Ceremony honors fallen, marks officers’ journey on 9/11

Published 2:30 am Wednesday, September 17, 2025

On his journey back from picking up a World Trade Center steel plate artifact preserved from the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Det. Sgt. Darrell Nelson with Sequim Police Department said he and fellow officers saw a sense of solidarity as they drove across the country.

“Everywhere we stopped, every town, every place we ate, people wanted to climb in the back of this dirty pickup truck, and just lay their hands on that steel,” he told attendees of the 24th anniversary remembrance ceremony at the Sequim Civic Center plaza.

“The same thing occurred when we got here home to Sequim.”

Following the idea of now retired Police Chief Bill Dickinson to bring an artifact back to Sequim on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, Nelson, Dickinson, and now retired officer Randy Kellas drove to New York City. They then drove with the artifact to see the site of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania where Flight 93 went down.

“It was just a fantastic experience to see communities come together, and communities just put aside all their beliefs and differences for a moment in time,” Nelson said.

He spoke at the City of Sequim ceremony in the plaza where the artifact remains a fixture of the flagpole arrangement. Nelson, Sequim City Manager Matt Huish, Deputy Mayor Rachel Anderson, Fire Chief Justin Grider with Clallam County Fire District 3, and retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Abshire spoke to the crowd of more than 100 community members, first responders, and city staffers.

Fire Captain Marc Lawson rang the city’s bell to remember and honor those lost during the attack, those who risked their lives that day, and the mourning and unity following the tragedy, Huish said.

A moment of silence was also held for the 2,977 people who died and the thousands injured in the terror attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Honor the fallen

Huish said those lost were “mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors.”

Grider shared the stories of fallen New York firefighters Michael Cammarata, a 22-year-old firefighter in training through the fire academy, and Capt. Patrick “Paddy” Brown, who refused to leave burn victims on the 44th floor of the North Tower.

He said new firefighters born after the tragedy “carry forward the legacy of service, and even without a personal memory of that solemn day, their commitment to wearing the badge symbolizes continuity and a pledge to never forget those who were lost.”

Anderson asked attendees to consider “a renewed commitment to honor those that were lost, not only in words, but in the way that we live our lives with kindness and with courage and with care for one another.”

Huish shared a similar sentiment adding that we do “anything we can do to strengthen our community to be more unified and together and kind.”

For him, he told the audience he doesn’t focus on the pain he felt on 9/11 but rather the flags on cars, homes, and businesses.

“I love reflecting upon the national unity that was exhibited after that,” he said.

“I love focusing on the resilience, on the commitment to unity, and all that brought us together as people and as a nation that followed in its wake.”

Abshire, a speech writer for the Secretary of the Air Force at the Pentagon on 9/11, said the “most enduring memorial that we can make, remembering those we lost on 9/11, is to ensure that the America we all love stays that way, staying true to our values, staying true to what is best in us and staying committed to assure them we don’t allow ourselves to be divided.”

“We are, after all, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty of justice for all,” he said.

E pluribus unum

Abshire told attendees he had developed a list of items that define him, starting with being a human being, then his family, being an American citizen, and way down on the list are his political viewpoints.

He said Americans focus too much on things that define “us as different” and not enough on similarities. Following the 9/11 attacks, Abshire said Americans felt threatened together and it wasn’t something the country had felt since the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“In those days, nobody was interested in our political party ideologies,” he said. “In those days, we were first and only Americans … We just have to keep remembering that.”

Abshire said there’s never been a greater nation, but the unity felt 24 years ago is gone.

“America is dramatically more divided than we were 24 years ago, but I believe we will find our way back to focusing on what’s most important among us, not what’s different between us.”

Abshire finished his speech reinforcing that Americans remember who we are as a nation.

“We are people who have come here from every corner of the world, every nation, every religion, every color, every circumstance,” he said.

“We are chock-full of differences. but we are bound by a principle that has held us together from our very beginning – ‘E pluribus unum’ – (Latin for) “Out of many, we are one.

“This is the America that was attacked on September 11, 2001. This is the America that still defines us all today. It is our shared identity and our future.”