On Thursday, San Diego State University held its annual remembrance ceremony of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by the flagpole on Campanile Walkway. Various ROTC units organized the event, and the San Diego Police Department and San Diego Fire Department were in attendance, in addition to students and staff.

The event began at 8:40 a.m. with a moment of silence for the victims of the events of 9/11 and a bell ringing 24 times throughout the moment to represent the 24 years that have passed since the attacks. 

SDSU Provost Dr. William Tong introduced the event’s distinguished visitors, including first responders, a chaplain and the event’s guest speaker: retired Lieutenant Colonel Dan Wilson. The American flag was lowered to half-mast, and “Taps,” a bugle call honoring fallen military service members, was played to close out the ceremony.

Lieutenant Colonel Josh Sider invited Wilson to speak because of his background as an SDSU alumnus. Wilson, who served for more than 20 years in the U.S. military, spoke about his experiences relating to 9/11. Sider said that they invite a new guest speaker every year with the goal of adding new experiences and perspectives to the 9/11 attacks.

“Last year’s [speaker had] more of a first responder, firefighter background,” Sider said. “This year, we’re going to have a graduate of San Diego State and San Diego State Army ROTC to be our guest speaker.”

Co-organizer Capt. Christine Curtis hopes that the ceremony can help students who weren’t alive during 9/11 to see the attacks and the events following them in a new light.

“A lot of the students weren’t even born when this happened, so a lot of them maybe only read about it in history books,” Curtis said. “So this is a unique opportunity we have to kind of look back on history, reflect, and then remember a lot of that time.”

Despite being military-affiliated, organizers hope that the event’s open nature allows students who aren’t involved in ROTC to engage with the impact of 9/11. 

Curtis believes that the event’s location on Campanile Walkway makes it easy for students passing by to be exposed to something that they otherwise might not have involved themselves in. 

“We want everyone to be invited to kind of have that moment,” she said. 

Similarly, Sider enjoys seeing non-ROTC students moved by the ceremony. 

“I think every year there’s usually somebody who we didn’t specifically invite, but maybe saw it on the sign along the highway, or found out about it through some other way, and comes to the event and says, ‘thanks for doing this,’” Sider said. “I think that’s really rewarding.”