For Southwest Airlines flight attendant Tracey Hayes, the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks are a heartbreaking memory that remains clear as day.
Having worked in the aviation industry for years at that point, Hayes described an atmosphere of increased caution and awareness in the immediate aftermath.
But she pointed to lessons buried within the tragedy, too.
“We all tend to look at our passengers differently because we know in the heat of things, they're going to be standing right there with us,” Hayes said. “I choose now to remember the beautiful things.”
Hayes said while she wasn’t flying the day of the attacks, she remembers watching people come together.
“It made you realize that we may have a lot of differences, but we have more alike to pull people through,” she said.
Hayes came out to the 9/11 Flight Crew Memorial in Grapevine the morning of Sept. 11, 2026, to commemorate a quarter-century since the 2001 attacks. Hundreds of airline personnel, first responders, local officials and members of the public stood shoulder-to-shoulder to take in remarks about the historic day's legacy.
After the ceremony, many attendees lined up for a march into the heart of the city. March 455, named in recognition of the 455 first responders who died on 9/11, was the first of its kind in Grapevine.
One of the marchers was Grapevine Fire Chief Darrell Brown, who told KERA the city has been working to make the event happen for about five years. Now, with help from the Grapevine Police Department, they’re giving it a shot.
Brown said 9/11 made him more aware of human fragility, the importance of accountability and doing the right thing for the right reasons.
He said of first responders in New York City and airline personnel, “They got up that morning and went to work, and they did their job and they were accountable to the citizens that they served.”
Brown pointed to changes at the cultural level that he’d like people today to remember and relive.
“Neighbors checked on neighbors,” he said. “The bickering and which side of the aisle you stood on became much less important. It was about Americans supporting each other.”
Despite the solemn occasion, spirits in Grapevine were generally high. Families brought small children, dogs and lots of American flags. Onlookers clapped as firefighters, police officers and flight crews passed by.
Attendees who spoke to KERA highlighted the importance of passing on the lessons of 9/11 to the next generation, especially those too young to remember what it was like to live through the attacks and the rapid sociopolitical changes that followed.
Captain Deborah Hecker, an American Airlines pilot, said despite feeling torn about how terrible the day was, it also changed the trajectory of her life.
“I came home after that day and told my husband that we're going to have children,” she said. “We had made a decision before not to have kids, but I said, I can't. I want you to leave something just in case something happens to me, because you just never know.”
Hecker went on to have three children, one of whom is currently serving in the Marines.
She said she wants the next generation to remember to take care of people, and that “love and joy and pain and suffering that we collectively have, it makes us stronger in the end.”
“We came together after 9/11 and I know, as this country, we can come together again," Hecker said.
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