Fort Eisenhower held its annual Remembrance Ceremony, Wednesday morning, at the post’s Freedom Park, commemorating the 2,977 lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
Post staff and servicemembers comprised the audience in the small, somber remembrance. After the Posting of the Colors by a color guard representing all six branches of the U.S. armed forces, Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin D. Flickinger of the Army Cyber School posted a wreath in remembrance of those who died in the 9/11 attacks, 23 years ago.
At 8:46 a.m., soldiers shot cannon fire, signifying the crash of Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center that morning. Fire engines and ambulances of the fort’s Emergency Servies Division, parked near the site, followed with wails of sirens, representing the first responders answering their call to action.
This sequence would repeat at 9:03 a.m., when Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower, and again at 9:37 a.m., when Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
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In his keynote address, Maj. Gen. Ryan Janovic, Commanding General of the Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Eisenhower, urged attendees to memorialize the day, and the victims of that day, with solemnity, “prayerful quietness” and “continued commitment to national service as patriots.”
“Many of us were there. Many of us lost teammates,” said Janovic, who served in Afghanistan with the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, and in the headquarters of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq. “Many have hard memories, not easily erased, and all of our families sacrificed. Plainly, we were attacked, and we sent our armed forces to combat, and combat has a toll that rings and echoes for decades.”
On 9/11, Janovic was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. He recalls working on PowerPoint slides preparing for a briefing, when his roommate called him and told him the news.
“Remembrances aren’t about remembering something that happened at one point in time,” he said. “I think remembrances are great because you remember not the time but the decades that have passed, and how much you come to understand the impact of that.”
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Lt. Col. Hank Cartagena, director of Emergency Services and provost marshall of Fort Eisenhower and Fort Gillem, also remembers the sacrifices of fellow first responders—police, firefighters, dispatchers, EMTs and other emergency personnel.
“Just knowing that I’m in a community of selfless individuals, men and women who are prepared to give their life every day on the job, that’s a very humbling privilege,” said Cartagena, also a native New Yorker. “To be able to lead an organization that does that for Fort Eisenhower and Fort Gillem… it reinvigorates me to give my best every day so that I don’t let my team down.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
