Residents gather to commemorate 9/11

The numbers were less than usual but familiar faces and new faces still appeared at the annual Sept. 11 memorial ceremony at JP Stone Community Bank in Portales where local residents come together to remember and honor those who died on a day forever burned into the minds of Americans everywhere: Sept. 11, 2001.

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The Cannon Air Force Base Color Guard raised the American Flag while Taps was played Tuesday morning at JP Stone Community Bank in Portales during a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony honoring victims in the World Trade Center attacks.

More than a dozen scattered Portales residents fell silent Tuesday morning as the Cannon Air Force Base color guard raised the American flag to the sound of Taps.

"Airplane travel was considered the safest way to travel," bank owner David Stone said of before the attacks. "This war (in the middle east) has lasted longer than any American War and there is no end in sight."

Roosevelt County Darren Hooker was the keynote speaker for the event, quoting prior U.S. president George W. Bush as saying "Time is passing yet for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting Sept. 11th."

"As we mark this anniversary, I would like to ask you to take these moments here and now to come together as Americans," Hooker told audience members. "Not as Democrats, not as Republicans. Neither black, nor white, nor brown. Not Baptist, not Catholic but as Americans."

Hooker told his audience that during his training last year at the FBI National Academy, he visited the World Trade Center memorial in New York.

"Once inside the memorial, one of the first things to hit me was how close the buildings had been to each other," Hooker said. "I remember thinking I could throw a rock from one to the other."

Hooker said the names listed on the memorial included all of the individuals who perished in the attacks 11 years ago, including passengers on the airplanes that crashed into the building, all those in the building and public service personnel who responded, such as police and firefighters.

"Walking around the memorial were some of the people that had been there on that fateful day," Hooker said. "People who are ever so humble, people who only want the story to continue to be told, so that no one forgets. I guarantee they have not forgotten and again, nor should we."

The Portales Fire Department honored the day in their own small way by stationing a fire truck in a parking lot on West Second Street.

Chief Gary Nuckols said firefighter Mike Chaves came up with the idea to use a fire truck as a memorial with a banner that said "never forget."

"We had a few phone calls by a few folks today who were very touched by it but emotional about it," Nuckols said of the lone fire truck. "I think it's (the truck memorial) something we'll do as long as I'm around. We honored those lost in our own way. It was a lot of personal remembrance."