The ceremonies at First Responders Park on Friday will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The observance is the latest in a series of smaller, quieter remembrances that have marked the date at the park over the years, often drawing firefighters, police officers, veterans, families and residents to the memorial built around a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.
The anniversary also comes after 25 years of military service and sacrifice that followed the attacks, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Westerville residents and families were among those affected by that service. Some deployed overseas, some returned wounded, and some died while serving. Others came home carrying injuries and experiences that continued to affect them long after their military service ended.
That broader sense of sacrifice is one reason a retired Marine with family ties to Westerville has changed the way he thanks veterans. Rather than saying, “Thank you for your service,” he says, “Thank you for your sacrifice,” a phrase meant to recognize the full list of effects that military service can require.
Those effects are also reflected in local graves and memorials.
One is the grave of Spc. Zachary Taylor Myers, who died in Iraq on Sept. 8, 2009, at age 21. His grave marker identifies his Army service, Iraq deployment, Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. Beneath that record are the words, “Miss me, but let me go.”
Friday’s ceremony will return attention to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and to the first responders who died that day. But the anniversary also marks the beginning of a period of military service whose costs continued for years afterward.
At First Responders Park, the twisted steel from the World Trade Center remains the physical link to that morning.
The ceremony Friday will ask the community to remember not only what was lost on Sept. 11, but also the service and sacrifice that followed.
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