Remembering 9/11 Victims From Connecticut 20 Years Later

CONNECTICUT — Anyone older than 25 in Connecticut likely remembers where they were on 9/11.

Americans felt a collective trauma as first one and then another plane flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. As the truth dawned on people watching from their TVs that America was under attack, another plane took aim at the Pentagon. A fourth was brought down in a field in Pennsylvania in a final act of heroism by passengers who realized their flight had been hijacked.

Nearly 3,000 Americans, including many from Connecticut, were killed in the suicide attacks carried out by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida.

On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, our state remembers and mourns:

Laurence Abel
Bryan C. Bennett
Jeffrey D. Bittner
Christopher J. Blackwell FDNY
Allen Patrick Boyle
Alexander Braginsky
Francis Henry (Frank) Brennan
Thomas M. Brennan
Joseph M. Calandrillo
Edward Calderon
Sandra Campbell
Alejandro Castano
Juan Ceballos
Stephen P. Cherry
Kevin F. Cleary Esq.
Geoffrey W. Cloud
Keith Eugene Coleman
Scott Thomas Coleman
Margaret Conner
Kevin P. Connors
Joseph John Coppo
Dolores Costa
Brian Thomas Cummins
Paul Curioli
Patrick Danahy
Anthony Demas
Lt. Kevin Donnelly FDNY
John Bruce Eagleson
Michael Egan
Ulf Ramm Ericson
Eric B. Evans
Wendy R. Faulkner
Edward T. Fergus Jr.
Bradley Fetchet
Paul M. Fiori
John Fiorito
Bennett Lawson Fisher
Peter C. Fry
Richard Peter Gabriel Sr.
Richard S. Gabrielle
James A. Gadiel
Thomas E. Galvin
Osseni Mama Garba
Christopher Samuel Gardner
Peter Alan Gay
Peter Gerard Gelinas
Robert Gerlich
Lawrence Getzfred
Evan Hunter Gillette
Ronald Gilligan
Steven Lawrence Glick
Wilder A. Gomez
Kiran Kumar Reddy Gopu
Edwin J. Graf III
Donald F. Greene
James A. Greenleaf Jr.
Pedro Grehan
James D. Halvorson
Sean S. Hanley
Christine Lee Hanson
Peter Burton Hanson
Sue Kim Hanson
Timothy John Hargrave
Michele Heidenberger
H. Joseph Heller
John Henwood
Robert Higley II
James J. Hobin
Judith Florence Hofmiller
Paul R. Hughes
William Christopher Hunt
Thomas Edward Hynes
John F. Iskyan
Ariel Louis Jacobs
Michael Grady Jacobs
Mark Steven Jardim
Robert Thomas Jordan
Richard M. Keane
Peter R. Kellerman
Maurice Patrick Kelly
William Hill Kelly Jr.
Amy King
Glenn Davis Kirwin
Stephen LaMantia
Gary E. Lasko
Robert A. Lawrence Jr.
Joseph A. Lenihan
Adam J. Lewis
Steven B. Lillianthal
Garry W. Lozier
Michael J. Lyons
Edward Teddy F. Maloney
Ada Mason
Kevin Michael McCarthy
Juliana McCourt
Ruth McCourt
Eamon McEneaney
Michael G. McGinty
Francis McGuinn
William J. Meehan Jr.
Eskedar Melaku
Raymond Joseph Metz III
Joel Miller
Michael M. Miller
Cheryl Ann Monyak
Lindsay S. Morehouse
Jude Moussa
Cesar A. Murillo
Christopher William White Murphy
Daniel Robert Nolan
Robert W. Noonan
Timothy M. O'Brien
Scott J. O'Brien
James Andrew O'Grady
Christopher Orgielewicz
Margaret Quinn Orloske
Thomas Anthony Palazzo
James Matthew Patrick
Mike A. Pelletier
Joshua Piver
Roger Mark Rasweiler
Jean Destrehan Roger
Sean P. Rooney
Michael C. Rothberg
Jason E. Sabbag
Jesus Sanchez
Stacey Leigh Sanders
Sean Schielke
John B. Schwartz
Randy Scott
Barbara A. Shaw
Michael John Simon
Heather Lee Smith
Dianne Bullis Snyder
Gregory T. Spagnoletti
George E. Spencer III
Derek J. Statkevicus
Craig William Staub
Andrew Stergiopoulos
Madeline Sweeney
Michael C. Tarrou
Thomas F. Theurkauf Jr.
Eric Raymond Thorpe
Amy E. Toyen
Tyler Ugolyn
Jonathan J. Uman
Allen V. Upton
Bradley H. Vadas
Edward Raymond Vanacore
Frederick Varacchi
James Thomas Waters Jr.
Jeffrey David Wiener
Candace Lee Williams
John P. Williamson
William Eben Wilson
David H. Winton
Christopher W. Wodenshek
Martin Phillips Wohlforth
John Works
Edward P. York
Charles A. Zion

All 9/11 victims will be remembered at memorial services planned across the nation on Sept. 11 to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

Every year in Connecticut, on the Thursday before Sept. 11, the state holds its 9/11 ceremony at the at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. This year’s ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, Family members of those who were killed in the attacks will participate, and the names of all the victims with ties to Connecticut will be read aloud.

Its organizers call the 2021 CT United Ride the largest 9/11 tribute and the largest single ride in New England, and it's tough to argue. The fundraiser for fire and law enforcement agencies throughout the state will kick off from Sherwood Island State Park at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 11. The 60-mile motorcade will wend its way through 10 towns in Fairfield County, travelling as far north as Newtown before returning to the coast through Bridgeport.

Brookfield will hold a candlelight vigil honoring the 20th anniversary of 9/11 at the Brookfield Town Hall Band Stand at 7 p.m. The rain date is the next night. The event will be sponsored by the Brookfield Museum and Historical Society.

The Plainfield Veterans of Foreign Wars will also be holding a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. on Saturday. A new memorial stone will be unveiled and added to the Vets Park next to town hall as part of the ceremony.

In New Canaan, "Remembrance, Reflection and Resilience" will be the theme of the VOICES 20th anniversary events and programs. VOICES provides long-term support and resources that promote mental health care and wellness, for victims' families, responders, survivors, and families of those who have died of 9/11 related illnesses; and assists communities in preparing for and recovering from tragedy. Programs have been ongoing, and include an art exhibit, a Remembrance Symposium on Sept. 9-10 and a Fall Gala.

A 9/11 ceremony will be held at noon on Thursday, Sept. 9 at Oxford Town Hall. The public is invited to attend. Town officials decided to hold the event on Thursday so employees can also attend.

A recently opened exhibit by the Wethersfield Historical Society and the Richard M. Keane Foundation recalls the contributions made by three of that town's residents who lost their lives on 9/11. Called "Twenty Years Later: Remembering 9/11 and Its Impact on the Wethersfield Community," it runs through September at the Keeney Center at 200 Main Street in Wethersfield, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1-4 p.m.

In Bethel, the fire companies will hold a memorial ceremony Saturday outside the Clifford J. Hurgin Municipal Center, 1 School Street, beginning at 7:30 a.m.

The public is invited to a 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony of the 9/11 attacks Friday morning at the Connecticut Fire Academy near Bradley International Airport at Windsor Locks.

Ridgefield's 9/11 memorial ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at 195 Danbury Road, and ill include the Ridgefield Police Department Honor Guard, Ridgefield Volunteer Fire Department Color Guard, speeches from distinguished guests and performances by piper Tom Elliot and Daniela Sikora & The Ridgefield Chorale.

The City of Milford will remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001 on its 20th anniversary with a ceremony of song and prayer at the September 11th Monument on the grounds of Milford City Hall. Chief Doug Edo will mark the event by sounding the Fire Department’s Memorial Bell at 8:46 a.m. Mayor Ben Blake is encouraging residents unable to attend the ceremony to visit memorial sites around town including the Memorial Garden at Live Oaks Elementary, Flight 93 Heroes Park along the Housatonic River, the memorial benches situated in the pocket park between Elis Restaurant and Café Atlantique on Daniel Street, and the monument at Fire Station 7 on Wheelers Farm Road that displays a portion of the actual steel structure from the World Trade Center.

The Torrington Fire Department and Firefighters Local 1567 will hold their annual memorial ceremony honoring those lost on 9/11 on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at the North End Fire Station, 899 Main Street, Torrington.

Bells will toll twice on Saturday morning, at the times the Twin Towers fell, in Roxbury and in Redding.

In Danbury, a memorial ceremony will be held 10 a.m. Friday morning on the lawn in front of St. Joseph School on Main Street.

To honor the victims of 9/11, Monroe's first responders will hold a ceremony at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Monroe Fire Headquarters on Moose Hill Road (Route 110). The public is invited to attend.

In New London, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum is inviting community members to their McCourt 9/11 Memorial Garden. Visitors are welcome to contribute to the "living memorial" by writing messages on commemorative ribbons to display in the garden throughout the weekend. The event will be held on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021 - Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

The City of Meriden will hold its 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony on Sept. 11 at 8:30 a.m. in front of city hall, 142 East Main Street, Meriden.

At the 9/11 memorial in Lower Manhattan, New York — an area known for years after the attacks as "Ground Zero" — the names of the fallen will be read aloud.

"Throughout the ceremony, we will observe six moments of silence, acknowledging when each of the World Trade Center towers was struck and fell and the times corresponding to the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93," the 9/11 Memorial & Museum wrote on its website.

The annual "Tribute of Light," which are lights pointed to the sky in the shape of the Twin Towers, will go on that night.

Most 9/11 victims were from either New York or New Jersey, where many who lived across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center recall the horror of watching the twin towers collapse from their homes in Hoboken and Jersey City.

More than 2,700 people died at the World Trade Center alone on 9/11, including the passengers of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. Another 184 were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and 44 died on United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.