CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Chesapeake residents gathered Thursday evening to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, singing "God Bless America" and reflecting on where they were that day.
Navy Admiral David Thomas was inside the Pentagon when it was struck.
"I pulled off my uniform found some busted pipe got it wet put the shirt back over my head continued crawling around yelling and looking for people," Thomas said.
Thomas said what he witnessed that day continues to inspire him — the way everyone tried to help anyone they could.
"From trained first responders, and from regular people who just instinctively ran to the scene, inspires me to this day," Thomas said.
The memorial at City Park in Chesapeake holds artifacts from all three sites attacked on 9/11: the Pentagon in Arlington, the Twin Towers in New York, and the field in Pennsylvania where a plane headed for Washington, D.C., crashed.
Mayor Rick West said the memorial is significant in a way that goes beyond local pride.
"We're one of the few cities that have artifacts from all three sites that were attacked. It's special not in a bragging way, but more we have a piece of history that tells a compelling story all that we should learn from," West said.
West said the turnout for Thursday's remembrance event reflected the character of Chesapeake.
"That tells me what Chesapeake is really like which I kind of already knew. Honestly that's why I love being the mayor of this great city," West said.
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