RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A ceremony was held Wednesday at the Virginia War Memorial commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Around 200 people gathered to honor and remember the lives that were lost during the annual Patriot Day Ceremony.
“I’m here because this is where I should be,” Air Force veteran Ronald Davis, who attended the ceremony, said. “I was retired when 9/11 happened, but it definitely left a pit in my stomach, and I do believe in what they’re saying, everyone needs to know what happened on that terrible day.”
The event included music from the Virginia Barbershop Chorus, a symbolic bell ringing and the playing of taps.
Several people also spoke, including Former Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Lynn Wright who was in the Pentagon that day.
“We felt a heavy thud, and then we looked out the windows at the Pentagon South parking lot and saw the beginnings of the heavy black smoke,” Wright recounted. “We saw a lot of people running towards the impact zone. That image has always stayed with me. When there was clear danger, people ran to the danger to help, much like the firefighters in New York, people in the Pentagon ran towards the fire. They did not run away.”