Services honor Sept. 11 victims and heroes

SEANNA ADCOX

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Army veteran Barbara Burns was supposed to be at the World Trade Center for a 9:30 a.m. meeting Sept. 11, 2001, but a schedule change forced her to be home in Florida instead. Five years later, the turn in fate bothers her.

"Part of me wishes I had been" there to help, said Burns, now a Columbia resident who formerly worked for Morgan Stanley on the south tower's 79th floor. "Because of my military training, perhaps I could've done something."

Wearing a shirt that read "God Bless America," Burns was among about 150 people who walked from the Statehouse to a Columbia park to honor the victims and heroes of the terrorist attacks, and the military men and women killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in the five years since.

The walk was one of several events across South Carolina on Monday. Gov. Mark Sanford spoke at a ceremony in Greenville honoring area first responders and military personnel and in downtown Charleston, firefighters rang a bell 343 times, once for each firefighter who lost their lives trying to rescue people in the twin towers.

Sanford said he hopes the anniversary causes people to reflect on their lives.

"It was to a degree a wake-up call," he said by telephone after the Upstate event. "It ought to be, in essence, a yearly reminder of the fundamental truth that there is evil in the world. At times we forget that."

Burns, a former military intelligence officer, said the public should be more informed about the dangers.

"While we are safer, we're still not safe enough," Burns said.

South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford said the anniversary has become a "holy day" for her.

"We need to remember how important our freedom is," she said at the park. "One cannot have freedom without duty, honor and prayer."

Fort Jackson Garrison Commander Col. Eddie Stephens honored the attacks' first responders - "America's everyday heroes" - and the nearly 3,000 military men and women killed since. He also thanked the American public for supporting the troops.

The attacks "changed the world as we knew it," Stephens said. "The images will never leave us. ... But in the face of terrorism, so many Americans rose above their fears and responded to the call of duty."

The state's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Stan Spears, was at the Pentagon that day.

"I've never seen Americans brought to their knees as much as they were that day," Spears said, asking those at the park to remember South Carolina's National Guard.

"Every unit has been affected to some degree," he said. Of the state's 9,000 Army National Guard, 7,000 have been deployed and seven have died in Afghanistan or Iraq, he said.

The march and ceremony concluded with the playing of "Taps," "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes and the presentation of a wreath of red and white flowers.

It was one of 125 such "freedom walks" in 50 states organized to unify the country, said Linda Dennis, founder of Connect and Join, a family support company and member of the Defense Department's America Supports You.

"It's good they don't forget," said Columbia police Capt. Randy Tate. "Things aren't like they were and will never be again."

Sanford said the people who went to work at the World Trade Center that morning and the firefighters who responded did not think it would be their last day.

"9/11 ought to be a reminder of the larger question of how should we then live," he said.

In downtown Charleston, firefighters rang a bell 343 times on Monday morning. One of the emergency medical technicians in New York that day now lives in Summerville.

"I was at the base of the north tower when it came down," recalled Johan Zamoscianyk on WCSC-TV in Charleston. "I got there and started treating patients. The tower came down and we ran and then spent the next three weeks doing removals. I lost a lot of good friends that day."