Local residents remember September tragedy

MANAGING EDITOR

[email protected]

Close to 30 local residents gathered at J.P. Stone Community Bank on First Street in Portales Saturday morning to pay tribute to the thousands of Americans killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Friday marked the 14th anniversary of the day in which more than 3,000 people were killed as a result of terrorists attacks. Two of four hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed each of the Twin Towers in New York City. A third crashed into and damaged the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, killing every passenger aboard.

Bank Owner David Stone has been hosting a memorial ceremony in remembrance of the tragedy since its one-year anniversary in 2002 with various guest speakers from area fire departments, law enforcement departments and Cannon Air Force Base.

Firefighters from Portales Fire Department were present in full dress uniform, along with officers and deputies from the Portales Police Department and the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office.

Portales resident Amy Carter sang the national anthem at the opening of the ceremony as she does every year at the event.

This year’s guest speaker was Maj. Robert Clay, commander of the 27th Special Operations Comptroller Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base.

link Staff photo: Alisa Boswell

Major Robert Clay, commander of the 27th Special Operations Comptroller Squadron, was the guest speaker at the Sept. 11 memorial ceremony behind Portales J.P. Stone Bank Friday morning.

Clay told those gathered Friday that at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, he was stationed at Brooks Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, as the flight commander for the base finance office.

“I assumed it was just an accident,” Clay said of when he first heard the news a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. “A few minutes later, we watched the north tower fall.”

Clay said once he saw the news broadcast for himself, he knew the nation was under attack.

Then he received the email: “Implement Threat Con Delta. This is not an exercise,” is how the email read, said Clay.

“To this day, I’ve never received another message that shook me to the core (like this one did),” he said. “I knew then everything was going to be different for the younger generations like my son.”

“My son will tell you how it impacted him was watching both his parents be deployed numerous times over the next several years,” he added.

Clay told his audience that to date, 6,828 people have died in the fight against terrorism and 52,317 have been wounded.

“Great people have been moved to defend a great country,” Clay said. “The support provided (locally) to our air commandos and their mission is the best I’ve ever seen.”

Stone opened the ceremony with his own comments, telling those gathered that America has become “a nation of takers.”

“We must change our national attitude by electing senators, congressmen and a president who wants a strong country and will do what is good for America, not just what is politically good for them,” Stone said. “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask instead what you can do for your country. God bless America; she certainly needs it.”