McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport holds ceremony to honor 23rd anniversary of 9/11
JACKSON, Tenn. — A commemoration was held at McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport on the 23rd anniversary of 9/11.
Many first responders gathered at the airport Wednesday morning to remember the events that happened 23 years ago. Before the ceremony officially started, Steve Smith who is the executive director of the Jackson-Madison County Airport Authority talked about his experience that morning.
“When I got out of the car and walked into the airport, one of my mechanics ran up to me and told me what had happened. We turned on the television and by 10 o’clock that morning we had our own specially assigned FBI agent and we were off to the races,” said Smith.
Kevin McCarthy led the ceremony. He is the TSA deputy federal security director for Tennessee. He spoke to the crowd about how similar events just like this one were happening all over the country.
“This event is being carried out, there’s about 450 commercial air service airports around the country where TSA provides security. Ceremonies similar to this are being carried out at those airports,” said McCarthy.
A video was shown that every TSA agent watches on their first day of employment. It consists of footage and phone calls from that day over 2 decades ago. After this, McCarthy asked everyone to participate in a moment of silence.
“At this exact time, 23 years ago, the first airplane struck the World Trade Center beginning a sequence of events that resulted in the death of almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens. At this time I make a request that everyone pauses for a moment of silence, in their memory,” said McCarthy.
After the ceremony everyone went outside where McCarthy told them that, even though this airport is a smaller one, the importance of the security is the same as the largest airport.
McCarthy went through the timeline of events that happened on that day and said that the history of the nation changed in a 2 hour and 4 minute period.
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