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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Guests are seated six-feet apart as Retired Lt. Col. Ginger Branson gives the keynote speech during Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Guests are seated six-feet apart as Retired Lt. Col. Ginger Branson gives the keynote speech during Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Officer Steven Easterline, of the Hoover Police Department, sings the National Anthem at the start of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Chaplain Ben Clarke, of the Hoover Fire Department, gives the invocation at the start of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Images from the attack of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, are displayed during the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Images from the attack of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, are displayed during the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Images from the attack of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, are displayed during the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Images from the attack of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, are displayed during the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Retired Lt. Col. Ginger Branson gives the keynote speech during Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Chief Clay Bentley, of the Hoover Fire Department, gives his opening remarks at the beginning of the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Images from the attack of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, are displayed during the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Images from the attack of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, are displayed during the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Images from the attack of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, are displayed during the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato gives his opening remarks at the beginning of the City of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Officer Steven Easterline, of the Hoover Police Department, sings the National Anthem at the start of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at the Finley Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony
Hoover Police vehicles are lined up behind a Hoover fire truck as an American Flag is displayed in front of the Finley Center during Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony held in honor and remembrance of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Photo by Erin Nelson.
The city of Hoover’s Patriot Day Remembrance ceremony may have looked different from years past, but the message to honor the lives of the 2,977 men and women who died on Sept. 11, 2001, remained just as strong.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ginger Branson gave the keynote speech to a room of 80 to 90 socially distanced guests this morning in the Finley Center at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex.
Branson spoke about “the shot heard ‘round the world” when on April 19, 1775, the opening shot that began the American Revolutionary War led to the creation of the United States of America. She referenced the entry of America into World War I in 1917, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, the Birmingham Children's Crusade, George Wallace’s “Stand at the Schoolhouse Door” at the University of Alabama, the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I have a dream” speech, and the bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Branson also talked about the Gulf War in 1990 before speaking about the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
It was a day when Americans were glued to their TV sets when American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, followed by the American Airlines Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The death toll from the four crashes that day was 2,977 people.
Branson spoke about the thousands of first responders in New York City who suffered lung diseases and cancer from their efforts at Ground Zero.
After Branson’s speech, Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley called the room to attention as Lt. Landon Johnson of the Hoover Fire Department Honor Guard rang the ceremonial bell. Fire Department Chaplain Ben Clarke asked everyone to remain standing for a moment of silence before the ceremony dispersed.
