Wearing their dress uniforms, a dozen members of the Wrightsville Beach fire and police departments, along with a group of local residents, gathered at the town’s public safety building to remember the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Wrightsville Beach Fire Chief Glen Rogers led the ceremony, which featured a bell ringing ceremony, a minute of silence, the lowering of the flag and memories from those in attendance.
Wrightsville Beach Fire Department Capts. Adam Brown and Dan Reid rang the fire bell in three sets of five rings, a fire service tradition to signal the death of a member of the service. Former fire chief Frank Smith also attended in dress uniform.
Bob and Irene Seeling, Landfall residents and members of the Wrightsville Beach United Methodist Church, told the crowd about their personal connection to the attacks in New York City. Their son Michael, then an employee at Sun Microsystems on the 23rd floor of the South Tower, ignored recommendations to stay in the building and led a group of his colleagues out of the building before it was hit by the airplane.
“They said ‘Everything’s fine, stay put,” but our son said ‘We need to get our people out,” and as soon as they were out of the building, the South Tower was hit,” Bob Seeling said.
Michael, whose wife was eight months pregnant, and his colleagues got out of the building unscathed. Irene recounted her trip to New York City shortly after the attack to check on her son’s family, describing the damage she witnessed firsthand.
Rogers said he wanted to establish the Sept. 11 observance as an annual tradition.
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