USAFMCOM, community commemorate 9/11 25th anniversary
The U.S. Army Financial Management Command joined Department of War officials, local community leaders, veterans and first responders to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during a Patriot Day ceremony at the Maj. Gen. Emmett J. Bean Federal Center in Indianapolis Sept. 11.
"Twenty-five years ago, our nation was fundamentally changed in a matter of hours," said Col. Michelle M. Williams, USAFMCOM commander. "The attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville claimed the lives of 2,977 innocent Americans."
For retired Col. Aaron Gillison, a 9/11 Pentagon survivor and former Defense Finance and Accounting Service deputy director of operations, those 25 years have done little to diminish the memories.
"Twenty-five years later, 9/11 is not a distant memory for me," said Gillison, the ceremony’s keynote speaker. "It is a day of many thousand-yard stares and ‘what-ifs.’
I often see the flames, the pain and shock on many faces, and smell the smoke,” Gillison recalled as he addressed nearly 400 people during a ceremony connecting those who witnessed the attacks with a generation that increasingly knows 9/11 only through the stories of others.
Among those attending were Deborah Whitfield, City of Lawrence mayor; Bob Wallace, Lawrence Fire Department chief; Curtis Bigsbee, Lawrence Police Department chief; and members of the Caroline Scott Harrison Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.
"Your presence reflects the unbreakable bond between the command, our first responders and the community we proudly serve," Williams told them.
That partnership framed a ceremony centered on remembrance and service.
A joint honor guard from the Greenwood and Indianapolis fire departments presented the colors before Rich Perry and Velinda Kish, DFAS employees, sang the national anthem.
Mel Keaton, City of Lawrence public safety chaplain, delivered the invocation, and at 8:46 a.m., the auditorium fell silent to mark the moment American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center's North Tower.
Jordan Evans, Indianapolis Fire Department firefighter, chimed a bell as the ceremony recounted the strikes on the North and South towers and Pentagon, the collapse of both towers and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. A single chime rang across the silent room after the narration of each event.
Then, David McQueen, Gordon Pipers bagpiper, played "Amazing Grace."
The Pentagon portion of that timeline carried personal significance for Gillison and a direct connection to the Army Finance and Comptroller community.4
Gillison worked in Army G-4 financial management inside the Pentagon on 9/11. After watching the second aircraft strike the World Trade Center on a computer screen, he directed his team to remain close, account for its personnel and "brace for impact."
"It was just a feeling," Gillison said. "There is likely more to come."
He was right, and minutes later, Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
Gillison said he felt the impact and explosion but turned away from the stairwell across from his office to gather his personnel and members of another Army G-4 team before evacuating. He later learned the stairwell he avoided likely would have been a deathtrap.
"The visual of the Pentagon burning and the rescue efforts from this vantage point, that second rally point, remains engraved in my brain," Gillison said. "I can't unsee it."
Gillison was not the only witness to the Pentagon attack in the auditorium that morning. A historic U.S. Army Finance Command flag stood nearby. That flag served as the command’s colors before USAFINCOM's redesignation as USAFMCOM, and it stood inside the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
At that time, Army finance Soldiers and civilians worked in the E Ring on the side of the Pentagon struck by Flight 77. However, they had relocated just weeks earlier because of a remodeling project. That project likely saved the lives of those personnel.
Williams called the USAFINCOM flag "a tangible, enduring witness to the resilience of our Finance Corps and our total workforce."
"In the decades of sustained combat operations that followed, this command answered the call," she continued, pointing to Soldiers deploying, funding the fight and sustaining warfighter readiness around the world.
Williams said preserving the stories behind the flag and firsthand accounts like Gillison's becomes increasingly important as the distance from 9/11 grows.
She noted that many of today's Soldiers were either too young to remember the attacks or had not yet been born.
"Sharing these stories is how we bridge the gap between history and purpose," Williams said. "It is how our younger Soldiers and civil servants understand the crucible that forged the modern Army they have inherited."
That connection between remembrance and service carried through the ceremony's final tribute.
Whitfield and Jill Fewell, DAR chapter regent, laid an American wreath of remembrance at the foot of the USAFINCOM flag. Wallace and Bigsbee laid a first responder wreath of remembrance, while Williams and Command Sgt. Maj. Ronald B. Oyardo, USAFMCOM senior enlisted advisor, laid an armed forces wreath of remembrance.
The three wreaths brought together the same communities represented throughout the ceremony: the public, first responders and the armed forces.
"We honor the fallen not only through our grief, but through our action," Williams said. "We honor them through our daily dedication to this mission, our service to our communities, and our unwavering readiness to defend the freedom for which they died."
Stephen Daniels, American Legion Post 391 bugler, sounded "Taps," and Keaton delivered a benediction asking for peace, comfort, courage and strength for the nation, its first responders and armed forces before the joint fire department honor guard retrieved the colors.
Gillison said one image he keeps at home continues to embody that same connection: a photograph of nine firefighters and three Soldiers standing atop the damaged Pentagon, saluting as an American flag hangs from the building.
"This picture shows the strength of character and resilience rebounding from the 9/11 attack," Gillison concluded.
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