It was six years ago and thousands of miles away.
But Tuesday morning, as John Barry talked to a couple of hundred students at Aurora’s Century Elementary School, the attack on the Pentagon was still vivid for the Aurora Public Schools superintendent.
Barry was the two-star general in charge of strategic planning for the Air Force when American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon at 345 mph.
He was at the Pentagon when the plane hit at 9:43 a.m.
“You could hear it, feel it, smell it,” Barry recalled. “What I remember was the confusion, settling people down — some were hysterical, some bleeding.”
Tuesday was a day for remembering at Sept. 11 memorials in school classrooms and firehouses and city parks across the metro area. Remembering what it was like to be there, to help out afterward. Remembering the heartache of watching the events unfold on TV and mourning the lives lost.
Tuesday night, Gov. Bill Ritter and several other officials spoke at an outdoor ceremony honoring those killed in the attacks and those who worked to save them.
“Sept. 11 was a turning point in the history of the world,” Ritter said. “And that is not an overstatement. It is a day that we remember we were very vulnerable to an attack from an outside enemy.”
“This democracy, this peace that we enjoy is not something that we should ever take for granted,” Ritter continued. “… Liberty and freedom are very precious. And those of us who enjoy it should be thankful to the people who have fought for us and fought for those liberties.”
Listening in the audience was the Carey family. Paul and Linda had brought their two daughters, 7-year-old Amber and 4-year-old Madison, to learn about what happened on Sept. 11 and to understand why it matters. The couple is originally from New Jersey and said they knew people who lost loved ones.
“It’s just important to remember,” Linda Carey said.
“This is what you do,” Paul said.
And, though Madison fell fast asleep on her mother’s shoulder during the ceremony and Amber admitted to day dreaming during a piece of classical music that was played, the Careys said they hoped the lessons took root.
“We are so lucky to be in this country,” Linda said. “I want our kids to know that.”
Afterward, the family toured an exhibit of Sept. 11 artifacts — a tattered flag, a twisted metal beam, a firefighter’s battered air tank and others — in Aurora’s history museum. The exhibit was assembled by the New York State Museum and runs through Sept. 30.
During the ceremony, Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer referred to the exhibit, saying that it’s power comes not from the sad reminders of the tragedy but from the images of hope between them.
“The most important thing you’ll see in this exhibit is not when people are running away from buildings,” Tauer said. “The really important thing is to notice the people who are running into the buildings.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@ .
