Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Greenville K-8 School hosted a service honoring the 21st anniversary of Patriot’s Day. The event featured middle school principle Chris Mortensen talking about day of the 9/11 attacks and the effect it had on this country. It’s an opportunity to talk about an historic event that kids today did not witness.

“We want to help all of our students to understand the great sacrifice that has occurred in order to secure what we have, to provide us with our freedoms that we can often easily take for granted,” Mortensen said.

Many of the city’s police, firemen, sheriffs and veterans attended the event. The Greenville Fire Department hung the American flag for the event.

Around this time every year, it is important to recognize and thank public safety workers for their work. Not only did Mortensen talk about the tragic day, he also highlighted and praised those who sacrifice their lives to protect all of us on a daily basis.

“These are people who stand up to protect us, our freedoms and the truths that we come to know about our country,” Mortensen said. “It takes their sacrifice to make these things come together and have meaning. These are people who put us before themselves.”

Greenville also brought in Dennis Dickey as a guest speaker. Dickey is a Vietnam veteran and a member of the Ansonia American Legion #353. He talked about where he was on the day of the attacks.

Dickey was on his way to the hospital with his wife to see his father-in-law. He saw cars lining up at every gas station he passed. He eventually pulled up next to a car to see what was going on.

He was informed of the attacks and told his wife. The effect of the attacks didn’t hit him until he turned on the news at the hospital.

“Once we got to the hospital, I turned the TV on in my father-in-law’s room and I saw a replay of the second plane hitting the tower,” Dickey said. “It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It brought a lot of things home.”

Dickey went on to talk about how people responded to the attacks. He said everywhere he went, he saw the American flag raised. Patriotism was at an all time high after the attacks.

People also started thanking public safety workers for their work. Dickey said people were also thanking veterans for their service, something that didn’t happen when he and many other Vietnam veterans came back from their service.

It’s easy for the younger generation to accept the way the world is today without knowing what it was like before. The terrorist attacks shaped the world as we know it today.

The assembly carries out the motto that came out after the 9/11 attacks.

“Those two words that came out of the 9/11 attack, was ‘never forget’,” Dickey said.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]