FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Fort Carson officials marked the 11th anniversary of 9/11 by remembering the victims and honoring the sacrifice of American servicemembers in a formal ceremony at the World Trade Center Memorial near Gate 1, Sept. 11.
.
"On Sept. 11, the nation came under attack," said Sgt. Maj. Michael Borrelli, Directorate of Emergency Services, and moderator for the event.
Borrelli listed the campaigns 4th Infantry Division Soldiers supported in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
"The cost has been great," he said. "Today we remember the 3,000 lives lost on 9/11. We also pause to remember the more than 450 members of the Ivy Division lost in battle."
Maj. Gen. Joseph Anderson, commanding general, 4th Inf. Div. and Fort Carson, and Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Stall, 4th Inf. Div. and Fort Carson, laid a wreath at the base of the World Trade Center Memorial as homage to those killed.
The ceremony served another purpose for Anderson -- to remind younger Soldiers why they continue to fight.
"They have to understand," he said. "Everything that happened that day -- when the towers fell, when the planes crashed in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon -- our life and world changed."
Pfc. Aaron Cameron, 204th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Inf. Div., was just 9 years old when the attack took place.
"We were in third or fourth grade," he said, adding that he went to an elementary school at Fort Rucker, Ala.
Cameron said his teachers had the students kneel against the walls in the hallways, preparing for an attack.
"We were kids so we didn't know why," he said. "We didn't know the significance of it. As we grew older, we learned about it in class, but I was 13 or 14 years old when I 'got it.'"
Spc. Julia Asire, 204th BSB, 2nd BCT, was in fifth grade on 9/11.
"I remember going to school and watching the news," Asire said. "I didn't understand the significance at the time. … I remember my mother was crying."
"Soldiers need to be reminded why they are fighting," Anderson said. "All of the deployments, the sacrifices -- you have to understand why. … This is what it's all about. If we don't remember all that, it's a big mistake."
Dave Roever, an Army veteran and keynote speaker for the ceremony, agreed.
"The greatest tragedy of our human race is our short-term memory," he said.
In his address to the audience, Roever cautioned against forgetting the importance of 9/11.
"Lest we forget, we would only encounter again an enemy that never forgets," he said. "We don't have the luxury of forgetting."
Social Sharing