‘Day of reverence:’ First responders, veterans and more remember 9/11 at Cal Expo event

More than 100 Sacramento-area residents gathered Sunday morning at Cal Expo to remember the lives lost in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Sacramento police and firefighters, veterans, and dozens of active military attended the event commemorating the day that saw more than 3,000 people killed 21 years ago.

The memorial has been in the making since 2002. Former Cal Expo board member Larry Davis donated 125,000 pounds of wreckage, which included a horizontal I-beam, from the World Trade Center’s North Tower that visitors can view annually on Sept. 11 and during the California State Fair.

The permanent structure now includes a fountain inscribed with the names of all 3,071 known victims, a carillon bell tower and two small towers resembling the World Trade Center.

The event, hosted by the California Mexican American Veterans Memorial Foundation, honored survivors as well.

Gil Sanborn, who was a civilian aide to the secretary of the army, was in New York City when the attack took place.

“(There was) the crush of terrorized people racing down the stairwell to escape a tower we thought was the third target, of the sound of sirens and horns from every direction converging at the towers, and the rescue workers lining up to go into those towers, of office workers jumping to escape the flames, of the F-15 that screamed past us signaling that we were safe, and finally the rumble behind me that sounded like a freight train,” Sanborn said. “It was the south tower collapsing. “

Sanborn said that for 10 years following the attack, he kept a duffel bag with a gas mask and a hazmat suit under his desk to be better prepared for a future incident.

“Over time, I realized to counter my fears, I needed to study the forces behind 9-11 as comprehensively as I could,” he said. ”And the best way to do it was to research the objectives of the attacks, the background of the attackers and the origin of the religious fanaticism. As a result of that study, I know that we were not attacked by a religion, or an ethnicity. We were attacked by a hatred, ignorance, isolation and intolerance. That hatred can rise from any corner of any country.”

Sanborn called on educators to include lessons on Sept. 11, as children in school today were not born when the attack took place two decades ago.

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, who spoke at the Sunday morning event, said that in the years following the attack, some worried that Sept. 11 would fade in history.

“I am proud that that is not the case, the opposite is actually true,“ Lester said. “This day continues to be a day of reverence and memory for those whose lives tragically ended that day.”

Speakers also remembered those who died in active duty following Sept. 11. About 7,000 were killed on active duty in the war in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom; more than 200,000 U.S. troops were wounded, and more than 250,000 Afghan and Iraqi civilians were killed.

Some in attendance were deployed in the early years of the war.

Anna Sandoval of Sacramento tearfully spoke to The Sacramento Bee about the year she was deployed, embalming hundreds of fallen soldiers who returned from Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

“I saw horrors when these young men arrived, and I made them perfectly done for an open casket,” Sandoval said. “It was the most honorable thing to do.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2022 at 2:05 PM.