WILTON, CT — Wilton will mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with two events this weekend honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed that day, including five Wilton residents.
The town's annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 11, at Wilton Fire Headquarters, 236 Danbury Road.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal will join the ceremony as a speaker, according to Wilton Fire Chief James Blanchfield.
The ceremony will honor those killed in the attacks as well as the first responders and members of the military who answered the call in the days and years that followed. The public is invited to attend.
A day later, Wilton will dedicate a new permanent memorial with a particularly poignant connection to Ground Zero.
The Hillside Cemetery & Arboretum will dedicate its 9/11 Memorial at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, according to the cemetery.
At the center of the memorial is a steel cross fashioned from World Trade Center steel by a New York City firefighter. The cross was given to the family of John Christopher Henwood, a Wilton resident who was killed in the attacks, and his family later entrusted it to Hillside Cemetery for the permanent memorial.
The memorial honors Wilton residents Edward T. Fergus Jr., Peter C. Fry, John Christopher Henwood, John F. Iskyan and Edward P. York, who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Family members of the victims are expected to attend Saturday's dedication.
Hillside Cemetery 9/11 Memorial dedication details
Wilton firefighters were also among those who responded in the aftermath of the attacks. Retired firefighters Kevin Czarnecki and Dave Chaloux traveled to the World Trade Center site on Sept. 11, 2001, to assist New York City firefighters.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four airplanes, flying two into New York City's World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. Passengers fought back aboard United Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 2,977 victims.
The toll has continued to grow in the years since, as thousands of survivors, first responders and people who lived, worked or attended school near the attack sites have developed illnesses linked to toxic exposure during rescue, recovery and cleanup operations.
As is traditional, the names of the 2,977 people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks and six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing will be read during a ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan.
Four former presidents — Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — are expected to attend the 25th-anniversary ceremony. President Donald Trump is expected to attend an observance at the Pentagon, while Vice President JD Vance is expected to represent the administration in New York.
The Ground Zero ceremony will be livestreamed. That evening, the annual Tribute in Light will send twin beams into the sky.
Trump is expected to attend the observance at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and flown into the building.
At the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a remembrance ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday with the reading of the names of the 40 passengers and crew members killed aboard the flight, the Bells of Remembrance and wreath-layings timed to the four attacks.
A second ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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