Obituaries

Remembering 9/11 Victims From Chatham 20 Years Later 

Chatham residents who died on 9/11 will be among those memorialized at services across the country on the attack's 20th anniversary.

Two American flags are placed at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City in memory of the nearly 3,000 Americans, including 13 from Chatham, who died in the attacks
Two American flags are placed at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City in memory of the nearly 3,000 Americans, including 13 from Chatham, who died in the attacks (Tim Moran/Patch)

CHATHAM, NJ — Anyone older than 25 in Chatham likely remembers where they were on 9/11.

Americans felt a collective trauma as first one and then another plane flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. As the truth dawned on people watching from their TVs that America was under attack, another plane took aim at the Pentagon. A fourth was brought down in a field in Pennsylvania in a final act of heroism by passengers who realized their flight had been hijacked.

Nearly 3,000 Americans, including 13 from Chatham, were killed in the suicide attacks carried out by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida.

Find out what's happening in Chathamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, our state remembers and mourns:

All 9/11 victims will be remembered at memorial services planned across the nation on Sept. 11 to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

Find out what's happening in Chathamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

RELATED: 9/11 Observances To Take Place In Chatham's Schools
RELATED: Chatham's 9/11 Remembrance To Stop At 3 Memorial Sites

At the 9/11 memorial in Lower Manhattan, New York — an area known for years after the attacks as “Ground Zero” — the names of the fallen will be read aloud.

“Throughout the ceremony, we will observe six moments of silence, acknowledging when each of the World Trade Center towers was struck and fell and the times corresponding to the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93,” the 9/11 Memorial & Museum wrote on its website.

The annual “Tribute of Light,” which are lights pointed to the sky in the shape of the Twin Towers, will go on that night.

Most 9/11 victims were from either New York or New Jersey, where many who lived across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center recall the horror of watching the twin towers collapse from their homes in Hoboken and Jersey City.

More than 2,700 people died at the World Trade Center alone on 9/11, including the passengers of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. Another 184 were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and 44 died on United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.