Veterans Honor 9/11 Victims

As a steady breeze rolled and snapped the flags lowered to half staff, a prayer was lifted up.

For the souls of 2,981 people murdered seven years ago, care for them.

Tend to the families left behind, "whose unimaginable grief we will never fully comprehend."

Soften the hearts of the hateful people behind the attacks, so that one day there will be a lasting peace.

Amen.

The simple homily summed up the feelings of the small crowd gathered Thursday morning outside American Legion Post 186. Like similar ceremonies across the nation, the veterans were there to honor the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

While other services focused on the firefighters and police killed in New York City, the military group talked more about the attacks on the Pentagon and the resulting war in Iraq.

"I cried all day," said Kathryn Ferrin, commander of the Florida American Legion's 15th District. "They attacked us on our own ground."

Her husband, Ken Ferrin, adjutant of the 15th District, puts it this way: "This was our Pearl Harbor."

America let its guard down, he continued. After decades without war or conflict, a sense of complacency settled over America. The attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 "should have been our wake up call," he said.

While not everyone agrees with the politics behind the war in Iraq, most of the people interviewed agreed it was the right decision. An immediate response to attacks sent the message that America would not cower in fear, they said.

Post Commander Steven Small compared it to bringing the fight to the neighborhood bully. Sure you might get banged up a bit, but it's the only way to get respect, he said.

Post member Richard Slajchert was all for the war initially, but believes it's time to bring the troops home now.

"We've done all we can over there," he said.

The heroics on Flight 93 inspire Ken Ferrin. That plane was headed toward Washington, D.C., when the passengers overwhelmed the hijackers and crashed the plane in a Pennsylvania field. In a sense, that was a preview of the fighting spirit America was about to bring to the Middle East, Ferrin said.

"That's America right there, that's America," he said.