Thank you very much. Thank you. Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Rice, First Lady of the United States, Chairman Caine, members of the United States military, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans, 25 times we have gathered at this hallowed place and at Ground Zero in New York, and a lonely field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
In 25 years, a generation has passed since the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001, yet time is not dimmed the honor of that day when our country came face to face with true evil. At 8:20 am on a cloudless Tuesday morning, a beautiful day it was, American Airlines Flight 77 took off 25 miles from here, bound for Los Angeles.
On board were three 11 year old students heading on a cross country field trip; a father and a mother with their two young daughters, bound for international adventure; and a flight attendant whose mind was elsewhere. She had just learned that she was expecting her first child and was so excited to tell her mom and dad.
Here at the Pentagon, a Navy airman had just gotten off the phone with his 10 year old son. A secretary was celebrating her 46th birthday. So happy she was. A sergeant major was chatting with some colleagues he had hosted for a dinner party over the weekend. At 9:37 am, every single one of those people and every person at that sergeant major's party was murdered by terrorists who flew flight 77 straight into this legendary building.
It is indeed a legendary building. So many wars have been won from this building. With the events of that morning, 2,977 beautiful souls were ripped from our world, and many more died in the weeks and years after horrible, grotesque injuries. So many were sustained. Today, we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago.
We will never, ever forget. That's why we fight today. We don't have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win. We will always remember the victims and the families of September 11th, 2001, very famous date, unfortunately, and it started out as such a beautiful day. We will honor their lives, we will cherish their beautiful memories and we will protect this country and its freedoms for every future generation.
We will protect it like never before. For anyone who lived it, no words can do justice to the anguish of that day. After the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, Patrick Dennehy left a message to comfort his beautiful wife, Mary, letting her know he was safe inside his office on the South Tower's 90th floor.
Mary was eight months pregnant and playing with their two young daughters when she heard Patrick's voice. She loved him so much. She called back, turned on the TV. The line rang and then it went completely dead, very unusual, she felt. Mary fell to her knees as she watched United flight 175 explode by her husband's office.
She saw it, right by the office. She knew exactly where the office was, right by the office. Seven floors up, [Inaudible] laid down on the carpet by his desk to escape the smoke, it was horrible, surrounded by photos of his beautiful five children. He was on the phone with his wife, Miriam, praying to God, when the television showed her the dreadful image.
Things were happening that she couldn't imagine. The South Tower was collapsing with her husband, and she loved him so much, inside. Free people must never avert their eyes from such hideous cruelty. We cannot forget that moment of immense and horrible evil that took place in this world, bent on the destruction of all that is good.
But this morning, we also remember how America responded to that wickedness. On days like 9/11, we learn what a country is truly made of. We're learning right now what we're made of, and we have to be strong, and we have to be smart. And Americans are made of a goodness and spirit that can transcend any earthly force.
And that's what we're doing better than anyone else has ever been able to do it, because we are sustained by a supreme strength far more powerful than steel alone. Aboard Flight 93 in the skies over Pennsylvania, a brave flight attendant boiled water to fight back. A loving father from New Jersey, Todd Beamer, asked a telephone operator in Illinois to join him in the Lord's Prayer. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And then he said his last words, "Let's roll." Today, as we remember the many lives lost on 9/11, we also give thanks for the countless lives saved by the immortal heroes of Flight 93. In those harrowing days after the attacks, we saw the authentic spirit of our nation.
We were all New Yorkers that day, every one of us, we were all New Yorkers. But we were also all Americans, we were all family, we were all patriots. The enemy might destroy what American hands had built, but we could not touch the fight and the fire and the love in our great American hearts. At the Pentagon on September 12th, General James Jackson ordered up the largest flag in the military's collection, and they think in the military's history.
First responders climbed to top the walls and hung it next to the gaping holes in this building as a symbol of American defiance. This morning, that same flag is here to my right. For the first time since 2001, along with three firefighters who raised it, Joseph Morabito, Scott Morgan and Carl Solberg, please stand. 25 years after the attacks, we know the world will never return to the way it was at that dawn on that beautiful, peaceful Tuesday morning in 2001. Before the towers fell, before the Pentagon was hit, before the specter of evil and this horrible, horrible evil came crashing into our lives, before we saw what took place in Pennsylvania -- innocence is expecting the future to be good because you have not yet really been tested.
We've been tested many times, we're being tested today, and we're winning that test very handily. Faith is still believing in that future, even after you have seen the absolute worst, things that you never thought possible to see. In the generation since 9/11, American sons and daughters have traveled to the darkest corners of the earth and done battle with a shadowy enemy so that our children might once again know carefree days and cloudless skies.
For 25 years, our best and bravest have kept America safe, and today we salute every member of the United States military who served in the war on terror. It is a war on sick, horrible terror. We salute our first responders and law enforcement, and we love them. And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.
A generation after 9/11, we also know that the final response to those atrocities and the ultimate victory over the perpetrators will not be found on a foreign battlefield; it's right here in the hearts of families like Tara Stackpole's. Tara's husband Timmy was a great firefighter, even a legendary one. After surviving a five-alarm fire in Brooklyn that burned 40 percent of his body in 1998, he spent three years recovering, learned to walk again, and return to the job.
That's all he wanted to do; he just wanted to fight fires. He said the greatest high you can ever get in life is by helping someone and making a difference, especially when it came to his profession, a dangerous profession at that. On September 11th, the New York Daily News carried a story announcing his promotion to captain in the New York City Fire Department.
He was so proud; his wife, his family was so proud. Captain Stackpole said goodbye to Tara and their five beautiful children that morning. And when the planes hit a short time later, he responded, leading a team into the unbelievably unusual sight of a south tower that was burning. They lost their lives when the towers fell.
Somehow, Tara found the strength to be a rock, not only for her kids, but for the countless members of a very grieving fire department. So many people were grieving. They were devastated like never before. And in the years that followed, she raised those children to know, love and follow the example of their dad, who just was not there with them any longer.
Today, their son, Kevin, is a Navy veteran, and a brave one at that. He's had his moments; they were very, very big -- perhaps not like his father, but they were very big and very proud and everyone's very proud of Kevin. He served in Iraq and is raising four beautiful children of his own. Their son, TJ, became a captain in the Marines after graduating from the US Naval Academy.
Brian is raising two kids. Caitlin is raising three, including a 10-year-old named Timmy. And Brendan is a proud member of his dad's old company, Fire Department, New York Rescue 2. That's quite a company, too. I grew up in New York; I can tell you that's quite a company. The Stackpole family is here today.
Tara, Kevin, TJ, Brendan, Caitlin and Timmy, please stand -- please. He's looking down on you; he's very proud of you. Thank you. No one can ever prepare for a day like 9/11. But we can always choose to be the kind of nation the world saw in those days after. We can build families like the Stackpole's. We can raise our children to know that their country is good, that their fathers are brave, and that our flag is a symbol of justice and freedom.
And we can be a nation whose heroes are not fanatics for an abstract cause. They don't even know really what they're doing. But the kind who race into buildings and give their lives on a Tuesday morning for strangers they've never met, people they didn't know, gave their lives. And we can fill the lives of our children with light and love that will sustain them against any trial and transcend any darkness whenever that darkness may come.
As Scripture tells us, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it". September 11th reminded us of the terrible power of hate. The 25 years since have shown us the even greater power of the American spirit to endure and prevail and to win. And today, our country is stronger than it has ever been before.
It has never been as strong as it is right now. Because of that spirit, when future generations come here in 25, 100 or 250 years from now, they will stand in a nation that is free and unyielding in the face of evil. And they will still honor the heroes of 9/11/2001, who no age will erase from the memory of time.
It will never, ever be forgotten, will never be forgotten. And we can never forget. God bless our 9/11 families. God bless our unbelievable, brave and beautiful first responders. God bless the United States military, and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.