FORT SILL NATIONAL CEMETERY — A small group of people listened Friday as Matthew Priest recounted his memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Priest, who serves as assistant manager of the Fort Sill and Fort Gibson National Cemeteries, was a fifth-grader 20 years ago. He said he was sitting in computer class on Sept. 11, 2001, when school suddenly stopped.
“I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, but every TV that was in the building was turned on and we just sat there in silence,” Priest said.
Priest led a short memorial service at Fort Sill National Cemetery to honor the people who died on 9/11, when terrorists hijacked three planes and crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The terrorists had planned to use a fourth plane to attack another target, but passengers fought back, causing the plane to crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The service also honored soldiers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Priest said 9/11 was the only day in Americans’ lifetimes when they set their differences aside and embraced each other.
“We dropped to our knees,” he said. “We wept. Some of us engaged. But above all else, we unified for our collective loss.”
Priest said the attacks on the United States, and the actions of first responders that day, inspired a new generation of public service — one that linked first responders to the military.
“This new generation of warriors, in the mode of every generation before them, answered the call when freedom was threatened,” he said. “Why? Because the war doesn’t stop.”
After the ceremony, volunteers went to work cleaning soldiers’ gravestones. Priest urged the volunteers to share their stories of 9/11 as they worked and remember those who died serving their country.
Remembrance
One of the volunteers was Lawton resident Wyonna Alberty, who wore a button with Lt. Col. Karen Wagner’s name written in red ink. Wagner, who spent nearly two decades serving her country in the U.S. Army, was killed in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.
Alberty said she did not know anyone who died on 9/11 – including Wagner – but her heart went out to the victims.
“It was like it was a family,” she said. “I feel like in America, where we have the home of freedom, that they were a part of me.”