09/11/2026
Twenty five years ago today, America was attacked in the deadliest terrorist attack in human history…. Where were you? For those old enough to remember, most of us can answer that question without thinking.
I was a young Marine in the field at Camp Pendleton. We learned what was happening over a field radio through one of our Navy corpsmen. I wouldn’t see the images that are now burned into our national memory until a week later, but I knew our country had been attacked and that everything had changed.
What none of us could have known was just how far the consequences of that day would reach.
Nearly 3,000 innocent people were murdered. Children grew up without parents. First responders carried the scars for decades. An entire generation answered the call to serve. Families endured deployment after deployment. Parents buried sons and daughters. Children grew up with Mom or Dad overseas. Some never got to welcome them home.
Our allies stood with us, fought beside us and buried their own.
September 11 touched virtually every American in some way, and its consequences would shape our country for the next two decades.
And now, 25 years later, millions of Americans weren’t even alive when it happened. To them, 9/11 is history.
That means those of us who remember where we were have a responsibility to make damn sure they understand what happened and why everything that followed began.
We were attacked. Innocent people were murdered. America responded, and an entire generation carried the cost.
So today, ask someone where they were. Tell your children where you were. Tell them what you remember. Tell them about the people we lost and the people who answered the call. As the saying goes, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
Let us:
Never forget those we lost from this attack.
Never forget those who answered the call.
Never forget why.
Semper Fidelis
-Mayor Keith
