US marks 25 years since the September 11 attacks

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of US might and prosperity.

Friday’s milestone anniversary brings memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of US adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.

For others it’s an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decadeslong trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.

Police Officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time Friday at the Brooklyn station house where his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn’t make it home.

Casey Kloepfer was only 4, but he grew up hearing about his father’s affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June.

“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” he said by phone this week.

The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of US might and prosperity.

Friday’s milestone anniversary brings memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of US adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.

For others it’s an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decadeslong trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.

Police Officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time Friday at the Brooklyn station house where his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn’t make it home.

Casey Kloepfer was only 4, but he grew up hearing about his father’s affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June.

“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” he said by phone this week.

The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded.

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The impacts brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers — icons of US economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the US military’s fortress-like headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane also was headed for the nation’s capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.

“In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after, President Donald Trump said at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in his native New York on September 11 and has often recounted his memories, plans to attend the Pentagon’s anniversary ceremony Friday.

Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on 9/11, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and current Vice President JD Vance convened for the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, where the hours-long reading of all the victims’ names began with the tolling of a bell and a moment of silence. Other administration officials headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu’s 9/11 memorial.

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