Sep 11, 2014 4 min read

CARMICHAELS – The mist that fell over the crowd gathered for the annual 9/11 remembrance in Carmichaels Thursday was a stark contrast to the same day in 2001 when terrorist attacks shook America to its core.

“I remember going home thinking how beautiful it was outside, the bright blue summer sky. And then, within two hours there were military planes flying over my house and near Emerald Mine,” said Randi Chambers of Waynesburg. “It was so, so sad. All of a sudden you were just wondering where everyone (in your life) is.”

Keynote speaker Kit Watson, Pennsylvania American Legion Adjutant, shared stories of some who did not make it home on that fateful Tuesday 13 years ago.

Bernard Curtis Brown II wanted to be a professional basketball player. The 11-year old was on American Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. His father worked there. He was not at the Pentagon when his son’s plane struck it.

Brown and other students from the Washington, D.C., area were chosen to participate in a four-day National Geographic trip to Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in California.

Brown boarded the plane in his new Air Jordan sneakers, apprehensive about flying, but excited at the same time.

Asia Cottom, 11, donned her beloved Tweety bird attire for the flight. Strong in science and math, she hoped to be a pediatrician.

Like Brown, Rodney Dickens, 11, was nervous about flying. It was his first time. He was a collector of Pokemon cards and loved to watch professional wrestling.

Dana Falkenberg, 3, and her sister, Zoe, 8, shared the flight with them. They perished alongside their parents, Charles and Leslie, both just 45 years old. Charles was a former NASA engineer and Leslie an economics professor. They were headed for a family vacation to Australia but missed the connecting flight, placing them on flight 77.

Two years before a plane hit the World Trade Center, New York City firefighter, Matthew Barnes, 37, was recognized for rescuing 6-week-old twins, Isabella and Jacob Kalodner, from an inferno at their residence. On Sept. 11, 2001, Barnes was killed in the line of duty at the World Trade Center.

Harry Raines, 37, worked inside the World Trade Center. An avid gardener, his children; Jillian, 8, Kyle, 6, and Kimberly, 2, made him stepping stones with colorful decorative glass for his garden. Raines lined his windowsill at work with the creations. He was in his office when it was hit by flight 77.

On Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Shanksville, was Elizabeth Wainio, 27, who lived by the motto of “carpe diem.” She recently returned from a rejuvenating trip to Paris and was on her way to a business meeting.

Police officer John D’Allara rescued spider monkeys, bats, squirrels and even an iguana during his career in law enforcement. All life was sacred to him. He once spent five hours calming a child who got his head trapped between a beam and an elevator shaft until he could be safely moved. D’Allara was nearing retirement.

At the University of Rhode Island, a memorial scholarship honors alumni; Christine Barbuto, 32, Christian L. DeSimone, 23, and Frank Schott, Jr., 39, who were killed in the terrorist attacks of 2001. Barbuto was a practical joker, DeSimone wanted to conquer the CPA exam, and Schott loved animals and his children, Erica, 6, Robert, 4 and Jonathon, 4 months old, when their father was killed while working in the south tower of the WTC.

“These families paid a terrible price that day,” Watson said, telling those in attendance at the ceremony he wanted them to relate to each of them individually. “There were missing mothers, fathers, sisters, sons and daughters – gone.”

Watson said family gatherings and the empty chair at the dinner table have forever changed the lives of the loved ones who lost someone on 9/11.

“They are not just a number,” he said.