Never, ever forget – America marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks
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By Grace Eliza Goodwin
Photos by Bernd Debusman Jr and Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
Watch: "We’ll never ever forget" – Americans remember 9/11 at 25th anniversary
Twenty-five years after 9/11, US presidents past and present have commemorated the lives lost when planes hijacked by terrorists slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.
President Donald Trump led a Pentagon ceremony, while US Vice-President JD Vance attended a memorial at the site of the World Trade Center in New York, along with all four living former US presidents and first ladies.
Moments of silence were held to mark the timings of the attacks, and the names of nearly 3,000 people who died were read out.
Commemorations were also held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Pool/Getty Images
EPA
President Trump spoke at the Pentagon
Former President George W Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks, was joined by former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton at Friday’s ceremony.
At the Pentagon, President Trump attended a commemoration alongside cabinet secretaries and Condoleezza Rice, who was US secretary of state on 9/11.
"Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago," Trump said. "We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today."
He sought to link the "war on terror" that followed 9/11, which sparked years of US involvement in Middle East wars, with his current conflict in Iran.
Trump told the crowd that the Islamic Republic "will never, ever have a nuclear weapon."
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Reuters
The Wall of Names at Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania
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Janice Brooks had only moved to New York a couple of weeks before 9/11 to begin what she calls "the biggest adventure," working for a company on the 84th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
She told the BBC she was in the office when the first plane hit the North Tower. While she was evacuating, the second plane hit with an "almighty thud."
Brooks said she heard "one of those horror film screams" as a woman was hit by debris. She looked up and saw a "big gaping hole" where her office should have been.
