A visitor walks through rows of flags at the 9/11 Tempe Healing Field tribute at Tempe Beach Park, on Sept. 11, 2023. (Photo by Kiersten Edgett/Cronkite News)
A teddy bear for Rodney Dickens, 11, sits below an American flag at the 9/11 Tempe Healing Field tribute at Tempe Beach Park on Sept. 11, 2023. Dickens was on American Airlines Flight 77 when it was crashed into the Pentagon. (Photo by Kiersten Edgett/Cronkite News)
A person wearing a New York City Fire Department shirt reads a sign at the 9/11 Tempe Healing Field tribute at Tempe Beach Park honoring the flight crews who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (Photo by Kiersten Edgett/Cronkite News)
A memorial for the crew members and flight attendants who died on 9/11 sits in front of rows of flags at Tempe Beach Park on Sept. 11, 2023. (Photo by Kiersten Edgett/Cronkite News)
Boots sit along the sidewalk at Tempe Beach Park on Sept. 11, 2023, in memory of military members who died on 9/11. (Photo by Kiersten Edgett/Cronkite News)
A memorial for Staff Sgt. Maudlyn A. White hangs from an American flag at the 9/11 tribute at Tempe Beach Park on Sept. 11, 2023. (Photo by Kiersten Edgett/Cronkite News)
Rows of flags line the grass at Tempe Beach Park for the 9/11 Tempe Healing Field tribute, on Sept. 11, 2023. (Photo by Kiersten Edgett/Cronkite News)
TEMPE – At 5:46 a.m. Monday, speakers at Tempe Beach Park began to read out the names of the lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, starting at the time the first plane hit the first of the World Trade Center towers 22 years ago.
The Tempe Healing Field tribute honored the lives of those who died during the 9/11 attack. Organizers lined up American flags across the park, each symbolizing someone who died. Some flags were accompanied by boots or teddy bears to symbolize victims who were soldiers or children. Memorial events also included a 5K run/walk and a candlelight vigil.
Tempe Councilmember Berdetta Hodge said at the tribute she had mixed emotions – pride in the community coming together and sorrow for the lives lost.
“I lost two family members in 9/11, and it’s 22 years of not seeing them grow up, not seeing their kids, they never had children, they never got a chance to live life like I did,” Hodge said.
Hodge recounted how she felt 22 years ago, saying it was “like a movie, it wasn’t happening for real.”
“I had my cousin who got out of Tower One and went into Tower Two to get his sister, and they both died in Tower Two. So, to talk to him, minutes before he dies, and for him to tell me, no matter what happens, he loves me and to continue on, is just, it’ll never leave you,” Hodge said.
