Fallon, other communities remember events of 9/11

Fallon, along with Carson City and Fernley, are remembering the 18th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, Wednesday when a day of terror changed communities from the Atlantic to Pacific shores and nations around the globe.

Fallon’s ceremony begins at 10 a.m. behind the City Hall Courtyard, and flags will be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset. On Dec. 18, 2001, President George W. Bush officially designated 9/11 as Patriot’s Day, a time to reflect and remember the events of that day.

Fernley’s ceremony also begins today at 10 a.m. at the Out of Town Park gazebo. The City of Fernley and the Nevada Veterans Coalition will conduct a remembrance that features several speakers discussing the importance of the day. Carson City’s Remembrance at Mills Park is at the 911 Memorial Site near the entrance to the Marv Teixeira Pavilion beginning at 6 p.m. The 18th annual memorial ride, Never Forget 9/11 Memorial Ride hosted by the Iron Nation M/C attracted hundreds of riders and nonriders to its event at Reno’s Wingfield Park. Two Gold Star parents talked about the deaths of their son and daughter, respectively, who died while in military service during the Global War on Terror.

The morning of 9/11 not only affected New York, Washington, D.C and Pennsylvania but also the rest of the country when terrorists commandeered two passenger jets and flew them into New York City’s World Trade Center, another slammed into the Pentagon and a fourth jet crashed in a western Pennsylvania field. Passengers on Flight 93 overwhelmed hijackers in an unsuccessful attempt to wrestle control the plane from them. On this day 18 years ago, more than 3,000 passengers, first-responders and people in the three buildings died in the worse act of terrorism committed on American soil.

Fallon Mayor Ken Tedford and the city council stress the importance for all generations to remember and to reflect on the events of 9/11 as Americans do for Dec. 7, the day when Japanese war planes attacked Pearl Harbor and sunk a number of warships.

Tedford will deliver a chronology of terror, and Brig Gen. Ondra Berry, the Nevada National Guard’s new adjutant general who assumed command on Saturday, will deliver the keynote address. Expected to attend are personnel from Naval Air Station Fallon and the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center. Also attending are first responders from federal, state and local agencies.

Fallon has presented a solemn ceremony for more than a decade to honor those who died as a result of the hijackings. The Fallon memorial includes a piece of steel beam from one of the towers, and another monument recognizes Army Spc. Jason Disney. The Churchill County High School graduate deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom as a wheeled vehicle repairman and welder with the 7th Transportation Battalion’s 58th Maintenance Company (GS)/530th Supply and Service Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C. On Feb. 12, 2002, Disney died in an accident as battalion soldiers ensured improvements were being made at Bagram Air Field, about 25 miles northwest of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city.

Military Vehicle Preservation Association (MVPA) is on its 2019 Transcontinental Motor Convoy retracing the same route used 100 years ago that crossed the United States one year after the end of World War I. Fallon was an important stop on the Lincoln Highway.

The convoy arrived in Fallon on Monday after traveling 110 miles from Austin by following a section of old U.S. 50 over Carroll Summit. They stopped for lunch at Eastgate and a break at Sand Mountain. Participants from the convoy spent Tuesday with members of both local chapters of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. The MVPA will set up a static display at the 9/11 ceremony.

The convoy leaves Fallon Thursday morning for Carson City, where it will stop for lunch at the Nevada Railroad Museum and then to Placerville, Calif., for the nightly stop. The convoy’s final destination is San Francisco.