9/11 Ceremony Planned In Fairfax County For 20th Anniversary

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with a remembrance ceremony Saturday.

The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11 at the Bailey's Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department, 3601 Firehouse Lane, Falls Church. First responders from that station had responded to the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 victims, including 2,753 at the World Trade Center in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and 40 aboard United Flight 93 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Among the speakers at Saturday's remembrance ceremony will be Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay, Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross, 8th congressional district Rep. Don Beyer, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis, and Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Chief John Butler. Fairfax County's ceremony will include an invocation, a "last alarm" bell service and a flyover by the Fairfax 1 helicopter.

"Most of us can remember where we were when we first learned of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001," said Gross in a statement. "While it doesn't seem possible that 20 years have passed since that terrible day, for many of our professional and volunteer fire and rescue personnel and other first responders, the events of that day are forever sealed in their memories."

The ceremony will be held in the afternoon due to the morning's Pentagon ceremony and VolunteerFest at the Fairfax County Government Center. The Pentagon's ceremony at 9 a.m. will be streamed live by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The public is encouraged to tune into the Fairfax County ceremony online through the Fairfax County Government Facebook Page's Facebook Live, live-streaming through Channel 16, or on the Fairfax County Government Channel 1016 (Cox) or Channel 16 (Verizon/Comcast).

SEE ALSO:

• D.C. Police Officer Recalls Recovering Bodies On 9/11 At Pentagon
• 9-11 Remembered: A Day That Changed DC, NoVA And The World
• Arlington Remembers Lives Lost 20 Years After Attack On Pentagon