The City of Bloomington Thursday night commemorated the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City with a brief ceremony punctuated by lighting the Downtown Ring in patriotic colors.
Mayor Dan Brady recalled how the evening of Sept. 10, 2001, was as similarly uneventful as the present Sept. 10, 2026.
"It was the last ordinary day," he said. "The next day ... would shock the nation."
That morning, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers. Another crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Passengers retook control of a fourth plane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
Brady said the red, white and blue lights of the Ring are seen as a beacon of hope and would stay lit all Thursday night.
During the ceremony, retired Bloomington firefighter Roger Troxell performed songs on bagpipes. Troxell joined about three dozen other Bloomington-Normal firefighters in traveling to New York in the aftermath of the attacks.
Troxell's wife, Diane, recalled how forlorn her husband looked on his return home.
"I asked him, I said, 'Are you okay?' and he said 'No, I don't think I'll ever be okay,'" she recalled. "He said 'What we saw in destruction and sadness and evildoing, how do you say you're going to be okay after that?'"
"You can't," Diane continued. "It does change you."
The couple took up bagpipes after his 2001 trip to New York and has since taken on the role of firefighter honor guard bagpiper.
She thanked the crowd of a couple dozen for attending and remembering the nearly 3,000 victims killed in the attacks, noting many first responders and people who lived in New York at the time continue to battle long-term health effects.
"I want to thank each one of you because that tells me there's hope out there that it won't be forgotten," she said.
The American Legion Post 635 presented the flag and conducted a 21-gun salute with a bugle accompaniment. The Ring lit up red, white and blue as Roger Troxell closed out the ceremony with a performance of "Amazing Grace."
