Honoring a friend at Sept. 11 observance
Childhood pals growing up together in Naperville, Pablo Araya and Dan Shanower drifted apart as they grew older and their interests diverged.
But somehow fate brought the two friends together again when they discovered each other aboard the Navy vessel they were assigned to years later in the Philippines.
Now an FBI special agent, Araya is the featured speaker at Tuesday's Sept. 11 memorial service in Naperville where he will pay tribute to his friend who perished in the attacks six years ago while serving as an intelligence officer at the Pentagon.
Spurred by the tragedy of that day in 2001, Araya eventually volunteered for duty in India and Afghanistan, where he spent several months beefing up the bureau's presence.
But it's not his story Araya wants people to hear when he speaks Tuesday. He will be talking about the friend who became Naperville's personification of a national tragedy.
His speech is part of the city's Sept. 11 remembrance that begins at 6 p.m. at the Cmdr. Dan Shanower/Sept. 11 Memorial behind city hall at 400 S. Eagle St.
Araya recently spoke with the Daily Herald about the day's meaning.
Q. Tell us about your friendship with Cmdr. Shanower.
A. We knew each other in first grade all the way through high school. We were really close as grade-schoolers. In high school, I wrestled and he played soccer, so there were different groups of friends. But when we were kids, we used to sleep over at each other's houses and go to birthday parties and typical things like that.
Like all boys growing up in Naperville back in the 1960s, there were lots of things to do. We'd have little adventures out by Merner Fieldhouse where they had a big creek that ran through there. We built a lot of models together.
Q. Why are you participating in the event this year?
A. One of the committee members that helped get the memorial built called me and asked about my friendship with Dan. I had to sort of think about it because of my position and I'm not used to speaking in public. He said Dan's brother, John, told him about me and I felt this was a way I could honor Dan.
Q. Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001?
A. I was on the Kennedy Expressway and was coming back from following up a lead on an extortion case.
Q. When did you learn Dan had died?
A. Much later in the day, because, as you can imagine, the FBI was mobilized immediately. We were all given assignments and it was pretty much chaos. Later on, I went to the VFW and saw his brother and heard the news that Dan had passed.
Q. Did you lose anyone else you knew that day?
A. No. Thank God.
Q. Did that day spur your professional interest in the terrorism fight, or did it just become the bureau's main focus so all the agents got involved in some form or another?
A. I'm a violent crime agent and I've done a few things after Sept. 11 and those temporary duties were spurred by Sept. 11. I went to New Delhi and Afghanistan. We obviously didn't have much of a presence in Afghanistan before that, so this was an opportunity to do something in a new place where an FBI agent couldn't pull temporary duty before Sept. 11.
Q. What was working in Afghanistan like?
A. I was there in 2005 and we'd been there a couple years already, but there still hadn't been too many agents that had been there before me, so it was definitely a different experience. But it was an excellent experience working with the folks on the military side.
Q. Why do you think it's important for Americans to participate in Sept. 11 memorial events?
A. Currently, we are still at war on two fronts and it should never be forgotten that the impetus of the war was the Sept. 11 attacks. It changed everyone's lives and it changed the way the world looks. If there was ever any thought that we can get back to pre-Sept. 11 business, you just need to look at the video (Osama) bin Laden just put out.
If you go
What: Naperville's Sept. 11 observance
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Cmdr. Dan Shanower/Sept. 11 Memorial behind city hall at 400 S. Eagle St.