Calverton National Cemetery honors Sept. 11 victims 25 years later
Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, volunteers gathered at Calverton National Cemetery on Saturday to honor those killed and the first responders who answered the call.
The brief ceremony, hosted by Carry The Load, ended with volunteers tending the cemetery grounds and remembering those whose lives were lost or forever changed by the attacks.
“They made those sacrifices for us, for complete strangers, because they thought that we were worth it,” said Matt Bryan of Carry The Load.
Many of those attending lived through Sept. 11, 2001, while others were too young to remember it or had not yet been born — part of the reason organizers said continuing to tell the stories remains important.
“There’s a lot of us that are here today that want to hear stories, and there’s a lot of people here today that have stories they want to be able to share,” Mr. Bryan said.
Calverton National Cemetery has roughly 300,000 gravesites, including 20 people connected to the response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Seven are remembered in the cemetery’s memorial section, created for those whose remains were never recovered: Gerard Baptiste, second lieutenant, U.S. Army; Tara McCloud Gray, radioman third class, U.S. Navy; Brian L. Jones, staff sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps; Brian Grady McDonnell, specialist, U.S. Army; Charles M. Mills Jr., specialist, U.S. Army; Kevin J. Smith, corporal, U.S. Marine Corps; and Joseph J. Zuccala, first lieutenant, U.S. Army.
Interred in Section 68 are Glenn E. Wilkinson, seaman apprentice, U.S. Navy; Lawrence T. Stack, gunner’s mate, U.S. Navy; John G. Scharf, U.S. Marine Corps; Richard A. Prunty, sergeant, U.S. Army; and Edward J. Martinez, electronics technician-communications, U.S. Navy.
Jose Manuel Cardona, specialist, U.S. Army; Michael C. Howell, specialist, U.S. Army; Michael Sean Curtin, sergeant major, U.S. Marine Corps; Frank J. Niestadt, staff sergeant, U.S. Air Force; James W. Parham, sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps; and Anthony Savas, corporal, U.S. Army, rest in Section 66.
Louise Lynch, wife of Joseph T. Lynch, technician fourth class, U.S. Army, is interred in Section 28, while Alexander Ortiz, specialist, U.S. Army, rests in Section 23.
After the ceremony, attendees divided into groups to work around the cemetery grounds. Paul Astre, a tractor operator at Calverton National Cemetery, led one of them and shared his own memories of Sept. 11.
“It’s refreshing to see how many people turn out to beautify [the grounds] for our heroes,” Mr. Astre said. “Believe it or not, what’s really appreciated is when someone says, ‘Thank you’ for something. It really gives me a little extra motivation.”
Photos by Nick Mongiovi
