9/11 Remembrance Ceremony Will Mark 25th Anniversary In Point Pleasant Beach

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — Point Pleasant Beach will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on Friday with a ceremony.

It is set for 9:45 a.m. at Monument Park at the Bandshell at Arnold and Baltimore avenues. The service will include a presentation of World Trade Center steel followed by a brief ceremony, officials said.

The ceremony will honor the 2,977 people who died in the attacks when 19 al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four airplanes, flying two into New York City's World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. Passengers fought back on the fourth, United Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

At the World Trade Center, 2,763 died, including 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers. At the Pentagon, 189 people were killed, including 64 on American Airlines Flight 77, the airliner that struck the building. On United Flight 93, 44 people died when the passengers who realized the plane had been hijacked caused the plane to crash.

Among those killed was Patrick Joseph Driscoll, 70, who lived in Point Pleasant Beach but also was listed with Manalapan as his hometown. He was a passenger on United Flight 93, according to the Flight 93 Memorial website.

Patrick was a retired director of software development with Bell Communications, according to the listing on Legacy.com. He also was a Navy veteran and a graduate of New York University and Rutgers University.

He was an avid outdoorsman and loved hiking in the mountains in U.S. national parks, including going snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park and snowshoeing through Bryce Canyon, according to the Flight 93 memorial site.

He told his wife, Maureen, that reaching the top of a mountain on his trips was a spiritual experience, where he felt like it brought him closer to God, the site said.

He was flying with friend William Cashman to hike in Yosemite National Park to hike when terrorists took over the plane.

Patrick had been married to Maureen since 1958, and the couple had three sons Stephen, Patrick, and Christopher, and a daughter, Pamela.

World Trade Center Ceremony

As is traditional, the names of the 2,977 people killed in the 9/11 attacks and six others who died in the 1993 World Trade Center attack will be read at a ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan.

Four former presidents — Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — are expected to attend the 25th-anniversary ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City.

President Donald Trump is not expected at Ground Zero. Vice President JD Vance will represent the administration in New York.

The ceremony will be livestreamed. On Friday evening, the annual Tribute in Light will send twin beams into the sky, accompanied this year by a one-hour national broadcast beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC, Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic and ABC News Live.

Pentagon Observance

Trump will attend the 9/11 observance at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and flown into the structure

Defense and military leaders traditionally gather for a ceremony centered on the memorial’s 184 illuminated benches, one for each victim. Details about public access to the Pentagon ceremony and a possible livestream had not yet been posted on the Pentagon Memorial’s official webpage on Tuesday.

Pennsylvania Memorial Details

The Flight 93 National Memorial, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, begins with an 8:30 a.m. ceremony that includes the reading of the 40 passengers’ and crew members’ names, the Bells of Remembrance, and wreath-layings timed to the four attacks.

A second ceremony begins at 1 p.m., and both will be livestreamed. A luminaria ceremony is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12.

Stephen M. Clark, the superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial, will lead the morning remembrance events. Confirmed speakers at the afternoon ceremony include Gordie Felt, the brother of Flight 93 passenger Edward P. Felt, and Capt. Morrie Wiener (Ret.), the pilot who flew Flight 93 prior to September 2001.

Trump administration officials are expected to attend and lay wreaths on behalf of the federal government, though top executive leaders are split across other national sites.

‘Steel Across America’

A 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower is being carried across the country by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a nonprofit created in memory of FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller, who was killed responding to the attacks.

The foundation provides mortgage-free and specially adapted homes to families of fallen or severely injured first responders and military members, assists homeless veterans and supports 9/11 education and remembrance programs. Its 10,500-mile “Steel Across America” tour has taken the beam to more than 35 cities in at least 21 states and will conclude Friday at Ground Zero.