9/11 remembered with fields of flags; World Trade Center survivor to speak in Naperville

There are certain numbers seared into memory from that unthinkable morning.

At 8:46 a.m. Eastern time, hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the first tower. At 9:03 a.m., another hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 175, hit the second tower.

FDNY suffered 343 fatalities — the largest loss of life of any emergency response agency in history, the 9/11 Commission wrote in its final report. Collectively, the Port Authority and New York police departments lost 60 of their own.

American flags honoring those first responders are posted in the visceral “Healing Fields” in Carpentersville and in West Dundee 24 years later. A church steeple rises over the latter display in a park with a playground.

Jerry Christopherson remembers another number: 3,051 children “lost a parent that day.”

The Army veteran lives in Elgin and creates fields of flags across the Chicago area through his organization, True Patriots Care.

“Wherever we put our flags, there's a number involved with it,” he said.

Numbers, of course, never tell the whole story.

Laura Murphy worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center and descended 59 floors to escape. She is scheduled to speak Thursday evening during a ceremony at the Cmdr. Dan Shanower Sept. 11 Memorial along the Naperville Riverwalk.

Shanower, a Naperville native and Naval intelligence officer, died at his post in the Pentagon. The memorial’s theme was inspired by an article written by Shanower.

“Those of us in the military are expected to make the ultimate sacrifice when called. The military loses scores of personnel each year. Each one risked and lost his or her life in something they believed in, leaving behind friends, family and shipmates to bear the burden and celebrate their devotion to our country,” he wrote. “Freedom isn't free.”

Other towns will mark the anniversary with a moment of silence, the wail of bagpipes and prayer.

In Palatine, firefighters are set to march from Station 85 around 8:45 a.m. The village’s ceremony will start around 9 a.m. at the Firefighter Memorial downtown.

Christopherson’s organization also has a flag tribute to the firemen killed on 9/11 outside the McHenry Township Fire Protection District station in Johnsburg.

“They didn't run away,” he said. “They ran in to help people, you know what I mean? So we can't forget them — ever.”