Remembering 9/11 Victims From Michigan 20 Years Later

MICHIGAN — Anyone older than 25 in Michigan 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 3 from Michigan, 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:

Terence E. Adderley Jr., Bloomfield Hills, MI, World Trade Center.

By the time Mr. Adderley was 12, he was picking his own stocks. He went to his grandfather's university — Vanderbilt — and joined his grandfather's fraternity, Sigma Chi. In the summers, he worked at Kelly and practiced dry wit. Read more about Mr. Adderley here.

Bradley Hoorn, Richland, MI, World Trade Center.

After graduation, Mr. Hoorn, 22, worked for an investment firm on the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center's north tower. He saw the city as an adventure, but lamented the lack of tennis courts. Read more about Mr. Hoorn here.

Lisa Marie Terry, Rochester, MI, World Trade Center.

Lisa Marie Terry's days revolved around her horses and horse competitions, but her work often took her away, and on Sept. 11, her work took her to the World Trade Center. Read more about Ms. Terry here.

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.