PARSIPPANY — Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the families of victims joined first responders, public officials and neighbors on Sunday evening at the Morris County 9/11 Memorial in Parsippany-Troy Hills to remember the 64 county residents killed and reflect on the courage and compassion Americans displayed during one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.
“A quarter of a century has passed, but the pain of that day does not simply vanish. It lives quietly in the background of our lives,” said Commissioner Director Stephen H. Shaw, as he delivered a welcome address. “That is why we are here. It is our responsibility — our solemn duty — to ensure the next generation understands what happened, who was lost, and how Americans responded.”
The keynote was delivered by Dennis Letts, a retired United States Secret Service executive and Tunnel to Towers Foundation ambassador who was working at the World Trade Center when the attacks began. Letts helped evacuate thousands from the towers, later assisted Fire Department of New York (FDNY) paramedics at 7 World Trade Center and helped evacuate civilians from Lower Manhattan aboard a New York Waterway ferry after the towers collapsed. For his actions, he received the United States Secret Service Medal of Valor.
While Letts described the destruction and loss of life he witnessed, including the death of a Secret Service colleague, he said foremost in his memory is the way people responded to one another.
“In the midst of unimaginable chaos, I was witnessing extraordinary humanity,” Letts said, describing the thousands of people making their way down the World Trade Center stairwells.
“September 11 revealed the very worst of humanity. But it also revealed something even greater. The extraordinary capacity of ordinary people to do extraordinary things … The image of people coming down those stairs has stayed with me ever since,” Letts added. “They were frightened. Many were injured. Yet almost every person was helping someone else.”
Letts said that spirit extended beyond first responders to ordinary people.
“People simply saw a need and they acted. People like the first responders here tonight. In the midst of unimaginable tragedy, I witnessed extraordinary goodness,” said Letts. “This is the America I remember from September 11th.”
He also recalled the unity that followed the attacks, when Americans set aside many of the divisions that had separated them and came together to help one another. That spirit of service, he said, has always been one of America’s greatest strengths.
“When everything else has been stripped away, what remains is character, courage, compassion and service to others,” said Letts. “Those were the qualities that carried America through one of the darkest days in its history.”
During the ceremony, Commissioner Tayfun Selen explained that the county unveiled a bronze plaque addition to the county’s 9/11 Memorial bearing a poem written by Mark Viglione about his uncle, FDNY Firefighter Thomas Sabella. He was a member of Ladder Company 13 and was killed while responding to the attacks. Sabella’s sister, Loretta Viglione, has participated in the county’s remembrance ceremonies for many years and read the poem during Sunday’s ceremony.
Commissioner Christine Myers connected the evening’s candle-lighting ceremony to a moving performance of “Danny Boy” by musicians Darren O’Neill, Patricia Lazzara and Merynda Adams. Myers noted that the traditional Irish ballad had been the subject of a public dispute when it was banned from a religious funeral in Rhode Island just two months before the attacks.
But the ballad took on a different meaning after September 11.
“It is a kerfuffle that disappeared in the smoke of the Twin Towers, the carnage at the Pentagon and wreckage in a Pennsylvania field — as did so many other issues that had been dividing our nation,” Myers said. “In the face of the attacks, we Americans came together to mourn our dead, to deliver justice and to promise that we will never forget.”
As candles were lit, Commissioners Doug Cabana and Tom Mastrangelo read the names of the 64 Morris County residents who died on September 11. Retired Morris County Fire Marshal James Davidson struck a bell following each name.
The ceremony began with a procession led by State Senator Anthony M. Bucco and Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon up Hanover Avenue, accompanied by local police, fire and emergency medical personnel and the United States Naval Cadet Sea Corps of Picatinny Arsenal. United States Representatives Tom Kean Jr. and Analilia Mejia carried bouquets of red, white and blue flowers which they placed at the memorial.
The Police Pipes and Drums of Morris County played as Morris Township Police Chief Robert Shearer handed a folded American flag to Letts for the presentation of colors. Sheriff Gannon then led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The ceremony also included an invocation by the Reverend Herman Scott of Calvary Baptist Church; a benediction by Rabbi Moshe Rudin of Adath Shalom; musical tributes by the Morris Choral Society and O’Neill, Lazzara and Adams; a 21-gun salute by the Morris County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard; and “Taps” by Larry Schillings, New Jersey state director of Bugles Across America.
Deputy Director John Krickus closed the ceremony by connecting remembrance with the county’s responsibility to prepare for future emergencies.
“The role of county government is critical during a crisis. While we cannot predict the future, we are as prepared, trained and equipped as any suburban county in the nation for an emergency response,” Krickus said. “I can’t think of a better way to honor those we lost, and those first responders we lost on 9/11, then to ensure the first responders in our county today have the training, equipment and support they need so when they go on call they come home to their families.”
As a generation without any memory of September 11 comes of age, Letts urged those young people to take responsibility for preserving the history and lessons of that day.
“Learn it. Remember it. Tell it. And carry its lessons forward,” Letts said.
The Morris County 9/11 Memorial was created in the aftermath of the attacks through the work of county officials, employees, volunteers and victims’ families and was dedicated in September 2003. It incorporates three pieces of steel recovered from the World Trade Center, remnants of Flight 93 and soil from the Pentagon. The names of all those killed on September 11 are engraved in the red paving stones surrounding the memorial, while the names of the 64 Morris County victims are identified on individual brass plates along the inner wall.
The memorial’s water, bridges, concrete blocks and flowers carry additional meanings of healing, connection, family, hope and peace. The site has hosted Morris County’s annual remembrance ceremony every year since its dedication, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 64 Morris County residents lost on September 11, 2001, were Donald Leroy Adams, Margaret L. Benson, John Paul Bocchi, Martin Boryczewski, Dennis Buckley, Cecile M. Caguicla, Liam Callahan, David G. Carlone, James Leslie Crawford Jr., Joseph DeLuca, Captain Robert Edward Dolan, Antoinette Duger, Gregg J. Froehner, Alayne F. Gentul, Debra Lynn Fischer Gibbon, Paul Stuart Gilbey, Gayle R. Greene, Eileen Marsha Greenstein, Gary Robert Haag, Timothy Robert Hughes, Anthony P. Infante Jr., Jason Kyle Jacobs, Joon Koo Kang, Lucille King, Angela R. Kyte, Robin Blair Larkey, Thomas V. Linehan Jr., Sean Patrick Lynch, Simon Maddison, Alfred Russell Maler, Christian Hartwell Maltby, Hilda Marcin, William J. Martin Jr., Philip W. Mastrandrea Jr., William A. Mathesen, Robert D. Mattson, Patrick J. McGuire, Martin Paul Michelstein, Seth Allan Morris, Peter C. Moutos, Alexander Napier Jr., Michael O’Brien, Michael John Pescherine, Thomas H. Polhemus, David Alan James Rathkey, Richard C. Rescorla, Antonio Augusto Tome Rocha, James Romito, Steven Harris Russin, Thomas Sabella (brother of Parsippany resident Loretta Viglione), Maria Theresa Santillan, Matthew Carmen Sellitto, Karen Lynn Seymour-Dietrich, Barbara A. Shaw, Francis Joseph Skidmore Jr., Michael C. Sorresse, Thomas S. Strada, Edward W. Straub, Kenneth J. Swenson, Dennis Gerard Taormina, William R. Tieste, Peter Guyder Wallace, Matthew David Yarnell, Mark Zangrilli, and Kenneth Albert Zelman.
