A 21-gun salute remembers victims of 9/11. Video by Berit Ollestad
In the shadow of charred beams from the World Trade Center, on a Sunday afternoon too windy for candlelight vigils, Morris County remembered its dead from the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001.
Sixty-four county residents–including nine from Greater Morristown–were murdered on that terrible morning.
For those old enough to remember, 9/11 remains so vivid that it’s startling to be reminded that social media, ubiquitous today, did not exist then.
James Michael Gannon, global head of security for Novartis, pointed that out during his remarks at the Morris County 9/11 Memorial in Parsippany.
The park on West Hanover Avenue includes three steel sections from the World Trade Center, small pieces of the Newark outbound United Airlines flight 93, soil from the Pentagon, and plaques inscribed with names of victims from Morris County.
In 2001, people had email, and electronic chat rooms and bulletin boards. But Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and all the rest still were years away.
Gannon noted how so many people came together, so compassionately, without benefit of such communication tools in the aftermath of 9/11.
Today, these same online services that enhance disaster relief efforts around the world also, unfortunately, are used as recruiting platforms by terrorists.
Photos by Katharine Boyle. Please click icon below for slideshow captions.
But Gannon assured the audience — which included police, firefighters and EMS crews who paraded to the memorial site–that security operations are at an all-time high, and authorities are more diligent than ever before in protecting the public.
Dignitaries in attendance on Sunday included Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) and state Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-25th Dist).
Morris Plains Mayor Frank Druetzler, whose borough held a 9/11 ceremony last Friday, also was there, and Morris Freeholders Doug Cabana, David Scapicchio and Hank Lyon participated in the ceremony.
Sheriff Ed Rochford and Prosecutor Fredric Knapp paid their respects as well.
Photos by Berit Ollestad. Please click icon below for slideshow captions.
The Rev. Joseph Ford, assistant pastor of Bethel A.M.E Church in Morristown, delivered the invocation.
Students Shreya Durbha and Shefali Das of the Morris County School of Technology sang God Bless America.
Amazing Grace was performed by Detective Matthew Potter of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Morris Choral Society sang the Irish Blessing and America the Beautiful.
The service was punctuated by a 21-gun salute by the Morris County Sheriff’s Office, and the playing of Taps by F. Tony Ramirez of Denville American Legion Post 390.
Our thanks to Morristown Green contributors Katharine Boyle and Berit Ollestad for their fine photos.