,” Tanner said of that day. “That feeling was cemented in my gut as we saw the first plumes of smoke in the air from the burning rubble of the World Trade Center.”

Tanner recounted how he helped stage supplies for first responders and search and rescue crews across the river from the towers, and how he would later learn that 2,983 civilians, 343 firefighters and 72 police officers had lost their lives.

“In an instant our lives and futures changed,” Tanner said. “We saw ourselves galvanized toward a common goal, defeating extremism, vanquishing terror and continuing to show the world that we are a nation of hope.”

Also during the ceremony, Homewood High School’s The Network show choir performed several songs as a part of the ceremony, with a solo by Lexi Bresnan, daughter of Homewood Fire Chief John Bresnan. City Council Member Walter Jones sang the National Anthem, and Brian Erickson of Trinity United Methodist Church gave the invocation. Brian Bowman played “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes as doves were released at the end of the ceremony.

Next year the Patriot Day ceremony will be held in Mountain Brook.