Across North Texas, public safety agencies and others marked the anniversary of 9-11 on Tuesday with observations that were markedly muted compared with the 10th-anniversary ceremonies of a year ago.
In Fort Worth, onlookers were drawn to the American flags -- all 2,977 of them -- flapping gently in the wind Tuesday morning on the Campus Commons at Texas Christian University.Students paused to take pictures with their cellphones. The makeshift memorial put together by the TCU Young Americans for Freedom has a flag for each victim of 9-11.Freshman Emily Holt, 18, said she was in second grade in Dallas when the terrorists struck at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time."So many families lost loved ones," Holt said after snapping a photo.Members of al Qaeda posing as passengers hijacked three jetliners that had just departed Boston and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth flight crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., after passengers -- by then having heard what was going on elsewhere and knowing their fate -- overpowered the terrorists.In Arlington, officers with the Police Department's tactical unit gathered for a specially designed workout to honor the 343 New York City firefighters who died that day.A few blocks away, Mayor Robert Cluck and Councilman Robert Rivera joined firefighters for a brief ceremony at the Fire Department's training center."It was a terrible day for our nation," Fire Chief Don Crowson said. The terrorists' goal was "to break our nation's resolve, to demoralize us, to divide us of the very unity, the very ideas that make America the greatest nation on earth. What happened was a coming together of citizens in defense of our country as never seen before. We were and are, in fact, one nation united."Near Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, members of the Grapevine Fire Department and the 9-11 Memorial Foundation of Texas rang a bell at 7:46 a.m., the time in North Texas when the first airliner hit the World Trade Center.Eleven years after the attacks, TCU students said it is important to remember the victims and the heroes who paid the ultimate price trying to save others."I can still remember the exact moment it happened," Holt said.The nation ground almost to a halt as the unimaginable scenes unfolded live on TV in homes, businesses and some schools. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered all flights that were in progress to land and canceled all others.Diane Smith, 817-390-7675; Twitter: @dianeasmith1Patrick M. Walker, 817-983-8080; Twitter: @patrickmwalker1Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
