County Dedicates 9/11 Memorial

By Tara Slate Donaldson
05/12/2006

It was a warm, clear evening Tuesday when hundreds of county residents gathered in silence to dedicate a new memorial.In fact, several dignitaries noted that the weather was very similar on an autumn evening four-and-a-half years ago as thick smoke billowed from New York City, Arlington and a field in Pennsylvania.

County victimsSFC John J. Chada, USA retiredSK3 Jamie L. Fallon, USN, Amelia F. Fields, LTC, Robert J. Hymel, USAF retired SGM Lacey B. Ivory, USA, Judith L. Jones, David W. Laychak, James T. Lynch Jr., Gene E. Maloy, Robert J. Maxwell, Molly L. McKenzie, Craig J. Miller, Diana B. Padro, Rhonda s. Rasmussen, Edward V. Rowenhorst, Judy Rowlett, Donald D. Simmons, Jeff L. Simpson. Cheryle D. Sincock, ITC Gregg H. Smallwood, USNSGM Larry L. Strickland, USA, Sandra L. White, Gene E. Maloy, Craig J. Miller and Jeff L. Simpson died at the World Trade Center in New York City. The other 19 victims died at the Pentagon. Almost 3,000 people, including 22 from Prince William, died on Sept. 11, 2001.

On Tuesday, residents gathered to dedicate a memorial in their honor. As Pershing's Own United States Army Band played, a color guard slowly marched up a small hill to the memorial. There, they raised the flags on a flagpole that had been specially chosen for the memorial.Jim Lynch, a Navy civilian, was killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. His widow, Brenda Lynch, told the crowd on Tuesday that the flagpole had come from her home.“He was a very patriotic person and flew the American flag on this flagpole in our yard every day,” she said. “This is where the flagpole needs to be.”Laurie Laychak also spoke of her husband. She and Dave Laychak had been living in Prince William for only a year before he was killed at the Pentagon, leaving behind a 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.“We, the families of those lost, find comfort in this public remembrance of those we loved,” she said.Sen. George Allen (R) joined Lynch, Laychak and the relatives of other victims at the ceremony on Tuesday, telling them that their families have gotten bigger since the terrorist attacks.“This community will never abandon you and neither will this grand compassionate nation,” he said. “You've been adopted.”

At the end of the ceremony, Board of County Supervisors Chairman Sean Connaughton read an e-mail he had received the day before from a World Trade Center survivor.Bridget Carriero was on the 68th floor when the plane hit 10 floors above her. She wrote that she lost six friends and couldn't bring herself to attend the ceremony, but that she would visit the memorial afterwards.“I feel so lost out here in Virginia, now I have somewhere to go to cry and pray since I cannot go to Ground Zero,” she wrote.Prince William is one of the first communities in the country to complete its Sept. 11 memorial.

The monument takes the form of a pentagon-shaped pool with two tower-like fountains in the middle. The pool is surrounded by a floor made from Pennsylvania flagstone and the names of each of the county's 22 victims are inscribed on the west wall of the pool.Also included in the monument is a large concrete brick, which was obtained from the wreckage at the Pentagon by Maj. Gen. Robert Diamond, an aide to the Secretary of the Army.The memorial stands outside the McCoart Building, at the County Complex on the Prince William Parkway.