‘How could this happen here?’ Locals recount 9/11 during American Legion-sponsored memorial service

QUINCY — A lone trumpet hummed the familiar, somber tune of “Taps” Wednesday morning as members of American Legion Post 37 fired their rifles into clear blue skies overhead, signaling the end of a ceremony to commemorate the events that took place on September 11, 2001.

Dozens of police officers, firefighters, local government officials and other community members joined the Legion for the service at the 9/11 Memorial in front of City Hall at Eighth and Maine.

In the center of the memorial stands a 15-foot-tall base of a television antenna made by Harris Corporation of Quincy. Though it now resides on Maine Street, it once was positioned atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Broken, bent and rusted but still intact, the artifact provides a direct link between the community and the events that came to alter the course of American history and culture forever.

Locals recall ‘disbelief, shock’ of Sept. 11

“(Hearing) ‘Taps’ never gets easier,” said Jeffrey Bauman, rider director of American Legion Post 37 Riders. “It’s not just the ones who are at war — the first responders, the families who have sacrificed, all the families who lost loved ones on 9/11. it’s a reminder of those loved ones who will never come home.”

At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan of New York City, instantly killing all passengers on board and trapping all tower occupants above the 91st floor.

More than 1,000 miles to the west in Quincy, Bauman’s wife called him at work to tell him a plane had hit a building in New York. 

Kelly Stupasky, now the city treasurer, also was at work when he got the news.

“When the first plane hit the tower, we didn’t know (what was happening),” he said. 

United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center about 20 minutes after the first plane hit, once more killing everyone aboard instantly as well as a few of the tower’s occupants. 

Two minutes later, some 1,200 miles south in Sarasota, Fla., President George W. Bush was reading to a group of schoolchildren when his chief of staff whispered, “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.”

“When I heard the second plane hit … We knew we were under attack, basically,” Stupasky said.

From that moment, people all over the country held their breath, glued to phones and television screens as they watched the rest of the day’s events unfold.

“Disbelief. Shock. (I thought,) ‘How could this happen here?’” deputy city treasurer Lori Oliver said of her initial reactions to the crashes.

A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., killing 125 civilians and military personnel, in addition to everyone on board. Twenty minutes later, back in New York, the South Tower collapsed.

A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was likely headed for the Capitol in Washington, D.C., but due to efforts by passengers and flight crew members, the plane instead crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes northwest of D.C. Everyone on board was killed.

At 10:28 a.m., the Quincy-made antenna plummeted to the Manhattan streets, along with the rest of the North Tower. 

Each plane was hijacked by members of al Qaeda, a Jihadist terrorist organization founded in Pakistan in the late 80s by Osama bin Laden, who was executed by Seal Team Six in 2011. Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and more than 400 were first responders. This number does not include deaths that have occurred as a result of diseases caused by exposure to toxic materials on 9/11.

The aftermath of 9/11 and the prospects of unity

A 2021 Pew Research study found 93 percent of adults over the age of 30 remember where they were on that sunny Tuesday morning. The percentage plummets to 42 percent for people born in the mid-90s, who would’ve been young children at the time. The percentage will inevitably continue to decrease as more and more of the population consists of citizens born after 2000.

The slogan of “Never Forget” means little to people who never experienced or learned of it in the first place. While it’s not an educational requirement, a 2019 survey “found that the majority of history teachers tend to teach about 9/11 primarily on the date of the anniversary each year.”

“I’m glad to see they have programs in the schools for the kids who are coming up. They have no idea,” Sandra Frillman said. “None whatsoever.”

Sandra and her husband, Vietnam veteran Ron Frillman, spent Wednesday morning scrubbing headstones at Quincy National Cemetery, another activity sponsored by the American Legion in remembrance of 9/11. 

As the memory of Sept. 11, 2001, lives on in communities across the country to preserve awareness for one of the most consequential events in American history, the memory of another September 2001 date could perhaps be equally as useful in navigating its future: Sept. 12.

“When it happened, it seemed like it brought everybody together,” Oliver said.

“Right after 9/11, everyone joined hands, flew flags,” Sandra said.

It was easy to recall the unity present in the aftermath of 9/11. Imagining the same level of unity today — during what many consider to be the most polarizing times in modern history — wasn’t as simple.

“I don’t think this country’s ever been more divided than it is right now,” Stupasky said. “The political environment is so divided. Right here in Quincy, it’s divided.”

Bauman, Stupasky, Oliver and the Frillmans agreed that a return to solidarity in today’s political climate is difficult to envision — but some were hopeful.

“We can achieve anything if we all come together,” Bauman said.

“(September 11) was horrific, yet it was uniting,” Sandra said. “We still know it’s horrific, but we’re not united … It’s a shame, you know, but I think (unity) will come back.”

“(I) just hope it doesn’t come back because (we had) another tragedy,” Ron said.