Saratoga Remembers: Annual 9/11 Ceremony Held in Saratoga Springs.

It was a somber and reflective morning as hundreds of citizens, first responders, elected officials, veterans and sailors gathered to honor the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. 

The ceremony took place at High Rock Park in front of the “Tempered by Memory” sculpture which comprises steel from the World Trade Center. During the Ceremony, speakers recalled the events of the attack and the loss of friends who died in the wars that followed the attack. 

The event started with a moment of silence at 8:46 — the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. It included remarks by Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford, keynote speaker Saratoga Springs Police Department Sargant Christopher Callahan and Captain James R. Diefenderfer Jr. the commanding officer of the Nuclear Power Training Unit in Ballston Spa. 

In his remarks, Callahan, a retired Army Reservist, spoke of the sacrifice of those lost during the attacks and his own experience serving in the Army after 9/11. 

“I’ve yet to get through a 9/11 since 2001 without shedding more than a few tears for all those who lost their lives tragically that day,” Sgt. Callahan said. “I also can’t help but feel a sense of pride for all those who stood up and answered the call when their fellow countrymen needed them.”

Callahan also told the story of Staff Sgt. Dain Venn, a soldier from Port Henry who Callahan met while serving. Venn was killed in a roadside bomb attack in 2012 in Afghanistan.  Callahan described Venn as “instantly likable, one of the funniest, most quick-witted people I’ve ever met,” and spoke about his actions in Afghanistan which earned him a bronze star with v device for valor. 

Similar remarks were echoed by Capt. Diefenderfer who talked about being a midshipman, U.S. Naval Academy at the time of the attacks and how his computer networks professor spent time talking to them about what the attacks would mean for their military careers. 

Diefenderfer also spoke about the personal challenge of what to tell sailors who weren’t alive in 2001 about the attacks. 

“When I speak to them about the events of that day, what do I want them to remember?” Capt. Diefenderfer said.  “I want them to remember the heroes and to be inspired by them. I want them to remember the 343 firefighters and the 72 law enforcement officers who ran into harm’s way to help others, I want them to remember the passengers of flight 93.” 

Capt. Diefenderfer also spoke of the sacrifices of those who were lost during the wars that followed including the professor who gave him the lesson, Marine Lt. Col. Kevin Shea, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. 

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijacked four planes and crashed three of them into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after a passenger revolt forced it down before it could attack its intended target. 

The attacks killed 2,996 people, the majority of them when the North and South Towers collapsed. In the years that have followed, thousands of first responders and residents near the site of the collapse have died from related illnesses. In the wars that followed the attacks, between 897,000-929,000 people were killed — among those 7,052 were US military with another 8,189 serving as US Contractors.