**Simi Valley marks 25 years since September 11 attacks with ceremony Friday**
(CLAIR | Simi Valley, CA) — The Simi Valley Police Department will host a public remembrance ceremony Friday morning at 8 a.m. in front of its headquarters to mark 25 years since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people.
The department invites residents to join police personnel, city staff, elected officials, retirees and members of the Ventura County Fire Department for the observance. The ceremony is meant to give the community a chance to come together and remember those who died that day, honor the first responders who lost their lives and recognize the resilience shown in the years since.
On that Tuesday morning in 2001, nineteen terrorists associated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes scheduled to fly from the East Coast to California. In a coordinated attack, the terrorists flew two of the planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing the towers to collapse. They flew a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Passengers and crew members on the fourth plane launched a counterattack, forcing the hijacker pilot to crash the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The attacks killed 2,977 people. It was the single largest loss of life from a foreign attack on American soil. The attacks also killed 441 first responders, the greatest loss of emergency responders on a single day in American history.
Most adults old enough to remember that Tuesday morning can still say exactly where they were when the news broke, whether they were at work, at school or at home in front of the television.
The attacks reshaped daily life in ways still felt today. The Transportation Security Administration was created in the aftermath to strengthen the security of the nation's transportation systems. Before the attacks, airlines were responsible for passenger screening at U.S. airports. That job shifted to the federal government once TSA was established.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also traces back to September 11. The department was established in 2002, combining all or part of 22 different federal departments and agencies into one unified department.
Beyond policy and structural shifts, the enduring human cost of the 9/11 tragedy is honored through powerful local memorials. About an hour south of Simi Valley, Pepperdine University's Waves of Flags display remains up on the university's Malibu campus through September 18. Started by students in 2008, the display fills Alumni Park along Pacific Coast Highway with nearly 3,000 flags, one for each victim of the attacks.
What makes the display unusual is its scope and its setting. Rather than a single monument, it is an entire hillside of flags stretching along the highway, including a national flag for every foreign country that lost a citizen that day. The inclusion of those flags is a reminder that the loss reached far beyond American borders.
Visitors can walk through the flags for prayer and reflection. A Reflection Station is also set up where visitors can write messages of remembrance on cards and attach them to the flagpoles. Pepperdine volunteers raised the flags September 5 and will lower them September 18.
A Pepperdine alumnus was aboard United Flight 93 and was among the passengers who fought to retake the plane before it crashed in Pennsylvania.
At the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum now stands where the Twin Towers once rose. The museum tells the story of the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing through artifacts, media and personal accounts. It honors nearly 3,000 victims of the 2001 attacks along with those killed in 1993 and recognizes those who risked their lives to save others.
The museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014, and opened to the public six days later. Since then it has drawn visitors from all 50 states and more than 175 countries.
For residents who want to mark the anniversary locally, Friday's ceremony begins at 8 a.m. in front of the Simi Valley Police Department headquarters.
