Memorial walk this Friday in Buchanan
By Matt de Simone
It is hard to believe that 25 years have passed since the unforgettable morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when Americans learned their country had been attacked.
Four commercial airplanes had been hijacked that morning. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, another struck the Pentagon in Arlington and a fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa., after passengers and crew attempted to regain control of the aircraft. The first plane struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., followed 17 minutes later by the attack on the South Tower. By the end of the day, nearly 3,000 people had been killed, including 343 firefighters.
For those old enough to remember, Sept. 11 remains more than a date in history. The memories are tied to where people were, who called them, what they saw on television and how they tried to make sense of an event that seemed impossible to comprehend as it unfolded.
Those memories will be remembered in Buchanan Friday morning, when Sirens and Salutes holds its annual 9/11 Memorial Walk beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Buchanan Fire Department.
The walk has been held since 2019, when organizer Bill Price began looking for a way to create a local memorial that would be accessible to everyone. Rather than climbing the equivalent of the 110 floors of the World Trade Center, participants walk together along Main Street in Buchanan.
The 102-minute walk corresponds with the period from the first attack on the World Trade Center to the collapse of the North Tower. Price said the slower pace gives participants an opportunity to think about where they were, the people who died and the families who were left behind.
As the 25th anniversary approaches, Price said the walk has taken on an added importance. Many of the first responders who experienced the aftermath firsthand are now getting older, while some continue to deal with illnesses associated with their work at Ground Zero. He wants those people to know that their friends, co-workers and fellow first responders are still remembered.
The walk also is intended to pass those memories to a generation that has no personal recollection of Sept. 11. Price has provided sets of memorial tags to James River High School (JRHS), Central Academy Middle School (CAMS) and Botetourt Technical Education Center (BTEC) so students can hold their own ceremonies and learn about the first responders who were killed.
“Remembering and educating our youth and passing it on are equally important,” Price said.
Price said the memorial also provides an opportunity for the community to put aside the issues that can divide it.
“We have a lot of divisive issues in the community—politics, data centers, all kinds of stuff,” he said. “For 102 minutes, we can put all that aside and have one common goal, and that’s to remember.”
One of Price’s most memorable walks involved a woman who told him she wanted to participate but was in a wheelchair. Price encouraged her to come, and participants took turns pushing her for the entire 102 minutes.
“She cried at the end,” Price recalled.
For Price, the moment captured what the memorial walk is intended to be: a community coming together to remember people who lost their lives while trying to help others.
The memories of Sept. 11 remain vivid throughout Botetourt County.
Fincastle resident Robin Reed was working in the weather department at WDBJ that morning. He had arrived early to help Leo Hirsbrunner, who was having trouble with the station’s computer systems, and the two were dealing with the shock of the attacks while separated from the newsroom.
“Both buildings had been struck and we were dealing with the shock of that,” Reed recalled.
The news was particularly significant for Hirsbrunner, whose hometown was Boston and who knew one of the hijacked planes had departed from there.
The weather office was in the studio, so Reed and Hirsbrunner could not see or hear what was happening in the newsroom. At one point, they looked at the television in their office and realized the second tower was no longer visible.
“Our most startling memory early on came when we glanced at the TV in our office and couldn’t see the second tower,” Reed said. “We missed the collapse and couldn’t process what we were seeing.”
Reed said he remembers the “many layers” of the event—the twin towers, the Pentagon, which was near where he grew up, and the images of people running through New York streets covered in white dust.
“The news coverage was mainly video, disbelief and shock,” he said. “Then being numb for days afterwards.”
Botetourt County Communications Director Brent Watts was also working in television news at WDBJ when the attacks occurred. He had worked the late evening shift the night before and was sleeping when his wife called.
“She had a frantic tone in her voice, and I knew something was wrong,” Watts recalled.
Like millions of Americans, Watts initially did not know exactly what was happening. As the reports and images continued throughout the morning, however, the magnitude of the attacks began to sink in.
“The feeling in the newsroom was unlike anything I had ever experienced before,” Watts remembered. “There was no playbook for something like this. It’s that sense of urgency, but at the same time, a feeling of confusion.”
The national story quickly took over WDBJ’s airwaves. Watts said the station carried national coverage for more than 24 hours, with limited or no commercials, as journalists concentrated on getting information to viewers. Regular programming did not return for two or three days.
When local coverage did resume, much of it focused on the Roanoke Valley’s response, including fire department boot drives, local reactions and efforts to find connections to the attacks.
“There was an added responsibility because this was happening hundreds of miles away, but people here in the Roanoke Valley were frightened too,” Watts said.
For Watts, the experience reinforced the importance of local journalism, particularly during times of crisis.
“Whether it was a big news event, or weather, people turn to their local news organization when they need information from people they can trust,” he continued. “Building that reputation as a trusted source beforehand is critical.”
The attacks also reinforced the responsibility that comes with delivering information during a crisis, Watts said. The pressure to be first can be enormous, but accuracy remains more important.
“People are making life-changing decisions based on what you’re telling them,” he noted.
Watts said the images of Sept. 11 are impossible to forget, but what has stayed with him most is the realization that those watching were witnessing an event that would permanently change the country.
“The most important thing is we have to remember the people behind the story,” Watts said. “It’s easy, 25 years later, to talk about 9/11 in terms of dates, numbers and images.”
He also remembers something else from the weeks and months afterward: a sense of unity that he wishes had lasted.
“I just remember during the weeks and months that followed, political beliefs were put aside,” Watts recalled. “It didn’t matter whether you were rich or poor, Black or white, or where you came from. We were Americans, and there was a tremendous sense of community and shared purpose.”
That same impulse was present inside Botetourt’s firehouses on Sept. 11, even as local firefighters watched the tragedy unfold from hundreds of miles away.
Photos courtesy of National Archives
Michael Morrow was working at Carris Reels near Fincastle that morning. He was returning to start a machine after a line break when another employee asked whether he had heard about a plane hitting the towers in New York.
“It was a beautiful day, and it was weird,” Morrow recalled.
When another plane struck the second tower, Morrow said he immediately understood that the first crash had not been an accident.
“This is a terrorist attack,” he remembers thinking.
Morrow finished his workday but found a small television that employees used for training and moved it into the maintenance area. Using a piece of copper wire and a washer as an improvised antenna, they watched the coverage.
After going home and watching the news, Morrow went to the Buchanan firehouse. He was captain of the Buchanan Volunteer Fire Department at the time, and he said he needed to be there.
A number of firefighters were already at the station. They were emotional and talked about what had happened and about the firefighters, police officers and EMS personnel who were missing.
“Everybody wanted to go help,” Morrow said.
Buchanan firefighters were placed on a standby list in case personnel or equipment were needed. Morrow was later asked whether he would be available to go to New York if needed. He said yes.
The department ultimately was not called, but Morrow said his perspective as a firefighter and EMT made the deaths of emergency responders particularly personal.
“As an American, I saw a terrorist attack,” he added. “As a firefighter and EMT, my thoughts were especially with the fellow firefighters and EMS on the ground who were missing or lost.”
In the days that followed, the initial shock at the firehouse gradually gave way to a desire to help. Morrow said firefighters contacted other departments and organizations to determine whether they could send equipment or personnel.
Twenty-five years later, Morrow said Sept. 11 remains a reminder of the sacrifices made by people who ran toward danger to save others.
His daughter was 9 years old when the attacks occurred. He recently talked with her about Sept. 11, and she told him that she did not understand what was happening at the time but understands it now.
Morrow said that is part of the responsibility of those who remember.
“Never forget means honoring those who sacrificed,” he said. “Not just on Sept. 11 every year, but every day.”
Capt. Scott Gathje of the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Office was also watching the events unfold from inside a Botetourt school, but from the perspective of a law enforcement officer.
Gathje was serving as the school resource officer at CAMS on Sept. 11. After the first plane struck the World Trade Center, the assistant principal came into his office and the two went to the break room, where a television was showing the breaking news.
The principal, assistant principal and Gathje watched the coverage together, initially wondering whether the first crash had been a terrible accident.
“Then we saw the second plane hit the second tower,” Gathje said. “I remember looking at each other and realizing that this was no accident.”
As a law enforcement officer, Gathje said the uncertainty that followed was particularly unsettling.
“We were extremely on edge,” he remembered. “Like many of my colleagues, I wondered how far this would go. We didn’t know what was coming next or whether other attacks were imminent.”
Gathje had served nine years in the U.S. Marine Corps before joining the Sheriff’s Office. For a brief period after the attacks, he felt the desire to return to military service, but ultimately decided his place was in Botetourt County.
“I had a renewed sense of pride and dedication as a deputy sheriff,” Gathje said. “I had only been with the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Office for three years at the time, but I knew this was where God had led me and my family.”
His strongest memory, however, came when he returned home that evening. His oldest son was not yet 5 years old, and his youngest was 1½.
“I remember holding them close and thinking about all of the people who would never have the opportunity to hold their loved ones again,” Gathje said. “That thought has stayed with me for 25 years.”
For Troutville volunteer firefighter Greg Sleboda, Sept. 11 began at home.
Sleboda was working remotely from his home office when his mother called and asked whether he had heard about a plane hitting one of the large buildings in New York. He turned on the television mounted above his computer screens and quickly became glued to the coverage.
“When the second plane hit, you know, it’s like everything at that point just changed,” Sleboda said.
As a longtime volunteer firefighter and an officer at the time, Sleboda immediately thought about the firefighters who would still be inside the towers.
“I knew looking at the building, you know, where there was so many people in the building,” he said. “There had to still be firefighters way up in those buildings.”
When the first tower collapsed, Sleboda said he was in shock because he knew firefighters would still be inside trying to rescue people and fight the fires. The second collapse brought the same disbelief.
Not long afterward, Sleboda and other Troutville responders were dispatched to a motor vehicle accident on northbound Interstate 81. He does not remember much about the accident itself, but he remembers the emergency vehicles passing by.
“There were police, fire and EMS vehicles of all types heading north with lights and sirens,” Sleboda said. “Sometimes there would be a single vehicle and sometimes they would be in a small convoy of up to a dozen emergency vehicles all heading north.”
The sight made the attacks feel much closer to home.
“It just made it seem closer,” he recalled. “Seeing so many first responders heading up Interstate 81 made it somehow seem so much closer.”
Sleboda also remembers the possibility that the attacks could have affected a small community. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania had traveled through the region, and the Pentagon was much closer than New York.
“It could have affected any small community, not just big communities,” he said.
A few weeks later, Sleboda experienced another memorable expression of solidarity when he joined firefighters and EMTs from the region representing Botetourt County at Virginia Tech’s first home football game following the attacks.
The Sept. 29, 2001 game against the University of Central Florida included a tribute to first responders. Sleboda and the other responders lined up in the tunnel before being escorted onto the field.
One detail has stayed with him for 25 years: the Hokie Stone.
“I remember seeing the ‘Hokie Stone’ that I watched so many Hokies touch when coming out of the tunnel,” Sleboda said. “Watching the other first responders in full turnout gear heading out the tunnel each touching the Hokie Stone through their fire gloves is such a vivid memory for me.”
The group then received a standing ovation from the crowd.
“It was very emotional to each of us to have been given the opportunity to represent our area,” Sleboda said.
While Sleboda remembers Sept. 11 as a firefighter, CJ Boothe, now president of the Troutville Volunteer Fire Department, remembers it first as a high school student.
Boothe was attending Lord Botetourt High School in 2001 and was at BTEC in a building trades class taught by Philip Simmons when news of the attacks appeared on the classroom television.
“We just kind of stopped what we were doing, watched that for a while,” Boothe recalled.
When Boothe returned to Lord Botetourt, the coverage continued. At first, he said, he did not fully understand what was happening. As the morning progressed, however, the description of the attacks changed from an incident to a terrorist attack.
“By the time we went from BTEC to the school, the narrative had changed,” Boothe said. “The news was picking up on that.”
Reports about the Pentagon and another missing plane added to the uncertainty.
Boothe remembers the days and weeks afterward as a time when he was trying to understand why someone would deliberately attack people they did not know. More than anything, he said, the attacks made him realize that the United States was vulnerable.
“It was the first time like the U.S.—we’re actually can be vulnerable in our own country,” he said.
Twenty-five years later, Boothe has a different perspective on the people he watched responding that day.
He is now a volunteer firefighter and EMS provider, following a path that was influenced in part by his father, who was also a volunteer firefighter. Community service was instilled in him from a young age, he said, but becoming a first responder changed how he understood the sacrifices made by the people who entered the World Trade Center.
“It’s something bigger than yourself,” Boothe said of fire and EMS service. “Showing up on somebody’s worst day and trying to make a positive outcome, that’s something that you never will see happen in other aspects of your life.”
Boothe said the images from Sept. 11 have remained with him, particularly the repeated television footage of the planes striking the towers and the buildings collapsing. But his understanding of the first responders in those images has changed.
“Those people gave their lives trying to save people,” he said. “It’s a humbling experience.”
That same experience of trying to understand an unimaginable event played out in Botetourt classrooms, where teachers suddenly found themselves helping students process a tragedy that was still unfolding.
Bruce Ingram was teaching English 9 Advanced Studies at Lord Botetourt when he heard about the attacks over the intercom. One student immediately expressed concern about an uncle who lived in New York City.
“I tried to reassure him that everything would be okay, but I wasn’t able to assure him,” Ingram recalled.
Ingram initially tried to continue teaching, hoping that keeping students occupied would prevent them from worrying about what was happening elsewhere. But Sandra Sowers, then head of the English Department, came to his classroom and told him how serious the situation was.
“She also said it would be impossible for me to continue with my lesson,” Ingram said.
Parents soon began calling the school and coming to pick up their children.
For Ingram, the attacks also brought back memories of other major events he had experienced during his lifetime, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the 1999 Columbine High School shooting.
He was teaching at Lord Botetourt when Columbine occurred. Although he had planned to take a personal day afterward to go turkey hunting, he canceled those plans because he knew his students would have questions.
Sept. 11 became another event that teachers would eventually have to explain to students who had not experienced it themselves.
Stuart Byrd was also teaching at Lord Botetourt that morning. Students entered his agriculture classroom shortly before the start of first block and told him the United States was under attack.
“I did not believe them at first and took it as a prank that the students were trying to get other students excited,” Byrd said.
The seriousness of the situation became clear after an announcement over the intercom. Teachers began putting live coverage on their classroom televisions, and Byrd remembers watching with his students as the second plane struck the second tower.
“All of my students were glued to the coverage as new information came out about the tragedy,” he said.
Teachers attempted to return to classwork, but many students and teachers were in shock. Parents called to have student drivers released or came to the school to pick up their children.
Byrd eventually combined his class with another and spent the rest of the day watching the coverage and trying to comfort students, either in the classroom or by sending them to guidance.
Lord Botetourt librarian Kendal Lively experienced Sept. 11 from home. She was on maternity leave and watching The Today Show when she briefly left the room to get her son from his crib.
When she returned, the television hosts were discussing a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. Lively continued watching and saw the second plane strike the other tower live on television.
“We all realized at this point that the planes had crashed on purpose,” Lively said.
She called her husband and parents and spent the day holding her baby while watching the events unfold.
Later that afternoon, she had an appointment with an eye doctor and wondered whether it was safe to leave the house. The fear and uncertainty were overwhelming, she said, but there was a small moment of comfort when she arrived at the doctor’s office.
“I remember everyone in the waiting room being so happy to see a baby,” Lively said. “I think the innocence of a baby was comforting on a day with so much horror and uncertainty.”
Today, Lively is a librarian at Lord Botetourt and works with students who were not alive when Sept. 11 happened.
She said teaching the significance of the attacks to a generation without a personal memory of them is difficult, but important. The historical consequences matter, but so does the legacy of people helping one another.
“Sept. 11, 2001 was a watershed event in U.S. history,” Lively said. “I also think the legacy of 9/11 is full of amazing examples of perseverance and kindness and people helping others.”
Those stories, she said, can help a generation that did not experience Sept. 11 understand why it remains important.
Twenty-five years later, the memories of Sept. 11 remain remarkably specific for those who lived through them: a television in a WDBJ weather office, a classroom at BTEC, a firehouse in Buchanan, an emergency call on Interstate 81 and a line of first responders touching the Hokie Stone at Virginia Tech.
For those who remember, “never forget” means honoring the people who were lost and the people who ran toward danger to help others. For those who were too young to remember—or who had not yet been born—it means making sure those stories continue to be told.
That is also why the memorial walk continues in Buchanan.
On Friday morning, residents will have an opportunity to do more than remember Sept. 11 as a date, a collection of photographs or a chapter in a history book. For 102 minutes, they can walk together, hear the stories, remember those who were lost and stand alongside the first responders and community members who continue to carry those memories.
Twenty-five years later, Botetourt County still has an opportunity to come together and remember.
The 9/11 Memorial Walk begins at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Buchanan Fire Department.
