Pence Marks 25 Years Since 9/11, Honors Generation That Fought Terror

Former Vice President Mike Pence marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by honoring the generation of Americans who answered the call to military and security service after that day, crediting them with preventing a repeat of the deadliest terrorist strike in U.S. history.

Pence recalled being on Capitol Hill on the morning of September 11, 2001, walking toward the Capitol shortly after terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He later joined other members of Congress in the basement of the Capitol Hill Police headquarters for a briefing from Tom Ridge, then homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush. Ridge warned that the only certainty was that the attackers wanted to strike again, and to strike harder.

That warning, Pence wrote, broke a long pattern in which America had responded to terrorism only after the fact. He traced the years of attacks that preceded 9/11: the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen; the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, including 190 Americans; the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that left six dead and more than 1,000 injured; the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people; and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 American sailors.

In each case, Pence argued, the government responded reactively — mourning, investigating, tightening security, issuing warnings — before life moved on and terrorists struck again. September 11 ended that cycle. From firefighters and police officers who rushed into the Twin Towers to the passengers who charged the cockpit over Pennsylvania, Americans resolved to take the fight to terrorist enemies abroad and build new defenses at home rather than simply seek justice after attacks.

Pence pointed to the scale of that commitment. In the aftermath of the attacks, young men and women lined up outside military recruiting offices. Nearly three million American servicemen and women deployed in the wars that followed. More than 7,000 gave their lives, and tens of thousands were wounded. They destroyed terrorist sanctuaries, hunted al-Qaeda leaders, and brought Osama bin Laden to justice. When ISIS later established a caliphate across Iraq and Syria, U.S. forces and allies dismantled it, liberating nearly 110,000 square kilometers of territory and freeing 7.7 million people.

The generation of defenders, Pence noted, was not limited to the battlefield. Some chose careers in law enforcement, disrupting terrorist plots at home and pursuing leads that never reached the evening news. Others joined the Border Patrol or served as air marshals. In New York City, 58 children of FDNY firefighters who died on September 11 have since joined the same department their fathers served.

Their greatest achievement, Pence wrote, is measured by what did not happen: the succession of increasingly catastrophic attacks on American soil that many feared after 2001 never materialized. That outcome, he said, was not because enemies stopped trying, but because American defenders stopped them.

Pence asked Americans to remember the 2,977 innocent people killed on September 11 and to honor those who died in the long struggle that followed. He also urged gratitude for those who served at home and overseas, those who returned wounded, those who never returned, and those still standing watch today.

Quoting the founders' warning that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, Pence closed by asking that the nation never forget the sacrifices of America's defenders over the past 25 years and never cease to be vigilant in defense of the country.

Author

Delaney Sawyer

Society Reporter

Delaney Sawyer covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

All articles by this author