Dozens gathered the morning of Sept. 11 in Grapevine to mark the 24th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
The annual ceremony took place at the city’s 9/11 Flight Crew Memorial, which is only a short drive from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Jason Gustin is a first officer with American Airlines and DFW vice chair for the Allied Pilots Association, a labor union based in Fort Worth. He said it’s important for those who remember the day of the attacks to pass along memories to younger people who may not have been old enough to form their own, or who hadn’t been born yet.
“In the fog of the morning, before your first cup of coffee, you're watching this on the news,” he said. “It stole the soul of America, and the biggest thing I can say to our youth is it's up to us to make sure that it never happens again.”
Luis Vasquez, a flight attendant and a vice president for the DFW base of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, another labor union, said even though the days after 9/11 were filled with grief and fear, flight attendants continued to show up and do their jobs.
“We put the uniform on again,” he told the crowd. “We walked down the jet bridge again, not because we weren't afraid, but because we refused to let fear have the final word.”
Flight attendant and union council representative Bobby Bulham pointed to the ways Americans came together in the wake of the attacks.
“We were all shocked. You know, the world was really shocked,” Bulham said. “But then in the United States, there was a coming together. Everyone displayed flags, we all rallied, we gave blood, we wanted to help.”
Toward the end of the event, the Grapevine Fire Department performed a bell ceremony for fallen firefighters and lowered the American flag to half-staff. Department chaplain Steve Bass led the crowd in prayer and a moment of silence.
Flight attendant and union council representative Sharon Mullings said people’s compassion shows at remembrances like the one in Grapevine.
“It’s a good thing to see because right now our world is a little crazy,” she said. “I just kind of wish sometimes that compassion would carry on past just the memorial time.”
2026 will mark a quarter-century since the 9/11 attacks.
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