Amid COVID, a scaled-back Pentagon 9/11 remembrance – and a new blue tower of light
A tower of 308,000 watts of blue light will pierce the sky over the Pentagon starting Wednesday night in commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, one of many changes that will mark the annual somber remembrance, scaled back this year due to the pandemic.
A significantly reduced ceremony at the Pentagon will still include the large flag unfurling at the site of impact at sunrise on Friday.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley will speak, but not in front of a crowd, instead their remarks will be carried online by the Defense Department and through media coverage.
Families of those who died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, killing all 64 people on the plane and 125 people in the building, will also not be allowed to attend the remarks, instead they will be able to visit the Pentagon memorial privately later in the day.
The tower of light is provided by a private organization, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which was started in honor of New York City firefighter Stephen Gerard Siller, who was killed responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Due to the pandemic, New York’s “Tribute in Light” - twin blue beams that the National September 11 Memorial and Museum illuminates annually in remembrance was also going to be cancelled due to health concerns because of COVID.
The foundation stepped in to assist and then decided to expand the light tribute to the plane crash sites at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., said foundation spokeswoman Carolina Magyartis.
The installation for the Pentagon will be made up of 44 individual lights that will create a blue-hued “vertical column in the sky that can reach 18,000 feet,” Magyartis said.
“The Tunnel to Towers organization is conducting the light display to honor and remember those we lost in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The ceremony is closed to the public due to COVID-19, but will broadcast on local media. Lights will be lit for the first time at 9:11 p.m. tonight, to commemorate the date of the attack.”
The lights will go on each night through Sept. 11, the Pentagon said.
On Thursday, the foundation will light up a similar memorial at the site of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Pa.
It will also be the first time since taking office that neither President Donald Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence will be at the Pentagon ceremony. Trump plans to go to Shanksville to honor the victims of United Flight 93, and Pence plans to participate in remembrance ceremonies in New York City.
Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden will also visit Pennsylvania to commemorate the attacks.
McClatchy White House correspondent Michael Wilner contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 6:20 PM.
