Mizzou and city of Columbia to celebrate Patriot Day in honor of 9/11 victims

The University of Missouri and the city of Columbia will jointly hold a Patriot Day ceremony on Wednesday at Traditions Plaza to honor those who lost their lives in the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The event to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the attacks will include a wreath-laying ceremony, a presentation of the colors by the Joint Services Color Guard and City Honor Guards on Francis Quadrangle, as well as a helicopter flyover by MU Health Care.

Sixty-two members of Boone County, Missouri’s FEMA urban rescue team, Task Force One, were deployed to New York City in wake of the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, said local KMIZ ABC News.

The local ABC News affiliate reported that last year 16 members of the task force were in attendance for the Patriot Day celebration in Columbia, including the former task force leader, Doug Westhoff.

“As we were walking in on one of our first shifts [on 9/11], we were walking by hundreds of people that had pictures of their loved ones taped to their chest, holding pictures, begging for you to help them locate their loved ones,” Westhoff told ABC News about the devastation caused by the attack. 

Westhoff said that the Patriot Day celebrations are important because if people forget, then we could have more attacks such as 9/11. 

 “I think history has proven that if we don’t acknowledge history, we’re destined to repeat it,” Westhoff said. “This was an attack on our homeland, on our home soil, and that can never happen again.” 

Patriot Day celebrations will be held around the country after the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution in December 2001 recognizing Sept. 11 as Patriot Day each year.  

Yet it wasn’t until 2009 that a law was finally approved that officially recognized the day.   

Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe, MU provost and executive vice chancellor Matthew Martens, and Capt. Thomas Ulmer, commanding officer and professor of naval science, Mizzou Naval ROTC, are also expected to speak at Wednesday’s celebration.  

“Columbia, Missouri, but also the Midwest, we are caring communities,” Buffaloe told the ABC News station last year. “We step up when people need help, and I think that’s just evident in this, and also those who are willing to continue to step up every day.” 

The public event starts at 10 a.m. and is scheduled to last 30 minutes. In case of rain, the ceremony will be moved inside to the Jesse Hall Rotunda.

Photo: Courtesy of University of Missouri