US marks 24th anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks
[September 11, 2025]
By PHILIP MARCELO
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are marking 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work and other tributes
honoring the victims.
Many loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed will join dignitaries
and politicians at commemorations Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon
and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Others choose to mark the day at more intimate gatherings.
James Lynch, who lost his father, Robert Lynch, during the World Trade
Center attack, said he and his family will attend a ceremony near their
hometown in New Jersey before spending the day at the beach.
“It’s one of those things where any kind of grief, I don’t think it ever
goes away,” Lynch said as he, his partner and his mother joined
thousands of volunteers preparing meals for the needy at a 9/11 charity
event in Manhattan the day before the anniversary. “Finding the joy in
that grief, I think, has been a huge part of my growth with this,” he
said.
The remembrances are being held during a time of increased political
tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national
unity, comes a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and
killed while speaking at a college in Utah.
The reading of names and moments of silence
Kirk’s killing is expected to prompt additional security measures around
the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New
York, authorities said.
At ground zero in lower Manhattan, the names of the attack victims will
be read aloud by family and loved ones in a ceremony attended by Vice
President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance. Moments of
silence will mark the exact times when hijacked planes struck the World
Trade Center's iconic twin towers, as well as when the skyscrapers fell.
At the Pentagon in Virginia, the 184 service members and civilians
killed when hijackers steered a jetliner into the headquarters of the
U.S. military will be honored. President Donald Trump and first lady
Melania Trump will attend the service before heading to the Bronx for a
baseball game between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers Thursday
evening.
And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a similar ceremony
marked by moments of silence, the reading of names and the laying of
wreaths, will honor the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that
crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit.
That service will be attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug
Collins.
Like Lynch, people across the country are also marking the 9/11
anniversary with service projects and charity works as part of a
national day of service. Volunteers will be taking part in food and
clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood banks and other
community events.
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Flags and flowers are placed in the inscribed names at the National
September 11 Memorial in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP
Photo/Donald King)
Reverberations from attacks persist
In all, the attacks by al-Qaida militants killed 2,977 people,
including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and
firefighters and police officers who had rushed to the burning
buildings trying to save lives.
The attacks reverberated globally and altered the course of U.S.
policy, both domestically and overseas. It led to the “ Global War
on Terrorism ” and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq
and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops
and civilians.
While the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has
struggled to conclude its long-running legal case against the man
accused of masterminding the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The
former al-Qaida leader was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later
taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never
received a trial.
The anniversary ceremony in New York was taking place at the
National Sept. 11 memorial and Museum, where two memorial pools
ringed by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the
dead mark the spots where the twin towers once stood.
The Trump administration has been contemplating ways that the
federal government might take control of the memorial plaza and its
underground museum, which are now run by a public charity currently
chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent
Trump critic. Trump has spoken of possibly making the site a
national monument.
In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent
billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens
of thousands of people who were exposed to the toxic dust that
billowed over parts of Manhattan when the twin towers collapsed.
More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs
intended to identify those with health conditions that could
potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the soot.
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Associated Press reporters Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and
Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this story.
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