A group of about 30 students and faculty members gathered in the Duke Chapel Saturday morning in remembrance of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The ceremony opened with a color guard presentation by Duke’s Air Force ROTC and a prayer urging listeners to have the “strength to rise again” and to “believe that good will never be defeated.” Volunteers lit candles at 9:59 a.m. and 10:28 a.m.—the two times at which the World Trade Center’s two towers fell—and Durham Fire Department Battalion Chief Craig Hoxie gave a speech.
“Anniversaries are significant,” Hoxie said. “[The attacks] impacted me as a firefighter in a way you can’t understand.”
Less than a year after the attacks, Hoxie traveled to New York City with his family to visit ground zero. The stepson of a fellow firefighter from Durham led Hoxie through the city’s subway system and onto the site.
“It was incredible how it impacted me,” Hoxie said, adding that his sense of awe reminded him of visiting the Grand Canyon because the site must be seen in person to be understood. “If it doesn’t bring tears to your eyes—just the magnitude of it—there’s something wrong with you.... The firefighters love New York. It’s like they have a key to the city.”
Junior Sam Baek, a member of the Air Force ROTC program, said he attended the ceremony to pay tribute even though he was not personally affected by the attacks.
“I have a special connection with... how our nation responded to this event and the significance of what [happened] nine years ago,” Baek said. “[I came] to really pay tribute, you know, spiritually, emotionally.”
Like Baek, Jesse Huddleston, Trinity ’10 and an administrative intern for Chapel Services, was not directly affected by the attacks but still came to the service to be with Duke students who might have been.
“I wanted to be present with those, also, who may have been more notably impacted. I think it is a day of significance where it is important to... pause,” he said. “It helps you keep a better perspective, a better hold on yourself.”
Near the end of the ceremony, junior Kyle Ulrich, commander of the Arnold Air Society, recalled the words of Elmer Davis, a former director of the United States Office of War Information, that said the U.S. will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
The ceremony ended with a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” and a moment of silence in remembrance of the victims of the attack.
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