Twenty-Five Years Later: Remembering September 11, 2001

Courtesy Photo: Colonel James E. Stokes (Ret) National Guard

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On Friday, September 11, 2026, the United States will mark twenty-five years since the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. At 8:46 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, America’s sovereignty was violated on its own soil in a coordinated terrorist attack aimed at the nation’s people, economy, military, and democratic institutions. It was a day of profound loss, but it was also a day that revealed extraordinary courage, sacrifice, patriotism, and unity.

September 11, 2001, must never fade into the footnotes of history. It must be remembered, taught, and honored for as long as this Republic stands. Nineteen terrorists associated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners shortly after their departures from the East Coast. They turned civilian aircraft into weapons against innocent people. Two planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. A third was flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew members resisted the hijackers. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, the deadliest foreign attack on American soil.

The World Trade Center was more than a collection of office buildings. Its Twin Towers stood as internationally recognized symbols of American commerce, innovation, opportunity, and economic strength. On that morning, visitors entered the building, and office workers arrived expecting an ordinary day. Firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel, and civilians rushed toward danger as others sought safety. When the smoke cleared, 2,977 innocent men, women, and children had been murdered in New York, at the Pentagon, and in rural Pennsylvania.

The dead included office workers, airline passengers, military personnel, public servants, firefighters, police officers, emergency medical workers, and people from more than ninety different nations throughout the world. They were parents, spouses, children, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and citizens who had simply gone to work, boarded a flight, or answered the call to serve others. Their lives cannot be reduced to a number. Every name represents a life of value, a family forever changed, and an absence that has endured for a quarter century.

Courage on Flight 93

The story of United Airlines Flight 93 remains one of the clearest examples of courage in American history. The aircraft departed Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco. After the hijacking, passengers and crew members learned through telephone calls that other airliners had already struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They understood that their flight was part of the same terrorist plot.

Faced with that knowledge, the passengers and crew made a decision that changed the course of the day. They called loved ones, gathered information, prayed, and organized a counterattack. Todd Beamer’s words “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.” became an enduring expression of American resolve.

The forty passengers and crew members aboard Flight 93 did not save themselves. At 10:03 a.m., the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing every innocent person on board. Yet their actions prevented the hijackers from reaching their intended target in Washington, D.C. The target is widely believed to have been the United States Capitol or the White House. Their sacrifice saved lives and denied the enemy another attack against the seat of American government. Scripture tells us, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13, KJV). Few verses have ever been lived out more literally than on that plane, over that Pennsylvania field. They were ordinary Americans placed in an extraordinary moment, and they chose courage over fear.

Attack on the Pentagon

At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense and a global symbol of American military strength and resolve on Earth. The attack killed 184 people, including passengers and crew members aboard the aircraft as well as military and civilian personnel inside the building.

The terrorists intended to strike fear into the heart of the American military and the nation it serves. Instead, the attack strengthened the resolve of Americans in uniform and reinforced the country’s commitment to defend itself, protect its people, and stand with its allies.

The victims at the Pentagon included service members who had already dedicated their lives to the defense of the nation, civilian employees supporting that mission, and travelers who had no warning that their ordinary flight would become part of an act of war. Their sacrifice must remain a permanent part of the story Americans tell about September 11.

A Nation and Allies Respond

The response to September 11 came not only from Americans, but from allies around the world. On September 12, 2001, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty for the first and only time in its history. Article 5 affirms that an attack against one NATO member is considered an attack against all. All 18 U.S. allies at the time pledged support for America’s response.

That historic decision demonstrated that terrorism had not isolated the United States. Nations across the world stood beside the American people, and NATO’s solidarity later brought allied forces into Afghanistan alongside American service members. Terrorism sought to divide the free world. Instead, it reminded democratic nations of the enduring importance of collective security, shared values, and mutual defense.

At home, Americans responded with a unity that remains one of the defining memories of the days after the attacks. On the evening of September 11, more than two hundred members of Congress—Republicans and Democrats alike—gathered on the East Front steps of the United States Capitol and sang “God Bless America.” In communities nationwide, Americans attended vigils, displayed flags, donated blood, supported victims’ families, and looked for ways to serve.

Firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel, construction workers, medical professionals, and volunteers came from across the country to assist in rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero. Flags appeared on homes, overpasses, businesses, and vehicles. For a brief but meaningful moment, Americans were not defined first by political party, religion, race, education, region, or economic status. They were simply Americans. A fitting example of a “more perfect union.”

A Generation Answered the Call

The national response to September 11 also included a new generation of military service. In the year following the attacks, 181,510 Americans enlisted for active-duty service, and another 72,908 joined the enlisted Reserve components. These numbers reflected a powerful surge of patriotism and a willingness by thousands of Americans to place service to country above personal comfort or safety.

Many of those who enlisted after September 11 would go on to serve in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other post-September 11 theaters of operation. Their deployments became part of the long and difficult legacy of a day that began with attacks against civilians but carried consequences far beyond New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville.

Between 2001 and 2021, an estimated 1.9 million to 3 million U.S. service members served in military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and related theaters. More than half deployed more than once. These repeated deployments placed extraordinary burdens not only on service members, but also on military families, spouses, children, caregivers, veterans, and communities throughout the country. The cost was severe. More than 7,000 American service members died in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other post-September 11 war zones. More than 53,000 were wounded. These figures do not fully capture the invisible wounds of war, including post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, moral injury, grief, family separation, and the lifelong challenges many veterans continue to face after returning home.

Their service is part of the continuing story of September 11. The attacks did not end when the Twin Towers fell, when the Pentagon burned, or when Flight 93 came down in a Pennsylvania field. Their effects were carried forward by those who enlisted, deployed, fought, returned home wounded, struggled to readjust, or never returned to the families who loved them. We must never forget them and their families.

The Duty to Remember

Twenty-five years later, September 11 remains both a national wound and a national lesson. The victims were not statistics. They were people whose lives were interrupted by hatred and violence. The first responders were heroes and public servants who entered danger because others needed help, even though they knew their own lives were at risk. The passengers and crew of Flight 93 were not merely symbols; they were citizens who chose action and sacrifice when confronted by hate and evil.

This twenty-fifth anniversary is also an opportunity to teach the next generation. Many Americans now entering adulthood were born after September 11, 2001. They did not watch the attacks unfold live on television. They did not experience the shock, grief, uncertainty, patriotism, or unity of those days. It is therefore the responsibility of those who remember to tell the story truthfully, respectfully, and completely.

September 11 teaches that freedom is precious, that courage can be found in ordinary people, and that national unity is possible even in moments of deep pain. It reminds Americans that first responders, service members, veterans, victims’ families, and countless volunteers deserve more than passing gratitude. They deserve enduring respect.

On this twenty-fifth anniversary, the nation can honor the fallen through remembrance, prayer, service, education, and a renewed commitment to one another. Americans can honor the victims by remembering their names and lives. They can honor Flight 93 by refusing to surrender courage in the face of fear. They can honor the fallen at the Pentagon by supporting those who serve and the families who bear the cost of military service. And they can honor the unity of that terrible week by striving to recover some measure of it in their own communities.

Let this twenty-fifth anniversary be more than a moment of silence. Let it be a renewal of national unity, a vow made in the ashes of September 11, 2001: that the innocent will be remembered, that courage will be honored, that sacrifice will be revered, and that the American people will never forget.