Anne Arundel's First Responders Remember 9/11 In Ceremony

MILLERSVILLE, MD — Police officers, firefighters and the general public gathered Monday morning for a ceremony at Anne Arundel County's September 11 Memorial to remember those lost on that fateful day in 2001. The county's first responders observed a moment of silence, listened to a prayer from the Fire Department's chaplain and watched as County Executive Steve Schuh and other top officials placed a wreath before the memorial, a pair of steel beams salvaged from "Ground Zero" in lower Manhattan.

Schuh was joined in the wreath-laying by Anne Arundel Fire Chief Allan Graves, Deputy Police Chief Jerard Flemings and State's Attorney Wes Adams, the Anne Arundel Fire Department said on its Facebook page. (Get Patch’s real-time news alerts or like us on Facebook. For iPhone users, get the free Patch app.)

The ceremony marked the 16th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan and at the Pentagon, and the crash of a hijacked airliner in Shanksville, PA. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, including 2,600 in the Twin Towers; among them were nearly 400 first responders.

The Fire Department noted that right after the attacks in 2001, Anne Arundel firefighters and police officers were summoned to assist at Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center, as well as the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

The Anne Arundel and Annapolis police departments sent more than 90 officers to assist the NYPD with security and recovery functions in Manhattan following the attacks. Anne Arundel firefighters deployed to the sites of the attacks as part of regional task forces.

The county commissioned the memorial in 2010, "to honor of those lost on September 11, 2001 and in honor of the men and women of this County who devote themselves each and every day to make Anne Arundel County a safer place," the Fire Department said.

The memorial stands in front of Anne Arundel County’s Police and Fire Department headquarters at 8495 Veterans Highway in Millersville. The steel beams, taken from the rubble of the Twin Towers, were donated to the county by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Images: Above, County Executive Steve Schuh, left, looks on as top officials with Anne Arundel's police and fire departments lay a wreath Monday in front of the county's September 11 Memorial. Below, an honor guard marches before the memorial at Monday morning's ceremony; the memorial includes a pair of steel beams salvaged from Ground Zero in New York City (Anne Arundel County Fire Department).