Ceremonies marking Sunday’s 9/11 remembrances began to unfold early on the east coast as crowds gathered from NY to Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and beyond.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also departed the ceremony before its conclusion.
Clinton’s departure from the event was not witnessed by the reporters who travel with her campaign, which did not offer any information about why she left and her whereabouts for more than an hour. Those reading the names included family members of victims from both attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported.
No public officials spoke at the NY ceremony, in keeping with a tradition that began in 2012.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observe a moment of silence during a ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial, Sept. 11, 2016.
They listened for almost four hours as names were read of the almost 3,000 people who died in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The grief never goes away. It was the deadliest terror attack on American soil.
The ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial plaza in Lower Manhattan began with the recital of the names of the dead, the tolling of church bells and a tribute in light at the site where New York City’s twin towers collapsed.
Jerry D’Amadeo was 10 years old when he lost his father, Vincent Gerard D’Amadeo. “And yet you, the survivors and families of 9/11, your steadfast love and faithfulness has been an inspiration to me and to our entire country”.
Audience watches as President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Joseph Dunford take part in a ceremony at the Pentagon marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, September 11, 2016. “Write them on the tablet of your heart”, he said, quoting Bible.
At the Pentagon, Obama praised an America “drawn from every corner of the world, every color, every religion, every background”.
“Sunday morning was very humid ahead of the cold front in New York City with dew points in the lower 70s F”, AccuWeather Meteorologist Rich Jaworski said.
The four airliners that crashed into New York City’s World Trade Center Twin Towers, into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and into a field outside rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania marked what many consider the beginning of terrorism in the U.S.
One of the hijacked planes crashed outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, apparently forced down short of the terrorists’ intended target after passengers and crew fought back. (See photo and story below) In 2008, the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial opened adjacent to the site, located on Boundary Channel Drive in Arlington, Va., and commemorates the 184 lives lost at the Pentagon and onboard American Airlines Flight 77 during the terrorist attacks. The names of the victims will be read and bells ring in their memory.
Neither candidate was expected to make public remarks at a ceremony where politicians have been allowed to attend, but not speak, since 2011.
Clinton – a former NY senator – has frequently highlighted her efforts, including in a campaign ad released Friday, to aid those affected by the World Trade Center collapse.
Family members of those lost on September 11 are arriving at ground zero for the ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The reading of names continues.
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At Ground Zero, where the towers stood, the first moment of silence will be observed at 8:46 a.m. ET – the time the first plane hit the North Tower.
