Doug Groters remembers how quiet the day was and how clear the skies were on Sept. 11, 2001, when tragedy struck soon after he had chatted with his boss at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C.
He first thought it was a terrible accident but soon realized the country was under attack.
Groters, a retired Navy commander and senior naval science instructor, wants the cadets in his JROTC classes at Richards High School in Oak Lawn to think about that day when they commemorate it at an upcoming ceremony.
“It’s such a seminal event in the history of our country,” Groters said, adding that it’s even more important to commemorate the event that led to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan is even more important now that none of his students were born yet in 2001.
Teaching about 9/11 is an important way to connect the past to the present and show the complexities of national leadership, he said.
So on Friday, a group of Richards students will participate in a brief ceremony, have breakfast and then participate in an 11-mile March of Remembrance on the school’s track. As they do the trek, other students will read aloud the names of those who died on that day.
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Already, 75 JROTC students have pledged to do the walk.
“We’re pretty excited with that number as that is about three-fourths of the cadets currently in the program,” said Dennis Reynolds, a retired Navy chief petty officer and naval science instructor at Richards. “I think it’s important because we always tell the students, this is really the second time we were attacked on our soil unprovoked and a lot of lives were lost.”
The first attack was at Pearl Harbor and was the start of U.S. involvement in World War II.
Reynolds was stationed at a marine safety office in New Haven, Connecticut, when the planes struck. Days earlier, he and his family, including his fourth grader son, had visited New York City and had decided to wait to see the twin towers until another trip.
“When they’re walking around the track and hear those names called … it’s just a good opportunity for them to understand the impact and number of lives taken that day,” Reynolds said.
Chris Saberniak, an aerospace science instructor at Shephard High School in Palos Heights, tries to convey to his JROTC students that impact and what the nation lost that day.
Saberniak, a retired Master Sargent, had just found out his wife was pregnant with their first child the day before. He was in a secure building on that Sept. 11, which was locked down for several hours as he and his colleagues watched the planes hit on television.
Two weeks later Saberniak, a civil engineer, and his team were deployed to the Middle East for six months. They didn’t know where they were going and weren’t allowed to tell their families.
“It’s so much different than before Sept. 11. We took for granted the security and comfort of living in the U.S.,” he said. “There’s a lot more security and a lot more anxiety or worry, and I guess that shows that it can happen again and we can’t become complacent.”
Saberniak also said the event changed the tone in the U.S.
“The camaraderie and patriotism, it was unbelievable after Sept. 11,” said Saberniak. “Everyone came together and we were united.
“Now I think we’ve lost that.”
Several JROTC students at Richards who participated in the 2019 March of Remembrance and will do so again this week, said they wouldn’t miss it.
“I think it was a great way to remember not only those who lost their lives but to commemorate those who protect our country today,” said Keira O’Brien, a senior who lives in Oak Lawn. “It was such a brutal attack on America and resulted in a lot of revisions to national defense.”
Fatma Rabahi, a junior who lives in Chicago Ridge, said she came at the event from a different perspective, being Muslim and fearing some people might blame her because the terrorists were considered Islamic extremists.
Nevertheless, Rabahi, who is a student public affairs officer for the JROTC, said it was an important commemoration.
“I feel that what happened was very wrong and in order to not let something like that happen again, it should be commemorated,” Rabahi said.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.