9/11 20th Anniversary Commemoration

September 11, 2021

Twenty years ago this morning.

Psychologists refer to it as a “flashbulb memory.” It’s the way we remember the smallest detail of the biggest moments. Years after an event, we might have a vivid memory of what we had for breakfast. The tie we were wearing. A song that was playing. These snippets are seared into our brains when we hear or see a particularly dramatic event, an event that that is surprising or traumatic or both.

We each have our own “flashbulb memories.” The assassinations of John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King. The Challenger explosion. The shootings at Columbine or Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook.

And September 11, 2001.

Twenty years ago this morning.

Where were we? Who told us? What did we see? What did we think?

I remember it was a morning just like this one, the sky so blue it seemed impossible that anything could go wrong.  I remember my wife calling to tell me a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and my initial assumption that it must have been a small private flight accidentally gone astray.  I remember the internet, still in its early days, grinding to a halt.  And I remember my students from New York, rushing into my office, frantic because they could not reach their parents on the phone.

On 9/11, we knew immediately that our world had changed forever.  Many of you were not yet born or were too young to grasp the enormity of the event. And yet, 9/11 meant the world would be a different place for you than it would otherwise have been.

Twenty years ago today.

It came literally out of the blue. The suddenness left us reeling. In an instant, the terrorist attacks killed almost 3,000 people — 2,753 at the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York, 184 at the Pentagon in Virginia, and 40 in a field in southwestern Pennsylvania. Each of the flags placed by our students along Stemmons Plaza this morning represents a life lost on that terrible day.

Many of us remember the combination of fear and confusion that gripped the country in the hours after the planes hit. We remember how that feeling lingered for days, even weeks.

And we remember, too, how clearly the tone of the country shifted in the immediate aftermath.  There was a coming together.  On this campus and others across the nation, students held blood drives and candlelight vigils; they gathered in groups to discuss what had happened and to try to understand what it meant. There was a sense of unity as the country came together to respond to an outside threat.

In the present moment, when our country is plagued by fierce internal divisions, it may be difficult for those of you who did not experience it first-hand to imagine that powerful unification of American citizens, which transcended party, race, and class.  But it was real.  And we must rekindle that spirit now. 

We remain united in our shared sorrow the innocent men and women who died on 9/11.  United in sympathy for their families and their friends.  United in our appreciation for the first responders to those tragic events.  United in our gratitude for all the women and men in uniform whose service keeps our country safe today.

Twenty years ago this morning.

James Andrew Gadiel, 23, Class of 2000, and Commander Robert Allan Schlegel, 38, Class of 1985, were both working at jobs they loved — James at the World Trade Center, Rob at the Pentagon.

At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, James was in Cantor Fitzgerald’s equities office on the 103rd floor. James majored in economics W&L and had just moved to New York to begin working as an assistant trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. Friends said he loved his job as much as he loved the New York Mets. Back home in Kent, Connecticut, they remembered James, or Jamie as he was known growing up, as a gentleman and a gentle man. He was a valued member of Sigma Nu fraternity.

At 9:37 a.m., American Flight 77 crashed into the western facade of the Pentagon. According to Rob’s family, his office was believed to be at the point of impact. Rob majored in French and journalism at W&L. He had considered a career in the media and worked briefly as a reporter in Lewiston, Maine, but chose instead to follow his father and two brothers into the Navy. Rob won a Purple Heart and a NATO medal, among numerous awards, and had been promoted to the rank of Commander in August. He was assigned to the Pentagon where he scheduled and assigned cruise routes and dates for Navy ships. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Rob was a member of Chi Psi, the Ring-tum Phi, WLUR and the Jazz Lab Band.

Rob and James were two of 2,977 people who died on September 11, 2001. We honor their memories today as we join together, united by our collective memory, our collective grief, and our collective appreciation for the sacrifices of so many.