Robins AFB hosts 9/11 memorial

Seventy-eighth Air Base Wing Commander Col. Johari Hemphill said he was a second lieutenant on his first deployment when 9/11 happened. (Four promotions have come and gone since.)

Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick said she was a freshman student at Georgia Southern University, “walking to class, nervous about being away from home, not knowing what my future would hold.”

Both were among a number of speakers at the 9/11 memorial ceremony held Friday at the Museum of Aviation and for both – as it undoubtedly was for the whole of America – it was hugely impactful.

“I was spending six months working with the Defense Intelligence Agency,” Hemphill said. “Supporting missions in Latin America, in Washington, D.C., about five minutes from the Pentagon, underneath the flight path of an airplane to ultimately strike the building.

“That morning I started walking in the morning and then a report started coming in. A plane had hit the World Trade Center, then another, and then we learned the Pentagon had been struck.

“I remember the confusion. I remember the sense of urgency, and I remember realizing that something had fundamentally changed. And it wasn’t something happening somewhere far away. It was happening right there in the city around me. In a matter of minutes, ordinary disappeared. In that moment, I realized this was no longer the job I had signed up to do. This was my oath. I had raised my right hand and sworn to support and defend the United States. Before that morning, I understood those words intellectually, but after that morning, I understood them personally. The oath became different, and my wider service became different.”

That is something he said he has carried with him for 25 years. Now, he said, “when I see the Pentagon, I don’t see a building. I think about that morning. I think about how close I was and where I should have been. There’s something profoundly different about remembering an event when you can say I was there.”

Hemphill went on that the day was about remembering “names,” not numbers, not statistics. He emphasized it, insisting three times as he spoke that those in attendance look at the names scrolling across the screens mounted above the podium.

“I ask you to do a simple thing,” he said. “Don’t just read the names. Think about the lives behind it. Think about the person who left home that morning and kissed their family goodbye. Think about the person who went to work and expected the ordinary Tuesday. Think about the person who boarded an airplane and expected to reach their destination. And think about the people who, when the world was telling them to get away from danger, ran toward it.

“That is especially important for those of us gathered here today. Because we have military members here. We have civilians here and we have first responders here. On September 11th, thousands of firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel, military members and ordinary civilians answered the most fundamental call of service.

“Someone needs help? Go. They didn’t have all the information. They didn’t know how the day would end. They didn’t know what they were running into, but they went anyway. That is courage. And that is selfless service.”

Hemphill, after going through the list of the numbers of those lost at specific locations – i.e. the Pentagon, American Airlines Flight 77 – said there was another reason America must remember.

“We cannot forget that their memory carries a responsibility. Twenty-five years ago America experienced unimaginable loss, but also experienced something else. We experienced Americans taking care of Americans, neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers. First responders going into danger. Military members answering a call, and communities coming together.

“And for a brief moment, many of the things that divided us seemed much smaller than the things that united us. That spirit is part of the legacy of September 11th, and perhaps that is one of the most important things we can teach the generation that was not alive that day.

“Today, there are many Americans that have no personal memory of September 11th. They know it from our history books. They know it from photos. They have heard all our stories. But they don’t remember the silence that fell across our country. They don’t remember the empty skies. They don’t remember watching the television and wondering what would happen next.

“We know. And because we remember, it’s our responsibility to tell them. Not simply how the towers fell, not simply when Flight 77 struck the Pentagon, not simply where Flight 93 came down, but who was lost, who responded, who sacrificed and what their example means to us today.”

Patrick echoed that sentiment and added that America does not remember “simply to look back.

“We remember so that the lives lost, the courage shown and the sacrifices made will continue to shape how we move forward.”

She – and others in her age group – she said were from a generation that had grown up believing something like this could never happen on American soil. Wars happened somewhere else, she said. They learned about it in history, she said. “We moved on. Terrorism happened on other soil, not our country until that moment.”

But, she continued, what she remembered most following the devastation and the fear she said was on her father’s face – in the military, it did not allow him to retire on his retirement date, she said – was the unity that followed.

“The pride I saw on the news in seeing so many people come together and support at a time when we needed it most. From the ashes, America began picking up the pieces.

“Our first responders showed their patriotism just alongside our military members. Strangers helped strangers. Churches opened their doors. People stood to donate food and blood. American flags flew everywhere.

“And across this country, young Americans like me raised their right hand and volunteered to defend our nation that had suddenly discovered just how precious and how vulnerable freedom could be. I was one of those individuals who planned the day that I too would take that oath. The war hallowed us and a new patriotism was born in my generation and I couldn’t be more proud.”

She continued to talk about how the nation changed; becoming neighbors again, becoming “one nation” again, remembering that what unites us is far greater than what divides us, she said.

Then she changed direction. She asked a question. “Where will you go from here? Will we choose division or will we choose unity? Will we choose anger or understanding? Will we simply enjoy the freedom others sacrificed to protect? Or will we accept our responsibility to preserve it?

“Where will we go from here? We go forward together. We go forward achieving courage over fear, service over stealth and unity over division.

“Today let us honor nearly 3,000 lives that we lost. Let us honor the firefighters, the police officers, the paramedics, first responders who answered the call. Let us honor our military members and their families who carried the burden of the war that followed. And let us never forget that freedom is not free.

“Someone has always stood the watch. Someone has always answered the call. Someone has always sacrificed so that we could remain free. Twenty-five years ago, America was wounded. America grieved, but America rose. May we remember where we were when we needed one another most and may we have the courage to be that America again. We remember, we honor, and together we move forward.”