Hillsdale Students, Faculty, and Staff Remember 9/11
Written by Luke Daigneault
Most high school students today will not be able to recall the most devastating attack on our country since Pearl Harbor. Even most of us Hillsdale College students were very young at the time.
Jeffery “Chief” Rogers, the Associate Dean of Men and a Navy veteran, recalls the event: “We have freshmen who were really little at the time and probably don’t even remember the attack. I remember exactly where I was on that day. I was stationed at a hospital in Iceland and we saw many planes landing because the U.S. airspace was closed. We watched the news on the TV, and it was just so surreal. We were at highest state of readiness on all our bases – we had no idea what was going on.”
To keep alive the memory of these tragic events and those who died, the Hillsdale campus community holds a memorial service every year. Students place flags by the Civil War memorial statue – one for each of the two thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven men, women, and children who lost their lives in the September 11th attacks.
Every year on September 11th, Hillsdale College students, faculty, and staff gather for a moment of somber remembrance.
Students, faculty, and staff gather for a memorial service at noon.
Faculty and student speakers give short remarks about the importance of remembering those tragic events.
The memorial service concludes with a prayer and a moment of silence.
Luke Daigneault is an economics major who aspires to graduate with his friends in the class of 2017. He also runs on the cross country and track teams at the college.