RANSON, W.Va. – The Independent Fire Company in Ranson is hosting its remembrance ceremony Friday marking 25 years since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
The ceremony will begin at 9:59 a.m.
That start time is significant according to Chaplain Dr. Henry Christie.
“The commemoration will occur between the times the World Trade Center towers collapsed,” Christie said.
The ceremony will begin at the time when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at 9:59 a.m. to 10:28 a.m. when the North Tower of The World Trade Center collapsed, which Christie said marks the time when most of the first responders who died on scene lost their lives.
The commemoration will occur between the times the World Trade Center towers collapsed, but during the ceremony, the victims at the Pentagon, at Shanksville, Pennsylvania in the War on Terror and those affected by their work at Ground Zero and the Pentagon will also be honored.
Christie has headed up the ceremony each of the years since the 9/11 attacks, even during COVID-19 pandemic. He refers to this year’s event as a “Never Forget” ceremony.
“It’s our Pearl Harbor,” said Christie, himself a veteran who said it was his father’s generation spurred on by the attacks of December 7, 1941 that pulled the country together and pressed thousands into service in defense of the country.
Christie said of 9/11, “It’s our day that most of us will never forget where we were when we heard the news.”
The keynote speaker this year is CW03 John Cornelius, US Army (retired) who was 18 when the attacks happened. He served 20 years as a paratrooper and Blackhawk helicopter pilot.
As he has in years past, Christie will have a table with hats reflecting United and American Airlines, FDNY, and New York City Port Authority and military service branch hats on display — remembrances, too, for not only those who died responding to the incident that day in 2001, but also those who died later due to their exposure to toxins at the site of the World Trade Center buildings. “It’s not about us,” Dr. Christie says. “It’s about (those represented by) the table.”
Featured also will be a flag that had been meant to cover the body of a World Trade Center victim but was never pressed into service because as Dr. Christie says, some bodies were disintegrated in the attack.
The ceremony will take place at the Fire Station located at 200 West 2nd Avenue in Ranson.
Members of the Washington High School Patriot Chamber Choir and the Jefferson High School Cougar Air Force Junior ROTC will take part in the ceremony. Bagpipe music will be presented by Joe Kent.
The public is encouraged to attend and police, fire, EMS and military personnel are requested to attend in uniform, if possible.