Flowers adorn a wall behind the Fallon City Hall after a previous 9/11 ceremony remembered those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.
Fallon Mayor Ken Tedford Jr. is very passionate about Sept. 11 and what it symbolizes.
On that date 12 years ago, terrorists hijacked four jet airliners and rammed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and another into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
The fourth passenger jet, United Flight 93, crashed in a Pennsylvania field, however, after passengers overpowered the hijackers.
Almost 3,000 people including those on the four passenger jets died on that day.
“It’s important for us to remember 9/11 every year,” Tedford said. “It’s also important to remind the younger people — our children — who don’t know it (the day) occurred because they’re too young or hadn’t been born.”
Tedford said the 10 a.m. ceremony behind City Hall, which is open to anyone, remembers and honors the people who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Tremendous pain was inflicted on our country,” Tedford said of the attacks.
Tedford said Gov. Brian Sandoval, who has attended the previous two remembrance days, will be the guest speaker. The mayor said Fallon is grateful to have the governor attend the ceremony. Jennifer Dove, who is assigned to Naval Air Station Fallon, will lead the audience in the singing of the national anthem, and Lissa Overlie will sing Amazing Grace. The Navy JROTC color guard from Churchill County High School will represent the colors, and a ceremonial team consisting of veterans will conduct a 22-gun salute followed by a bugler playing Taps.
The military’s strong presence in Churchill County also means much to Tedford, especially when the city remembers the victims from 9/11 and the subsequent military actions that occurred in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This is a strong military town because of two presences, the Navy and the Nevada Army National Guard. We also have so many retired military living here,” Tedford added.
Recently Tedford attended the funeral of a World War II veteran, and that reminded him of the sacrifices offered by both active and retired servicemen and women.
“We’re a very patriotic community, and we like to honor them for their sacrifices,” Tedford said.
After the governor, who is also the state’s commander in chief of the National Guard, delivers his remarks, Tedford will then read a chronological timeline of the events that unfolded early in the morning of 9/11.
First-responders representing federal, state and local agencies also participate in the ceremony. To conclude the remembrance, first-response personnel followed by the public will lead a procession to place flowers on the 9/11 and War on Terror memorials. A small fragment of a steel beam from the Trade Center is also embedded in the memorial.
The only name of a Fallon serviceman or woman on the War on Terror memorial is that of Army Spc. Jason A. Disney, who died on Feb. 13, 2002, after sustaining injuries when a piece of heavy equipment fell on him at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. The 21-year-old soldier assigned to the 7th Transportation Battalion, Ft. Bragg, N.C., was a 1999 graduate of Churchill County High School.
The main street at Bagram Air Field was named after Disney.