Veterans, students, Americans pause to remember 9/11

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  • American Legion Posts 96 and 532 raised the flag to half staff on Patriot Day at Tri-County Community College.
    American Legion Posts 96 and 532 raised the flag to half staff on Patriot Day at Tri-County Community College.
  • Students and teachers from Tri-County Early College show their respcet during the national anthem.
    Students and teachers from Tri-County Early College show their respcet during the national anthem.
  • The American Legion Honor Guard listens to a speaker's remarks during Patriot Day.
    The American Legion Honor Guard listens to a speaker's remarks during Patriot Day.
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    Peachtree – A generation later, the memories still hurt.
    As the honor guard from two local American Legion posts raised the flag at Tri-County Community College on Wednesday morning, a group of high school students looked on with solemn respect in memory of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
    The majority of those students were not born on the day of that national tragedy, which has been remembered every anniversary since with Patriot Day ceremonies across the nation.
    Russ Landry, a Murphy resident who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, attended Wednesday’s event and was overcome with emotion. He had two friends working in an insurance office on the 60th floor of the World Trade Center who were killed that day, and he said he does not believe Americans will ever unite again like they did that morning.
    “It was a sad day,” Landry said. “I watched a documentary on TV about it last night and it still brings tears to my eyes. It’s terrible, and to see what is still happening in this country … with some people, it’s just gone and forgotten.
    “It’s another thing that we just try to sweep under the rug, but people don’t realize this could happen at a higher level in this country right now. We all need to ban together and stop this stuff.”
    “We need to come together before something happens,” Billy Strickland of Hayesville said. “After is too late.”
    Strickland said his friend who was a first responder died two months ago because of damage to his lungs that came when he ran toward the danger on 9/11.
    J.D. Baker, chaplain of American Legion Post 96, gave some remarks to the assembled crowd and praised first responders for their service.
    “We should remember first responders not just on this day, but every day,” Baker said.
    Cherokee County EMS, Murphy and Brasstown Fire Departments, American Legion Posts 96 and 532, and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6812 were all represented at the event, which included a flag ceremony and a display of actual steel from the World Trade Center that students were allowed to look at and touch.
    Strickland had an adult education class Wednesday morning at the college, but he could not help being compelled to attend the ceremony. He praised those who have served and those who were heroes on that awful day.
    “Those people on that plane (Flight 93) who said ‘No you ain’t gonna do this’ … they had some balls,” Strickland said. “They knew they were going to die, but they were not going to let anyone else die.”