The musicians in the Great Bend High School band hadn’t been born when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. Capt. Kevin Stansfield from the Great Bend Fire Department said they’ll never know the America that was lost that day.
Stanfield spoke Saturday at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony in the courthouse square, on the 20th anniversary of the day when four highjacked airplanes crashed into the two main towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pa. The fourth airplane, Flight 93, was probably aiming for the Capitol or the White House, but passengers on the plane were able to make sure it did not reach its intended target.
Saturday’s remembrance ceremony featured the Great Bend Fire Department and Great Bend Police Department, along with the GBHS Band and American Legion Post 180 Riders.
“We’re here 20 years after because many of us vowed that day never to forget,” Stansfield said. “We must keep America’s promise never to forget.”
Stansfield is also a veteran, and he paid tribute to the armed forces as well as first responders. Those who volunteered to join the military for the last 20 years knew they would spend time overseas, he said. “Don’t let their sacrifice be taken for granted.”
He also recognized the dispatchers.
After the terrorist attacks, he noted, our love of country brought Americans together in a unity not seen since the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
With recent events, including the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Stansfield urged the audience, “Don’t let politics and other social agendas overshadow this day. We need to be united again.”
The lives lost on 9/11 included 343 firefighters from the New York City Fire Department, as well as law enforcement officers and military personnel. Stansfield said Saturday’s program was also intended as a salute to all fire/Emergency Medical Service and police officers who serve and put their lives on the line. Last month, Josh Schwindt, a firefighter in Morton County who was looking for victims of a rollover crash, died after receiving an electric shock from damaged power lines.
“We honor not how they died, but how they lived,” Stansfield concluded.
Retired GBFD Capt. John Stettinger then led a ringing of the bell ceremony, a tradition for firefighters. “Taps” was played and the Rev. Joshua Leu from the First Christian Church led the audience in a prayed to conclude the service.
