A Day Never To Be Forgotten

Every generation in American life has its milestone moments that are seared into the nation’s consciousness. For the Greatest Generation, it was Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. For baby boomers, it was the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Most members of those generations could tell you where they were and what they were doing at those moments.

It has been 24 years since terrorists slammed two planes into New York’s World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A fourth plane was bound for another target in Washington D.C., but United Flight 93 passengers who learned of the first attacks on their cell phones bravely intervened to attack the hijackers at the cost of their own lives. Because of their selfless sacrifice, made with full knowledge of the outcome, the fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, with no survivors.

The 9/11 event changed everything. For the maritime sector, 9/11 brought changes, including the formation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2002, under which security responsibilities from the Coast Guard, Customs and other agencies were consolidated. The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 was the first major U.S. law mandating comprehensive port and vessel security programs. All towing companies now have updated security procedures due, in part, to the events of 9/11. The Transportation Workers Identification Credential was created as a port security enhancement.

Twenty-four years later, the first generation that didn’t experience those events firsthand, but only learned about them while growing up, is leaving college. The further this event recedes into history, the more important it is to ensure remembrance.

Maybe the words of then-President George W. Bush, speaking at the National Cathedral mere days after the 9/11 attacks, are fitting for today: “Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance and love have no end.”