A Warren County doctor who responded to Ground Zero 20 years ago said the efforts to find survivors among the wreckage of the World Trade Center have helped shape his career in emergency rooms ever since.

On September 11, 2001, Dr. Randy Mariott got the call to make the trip to New York City as part of Ohio Task Force 1.

“We thought that we were heading there with significant potential of being able to rescue live victims,” he said. “That was our hope.”

For the medical director of Premier Health EMS Center of Excellence, that hope never materialized. When they got to New York City on Sept. 12, there were no survivors to find. The team instead focused on recovering remains, and Marriott attended to the health and safety of other first responders.

“That was the most difficult part,” he said. “The realization that nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens, not to mention over 400 first responders, were still in that pile and we probably could do nothing to help them.”

His time at Ground Zero has often influenced his work as an emergency department doctor at Premier Health’s different hospitals across the area, he said.

“I think that just the preparation has played a role in my career,” Marriott said. “I’ve tried to focus on doing more with less.”

In addition to having the experience influence his career, he also said the terrorist attacks may have helped make a doctor out of his son.

“I picked him up at his middle school on the way to the hospital to get medical gear that we had to take with us,” Marriott said. “He actually helped me carry out the medical supplies that went to Ground Zero.”

Warning: The following content may be distressing for some viewers.

Hundreds of New York firefighters and police officers immediately headed to work once Flight 175 hit the South Tower. One of those officers was Louis Savelli.

After leading the NYPD counter-terrorism unit created in the aftermath of the attack for many years, the born-and-bred New Yorker eventually moved his family to Iowa for a fresh start, opening an authentic pizzeria in 2014. He brought a little piece of the Big Apple with him: posters, pizza ovens and his prized accent.

The retired detective came to Camp Dodge with lessons learned from 9/11 to teach counter-terrorist training to law enforcement all over the country.

"That was my unit... to arrest members of Al-Qaeda," Savelli said.

"When the second plane hit, which I knew right away, and then everybody knew right away that was a terrorist attack. I ran right into work," Savelli said.

It was a life-changing day burned into his mind.

"The streets of New York were mayhem," Savelli said. "People were trying to drive all over to get places. Nobody was stopping at lights. Horns were beeping. It was something out of a movie, like a science fiction movie."

Savelli shared photos that he had captured from ground zero.

"It was just constant dust for quite a while, from all the debris, from the pulverization of the buildings, all the stuff that was in the air. It was very surreal," Savelli said.

He and his team worked frantically.

"Trying to sift through tons and tons of rubble by hand, trying to find people. And then just being frustrated not really finding anything," Savelli said.

However, there were only a few survivors.

"A lot of memories of specific things... are kind of, like, blurry or nonexistent," Savelli said. "So a lot of things that happened, it's hard to remember specific things. But I do remember my recovery efforts at ground zero were mostly body parts. It's kind of hard to say on TV. I don't remember an entire person, finding an entire person on that day, on 9/11, and then throughout that time. I assume that ... not remembering is a part of my mind blocking it out."

Now, 20 years later, he cannot block it out. Like many of the first responders, Savelli is suffering. The dust he breathed in at ground zero has caused asthma, skin cancer and gut-wrenching stomach pain now.

"Sadly, all those guys that stayed there looking for people and looking for DNA, and anybody who could've at least recovered something for the family, every one of them has gotten seriously sick," Savelli said. "At least 5,000 total first responders have died of cancer. And about 15,000, 20,000 have gotten some sort of serious cancer-related disease since then."

In addition to the pain is the fear that terrorism will rear its ugly head on United States soil again after pulling out of Afghanistan.

"Without a doubt, we are much more at risk today than we've been in a long time," Savelli said. "Are we going to have people like Taliban or ISIS or Al-Qaeda or Haqqani Network or some others coming in with them? And without a doubt that will happen. So we have to do a better job."

Aside from his pizza businesses in Des Moines, Savelli also runs a security firm.

"I was a member of the NYPD on 9/11 at ground zero and you know we did our job, but the United States military sacrificed so much to go overseas and protect this country," Savelli said. "And they are my heroes."

He said we should remember that the people willing to put their lives on the line, don't do it for the money.

"The people out there sacrifice, for very little money. The cops, the firefighters, the military, EMTs, they make very little money," Savelli said. "But yet they risk their lives out there for strangers."

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. —

In the minutes following an attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, concern spread quickly between members of the Vermont Air National Guard.

For Col. Dan Finnegan, like countless other Americans, the morning began with work duties before his attention shifted to a breaking news broadcast on a nearby television set.

"Col. Jensen walked through, 'Hey, you may want to see this — an airplane has hit the World Trade Center,'" he recalled.

"We turned that television on," Finnegan said, pointing to a set inside of the base. "That was the first time we saw the gravity of the situation that was developing."

Within hours, the Guard's F-16s were armed with live missiles and en route to Manhattan, roughly 260 miles south of their base. Finnegan said the operation was quick to be deployed, but came with clear instructions.

"It was 'get airborne, make sure there is fighter aircraft overhead,'" he said. "Non-stop."

The Guard trains for quick responses, but pilots said it was difficult to process the full magnitude of what was happening that morning as they prepared for their first armed flight over American land.

"In a case like this, you may be asked to shoot down a civilian airliner," Finnegan said, pausing. "And I think that thought had not crossed any of our minds at the time."

Now-retired Lt. Col. Terry Moultroup was one of the first guard members to get off the runway and above Manhattan. What he saw below — a hazy plume of smoke rising from Ground Zero behind a fighter jet armed with air-to-air missiles — would be captured forever with the help of a digital camera stowed away in his cockpit.

With a vast majority of flights grounded after the attacks, it offered a rare view of the devastation from above and, for some, a message of reassurance. It quickly became one of the most downloaded images on military websites and made the front page of newspapers around the world.

"I didn't think it would go worldwide," Moultroup remembered.

The pilots' presence following the attacks marked the first of 122 consecutive days they would spend guarding airspace above the nation's largest city. Many had flown over many times before, but never like this.

"That evening, I remembered the utter dead silence in the air," Finnegan said. "There wasn't an aircraft around and we were there to make sure. Under the night vision goggles, you could see all the flashing lights, and then in the infrared, you could see how hot the wreckage was and the first responders that were down on the ground."

He continued, "And they would remain there as we continued to fly these missions. Twenty-four hours. Seven days a week."

Some members of the Green Mountain Boys remember having tangled emotions about the assignment in the weeks that followed as crews below continued to look for the more than 2,600 people killed in the attacks.

"You are kinda back and forth," Finnegan said. "Your heart is going out to what's happening on the ground and knowing that my ask, my part of this, is to keep people away from you so you can just safely do what you need to do."

The attacks that day would change the mission of the 158th Fighter Wing, as some of the same pilots would spend more than a decade of service flying missions overseas in America's longest war.

"I didn't know what to make of it at the time," Moultroup said. "We'd be the longest war in U.S. history, that the Taliban would come in power again and ... it's just so sad."

Now, roughly 20 years later, the images of that day and the weeks that followed remain imprinted on the minds of those involved.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to forget," Finnegan said. "It leaves a mark."

LONDON —

Queen Elizabeth II marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by offering her sympathies to the victims, survivors and families affected by the atrocity.

In a message to U.S. President Joe Biden, the British monarch remembered the "terrible attacks" on New York and Washington, D.C.

"My thoughts and prayers — and those of my family and the entire nation — remain with the victims, survivors and families affected, as well as the first responders and rescue workers called to duty,'' she said.

"My visit to the site of the World Trade Center in 2010 is held fast in my memory. It reminds me that as we honor those from many nations, faiths and backgrounds who lost their lives, we also pay tribute to the resilience and determination of the communities who joined together to rebuild.''

The ties between the two nations were marked with a special Changing of the Guard ceremony at Windsor Castle in which "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played. Hundreds gathered inside and outside the walls of the castle to watch.

Watch video above to see the performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner"

The U.S. national anthem had also been played at Buckingham Palace 20 years ago on Sept. 12, 2001, a mark of solidarity with the United States.

U.S. Ambassador Philip Reeker thanked the queen for the gesture.

"Speaking for the United States, we have no closer ally and no closer friend, in good times and in bad times, and we are very much reminded of that today ... through the enduring relationship between our two countries," he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also remembered the attacks, issuing a statement ahead of the anniversary saying that the terrorists had failed to "shake our belief in freedom and democracy."

"They failed to drive our nations apart, or cause us to abandon our values, or to live in permanent fear."

Sixty-seven British nationals were among the almost 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the lives of Americans forever.

In a recent poll by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, 60% of 1,000 people surveyed agreed.

Eighty-five percent polled said the terror attacks had a big impact on their generation, while nearly two-thirds said it had a big impact on their own lives.

From technological advances to changes in national security, exactly what has changed in the 20 years since America came under attack?

National Security

Just 11 days after terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security was created.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was appointed as the first director of the department, which was tasked with overseeing and coordinating a national approach to protect the U.S. against terrorism and future attacks.

The Department of Homeland Security now consists of more than 240,000 employees who are responsible for aviation and border security, cybersecurity and other preparedness measures.

Technology

Technology has seen its fair share of changes in the last 20 years.

"Government agencies and private companies have beefed up their disaster preparedness and telecommunications providers have strengthened their digital infrastructure," wrote Darrell West, senior fellow at Brookings' Center for Technology Innovation and its director, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, in an online article entitled "How technology and the world have changed since 9/11."

Since 9/11, "the United States realized the importance of mobile communications during terrorist attacks and natural disasters," the article says.

"Steps have been taken to safeguard vital networks, which is a huge advancement since 9/11 when thousands of people in New York, and in the area of the Pentagon bombing had to run and walk for miles to what appeared to be a safe space for shelter," the experts continued. "Back then, we didn’t even have voice-activated internet-enabled navigational tools that could advise pedestrians and drivers of road closures, or other potential road or walking hazards."

In October 2001, the U.S. Patriot Act was enacted, which gave the government more authority to investigate potential threats through surveillance of phone calls, emails and text messages.

"With the advent of smartphones and the prevalence of electronic communications, public authorities also developed new tools for monitoring particular individuals and tracking their physical whereabouts via geolocation data," West and Lee's article says. "Twenty years after the attack, the country continues to debate where to draw the line between promoting personal privacy and protecting national security."

It's easy to wonder if the world's technological advancements had happened sooner, whether 9/11 could have been prevented.

Travel

Remember the days when you could arrive at the airport 30 minutes before your flight and head straight to your gate?

In 2001, that's what travel looked like. Families could come through security to send off loved ones and, even if you didn't have photo ID in your carry-on bag, blades and liquids were allowed.

But on Sept. 11, 2001, 19 hijackers were able to board four different domestic flights and carry out the attacks that killed thousands. That's when air travel changed forever.

The attacks changed the nation "automatically, immediately, into one obsessed, in big ways and small, with protecting its security," historian James Mann wrote in 2018. "The way that 325 million Americans go through airports today started on Sept. 12 and has never gone back to what it was on Sept. 10."

Tougher security measures were introduced when air travel resumed on Sept. 14, 2001, but the comprehensive Aviation and Transportation Security Act was passed into law by Nov. 19, 2001.

Here are some of the changes to air travel in the U.S. since 2001:

• All passengers over 18 need valid government-issued identification to fly, even on domestic flights. Those identifications are checked against passengers' boarding passes.

• The No Fly List was born — a branch of the Terrorist Screening Database noting people banned from boarding commercial aircraft into, out of and inside the U.S.

• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was introduced in November 2001 and took over all airport security functions.

• Potential weapons like blades, scissors and knitting needles are no longer allowed on board, and airport employees are now better trained to detect weapons or explosives. In 2006, a foiled plot to detonate liquid explosives on multiple transatlantic flights led to the restrictions of liquids, gels and aerosols in carry-on luggage that still exist today.

• Also in 2006, the TSA started requiring passengers to remove their shoes to screen for explosives.

• In March 2010, full-body scanners began to be installed in U.S. airports in addition to metal detectors.

• In July 2017, TSA began requiring all personal electronics larger than a cellphone to be placed in bins for X-ray screening.

In addition, bulletproof and locked cockpits became standard on commercial passenger aircraft within two years of the 9/11 attacks. The Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act became law in 2002 and, in 2003, weapon-carrying pilots started boarding U.S. commercial flights.

Journalism

Michelle Wright, a reporter for sister station WTAE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, remembers dropping off her son for his first day of preschool on Sept. 11, 2001, and holding her 1-year-old baby at home as she watched the first plane hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

"I was stunned," she said.

By the time she got to work, two other planes had crashed — another at the second tower of the World Trade Center and a third at the Pentagon — and there were reports of a plane down in Shanksville, less than two hours away. She and reporter Mike Clark rushed there, but had limited information about whether all of the crashes were related.

Wright and Clark were some of the first media on the scene.

"We just started going live," she said. "That shift turned into a nonstop week of being there. We immediately knew the significance."

Wright said the WTAE crew stayed in hotels and had to go to local stores for clothes and toiletries. They worked from about 3 a.m. until 8 p.m. each day in a world that didn't have social media and in an area of very poor cell reception.

"The public was glued to the television," she said. "People were just really eager to figure out what was going on."

Wright said in her career as a journalist, she can't remember a time when the information she was reporting was more important. Many broadcast stations dropped commercials during that time to make sure that reporters could relay the latest details.

"People were just waiting to find out what was happening to our country," she said.

Wright acknowledged that many relied on cable networks, morning newspapers and radio for breaking news in 2001. Today, however, many people would turn to their phones for instant information.

And, while social media often houses opinion, speculation and misinformation, it allows the public more access to reporters in today's world.

If an attack of that size took place today, the public may not have found out when a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, but from a tweet from a passenger saying their plane had been hijacked.

Instead of circulating stories about passengers rushing the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93 to confront hijackers before the plane, video or photos of the actual encounter may have been posted online in today's world.

Camera footage would also show a clearer picture of the horror of the attacks, the victims and the aftermath.

In 2001, television news crews made editorial decisions not to show footage of people leaping or falling to their deaths, while networks eventually stopped showing reruns of planes striking the towers to prevent children from thinking the attacks were happening again.

Social media doesn't have that type of editorial censorship.

"As panic-inducing as it was and as tragic an experience it was historically in this country, had the current technology been around in 2001, I think you would have had something far more heart-wrenching," said David Friend, author of "Watching the World Changes: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11."

Wright said her experience covering the story of United Flight 93 taught her that passing along information to viewers allows them to make decisions, but also make a difference.

"Knowledge is power," she said. "And it's empowering."

She'll also never forget the moment the loved ones of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 were bussed to the crash site for the first time. Without cell phones capturing footage or even cameras rolling, members of the community lined roughly 30 miles of roadway from where the families were housed to the strip mine where the crash occurred to offer their condolences and support.

"Everyone at the site just froze," she said. "It was a powerful moment. All of our lives were changed."

The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.

Twenty years ago, a stunned nation watched in horror as the bright skies of a September day shattered right in front of us.

New York's World Trade Center — along with its iconic Twin Towers — crumbled after two hijacked planes crashed into them, killing thousands of people as it fell to the ground below. In Arlington, Virginia, the heart of America's military — the Pentagon — came under the same attack as a jet slammed into the western side of the building. And in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, brave passengers fought to stop their hijacked plane from suffering a similar fate forcing the attackers to crash into a field.

That day is seared into the American consciousness changing the world as we know it. As we pause to remember the heroes lost that day, we look back at what happened, how it's changed us, and what it means for the world today.

20 years later, how have our lives changed?

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the lives of Americans forever.

In a recent poll by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, 60% of 1,000 people surveyed agreed.

Eighty-five percent polled said the terror attacks had a big impact on their generation, while nearly two-thirds said it had a big impact on their own lives.

From technological advances to changes in national security, exactly what has changed in the 20 years since America came under attack?

Three television anchors guided millions through horror

"Turn on your television."

Those words were repeated in millions of homes on Sept. 11, 2001. Friends and relatives took to the telephone: Something awful was happening. You have to see.

Before social media and with online news in its infancy, the story of the day when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people unfolded primarily on television. Even some people inside New York's World Trade Center made the phone call. They felt a shudder, could smell smoke. Could someone watch the news and find out what was happening?

Most Americans were guided through the unimaginable by one of three men: Tom Brokaw of NBC News, Peter Jennings of ABC, and Dan Rather of CBS.

The news media has changed in the ensuing 20 years, and some experts believe the same story would feel even more chaotic and terrifying if it broke today.

But on that day, when America faced the worst of humanity, it had three newsmen at the peak of their powers.

Remembering 9/11 changes as the decades pass

Across the vast field where the plane fell out of the sky so many years ago, all is quiet.

The hills around Shanksville seem to swallow sound. The plateau that Americans by the millions ascend to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial, to think of those who died in this southwestern Pennsylvania expanse, sits just above much of the landscape, creating a pocket of quiet precisely where quiet needs to be.

It is a place that encourages the act of remembering.

Twenty years have passed since United Flight 93 made its final descent, chaos unfolding aboard as buildings burned 300 miles to the east. Nearly one-fifth of the country is too young to remember firsthand the day that changed everything.

At the edge of the memorial's overlook, a burly man in a leather Harley-Davidson vest talks to two companions. He points toward the patch where the plane hit. It is an intimate conversation, and it is hard to hear what he's saying.

But his first two words are clear:

"I remember …"

Survivors encourage acts of kindness to bring back togetherness

Sept. 11, 2001, was one of the darkest days in U.S. history.

But it was also a moment that united the country as people stepped up to help others.

Twenty years later, there's a nationwide effort to bring back that sense of togetherness, one small act at a time.

From 9/11's ashes, a new world took shape. It did not last

In the ghastly rubble of Ground Zero's fallen towers 20 years ago, Hour Zero arrived, a chance to start anew.

World affairs reordered abruptly on that morning of blue skies, black ash, fire and death.

In Iran, chants of “death to America” quickly gave way to candlelight vigils to mourn the American dead. Vladimir Putin weighed in with substantive help as the U.S. prepared to go to war in Russia's region of influence.

Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, a murderous dictator with a poetic streak, spoke of the “human duty" to be with Americans after "these horrifying and awesome events, which are bound to awaken human conscience.”

From the first terrible moments, America's longstanding allies were joined by longtime enemies in that singularly galvanizing instant. No nation with global standing was cheering the stateless terrorists. How rare is that?

Too rare to last, it turned out.

How 9/11 changed travel forever

When this century began, you could pull up to the airport 20 minutes before a domestic flight in the United States and stroll straight over to your gate. Perhaps your partner would come through security to wave you goodbye. You might not have a photo ID in your carry-on, but you could have blades and liquids.

Back in 2001, Sean O'Keefe, now a professor at Syracuse University and former chair of aerospace and defense company Airbus, was deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in the George W. Bush administration.

"At the White House, I was a member of the National Council Security team," he told CNN Travel. He and his colleagues had been briefed on the al-Qaida terrorist group and understood the threat it posed, "but at the same time our imaginations simply did not give us the capacity to think that something like [9/11] could happen."

It had been nearly 30 years since the Palestinian terrorist attacks at Rome airport in 1973, which killed 34 people and demonstrated that air travel was vulnerable to international terrorism. "That seemed to have changed the whole security structure in Europe and in the Middle East in a way that didn't really penetrate the American psyche," O'Keefe said. "It's this typical American mindset; we have to experience it to believe it."

Then on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, a team of 19 hijackers was able to board four different domestic flights in the northeastern U.S. in a series of coordinated terror attacks that would claim 3,000 lives. Flying in America, and the rest of the world, would never be the same again.

The Unidentified

Rob Fazio is feeling the weight, the heaviness of 20 years.

"We don't know exactly what happened,” he said. “But the things that we do know are very meaningful.”

On the morning of Sept. 11, his father, Ronald Fazio, was working on the 99th floor of the South Tower.

"He was looking out the window, towards Tower One, and he said to his colleagues that that plane just doesn't look right, it's gonna hit, it's gonna hit,” Rob Fazio said.

Colleagues recalled how Fazio went from office to office, urging everyone to evacuate. But he stayed behind - holding the door for others so they could get down to safety.

"He kept saying 'no, go home,'” Rob Fazio added. “and that was powerful."

Fazio ultimately made his way down the stairs of the south tower as Battalion Chief Orio Palmer was heading up.

"On Sept. 11, 2001, people like Orio Palmer led the way,” said retired New York firefighter and Palmer’s brother-in-law, Jim McCaffrey.

Palmer was the first firefighter to reach the impact zone working to save lives until the very end.

"What he did and what he epitomized, what he personified — that is the very definition of heroism,” McCaffrey added. “It's the very definition of selflessness.”

Both Palmer and Fazio are believed to have died when the South Tower collapsed.

A brave and caring father and a heroic and determined firefighter. Both were among the victims whose remains were never identified.

We will live with the scars forever.

Twenty years later, Jack Grandcolas still remembers waking up at 7:03 that morning. He looked at the clock, then out the window where an image in the sky caught his eye — a fleeting vision that looked like an angel ascending. He didn’t know it yet, but that was the moment his life changed.

Across the country, it was 10:03 a.m. and United Flight 93 had just crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

His wife, Lauren, was not supposed to be on that flight. So when he turned on the television and saw the chilling scenes of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolding, he was not worried for her. Then he saw the blinking light on the answering machine.

Lauren had left two messages that morning, as he slept with the phone ringer off in the bedroom. First, with good news that she was taking an earlier flight from New Jersey home to San Francisco. Then she called from the plane. There was “a little problem,” his wife said, but she was “comfortable for now.” She did not say she would call back, Grandcolas recalls. She said: “I love you more than anything, just know that. Please tell my family I love them, too. Goodbye, honey.”

“That moment I looked over at the television and there was a smoldering hole on the ground in Pennsylvania. They said it was United Flight 93,” said Grandcolas, 58. “That’s when I dropped to the ground.”

All 44 people on board were killed. Lauren was 38 years old and three months pregnant with their first child. She had traveled East to attend her grandmother's funeral in New Jersey, and then stayed a few extra days to announce the pregnancy — a little “good news to lift the spirits of her parents and sisters after burying their grandmother," Grandcolas said.

Remembering the firefighters

How much of a life lasts in a single photograph? How much power does a three-story tall steel column hold?

For John Napolitano, pictures were all he had of his son, New York City firefighter John Philip Napolitano. He was born on the Fourth of July, 1968, and died on Sept. 11, 2001.

His remains were never recovered. But the 9/11 memorial in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, gave a hero's father something he never imagined.

Officers at Oklahoma Air Force base remember responding to attacks

Tinker Air Force Base was a hub of activity on Sept. 11, 2001, with the Oklahoma base's planes making sure nothing was flying above the U.S. that wasn't supposed to be there.

KOCO spoke with three Air Force officers who were in the air and on the ground that fateful day.

"What? Like, 'That’s dumb. That thing’s so big. How do you not miss that thing, right?' And we thought about it for a minute, and he turned on the TV and we watched the second plane hit. And it was like instantly the entire room just changed," Col. Keven Coyle, with the 552nd Air Control Wing, said. "And he looked at me and goes, 'You need to go get your 72-hour bag right now.'"

"So, just like everyone else, the light bulb clicks," retired AWACS Officer Andrew Bruce said. "The unimaginable had happened at that point. But we didn’t know what that all meant, either. Just like everyone else, you’re trying to figure it out."

Are we safer?

After the attacks, the 9/11 Commission issued a report that became a best-seller — urging immediate implementation of a host of recommendations to make the U.S. safer.

Former Congressman Lee Hamilton was the 9/11 Commission's vice chairman.

“We got a lot accomplished," Hamilton told Chief Investigative Reporter Mark Albert}

“I don't think there's any doubt that we are safer,” Hamilton said. “The worst thing would be to try to sit on your laurels and say we fix the problem.”

“Are you saying that terrorism will never go away?” Albert asked. “It is a permanent threat,” Hamilton said.

Man marks 9/11 with inspiring message

For John Wesley, no day has a greater significance than Sept. 11, 2001. His reasons are deeply personal, powerful and inspiring.

Images of his fiancée are indelibly etched in Wesley's mind, heart and soul. Sarah Clark died when terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and deliberately crashed into the Pentagon.

"She saw the same old world each day with new eyes, and her compassion never blinks," Wesley said.

Authorities allowed Wesley to watch the boarding gate video. He saw two of the hijackers looking at a child playing with an Elmo toy, seniors being pushed onboard in wheelchairs and students securing their backpacks.

"For me, how could you look at that and still do what was on your mind?" Wesley said.

Wesley decided at the last minute not to go on the trip with Clark because it was his first day on the job as an actor on HBO'S "The Wire."

"Growing up in Mississippi, I just believe I would have fought," Wesley said.

Every year on the 9/11 anniversary, Wesley visits the Pentagon crash site. He will be there this year, as well. In 2018, former Vice President Mike Pence mentioned Clark in his remarks. Wesley said her positive influence has made him a better man. He said she helped lead him back to his faith.

"People need help. People need compassion. And I wanted people to know that I had no malice, that I never asked God why. I just thanked him for the time that I had with her and all the things that happened with her," Wesley said.

Survivors Relive and Reflect

Amy Hargrave's father, TJ, is memorialized in the bronze edges that surround two large pools sitting in the footprints of what were the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.

Nearly 3,000 names are cut into the bronze honoring each of the 2,977 people who died in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on 9/11.

Sept. 11 was a day that changed everything about life. A day of loss and courage we will always remember. A day that still replays in the minds of those who experienced it.

They were some of 9/11's biggest names. Where are they now?

Rudolph Giuliani was a hero before he was a punchline. Lisa Beamer was a wife and mother before she became a symbol of Sept. 11 — and though her celebrity passed, her widowhood cannot.

In the aftermath of the planes falling from the sky, America and the world were introduced to an array of personalities. Some we had known well, but came to see in different ways. Others were thrown into public consciousness by unhappy happenstance.

Some, like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, are dead. But others have gone on to lead lives that are postscripts to Sept. 11, 2001. Here are a few of the boldface names of that tumultuous time — what they were then, and what has happened to them since.

A burst of patriotism

Twenty years ago, on a Tuesday morning, a gut-punched nation sat stunned — staring at any TV they could find, shocked.

A thousand miles from Ground Zero was too close to home. But it was also too far away. So feeling helpless, Americans prayed, cried and rallied around their colors.

Plenty of people waved flags. In Iowa, 6,000 created a human one. At the same time, teenagers, who couldn’t even pronounce the enemy’s name, signed up to wear the flag on the uniform.

'Paulie's Push' remembers flight attendants lost

A Massachusetts man is honoring the flight attendants on board the planes that were hijacked on Sept. 11 ahead of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Retired United flight attendant Paulie Veneto is pushing a beverage cart from Logan International Airport in Boston to Ground Zero in New York to honor the crew members.

“The only thing I know is I’m going to be in Ground Zero on Sept. 11. I know that deep down in my soul. I’ll carry it on my back,” he said.

Veneto, 62, is using his more than 200-mile journey to raise money for the victims’ families and their foundations and collect donations for those struggling with addiction.

"I pushed one all over the world at 30,000 feet. The difference now is I’m not hitting elbows and knees. Now I’m hitting potholes," he said.

He said his main goal is to pay tribute to those flight attendants who showed unbelievable strength and courage under the worst conditions.

Muslim Americans still fighting bias 20 years later

A car passed, the driver's window rolled down and the man spat an epithet at two little girls wearing their hijabs: "Terrorist!"

It was 2001, mere weeks after the twin towers at the World Trade Center fell, and 10-year-old Shahana Hanif and her younger sister were walking to the local mosque from their Brooklyn home.

Unsure, afraid, the girls ran.

As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks approaches, Hanif can still recall the shock of the moment, her confusion over how anyone could look at her, a child, and see a threat.

"It's not a nice, kind word. It means violence, it means dangerous. It is meant to shock whoever ... is on the receiving end of it," she says.

But the incident also spurred a determination to speak out for herself and others that has helped get her to where she is today: A community organizer strongly favored to win a seat on the New York City Council in the upcoming municipal election.

Like Hanif, other young American Muslims have grown up under the shadow of 9/11. Many have faced hostility and surveillance, mistrust and suspicion, questions about their Muslim faith and doubts over their Americanness.

They've also found ways forward, ways to fight back against bias, to organize, to craft nuanced personal narratives about their identities. In the process, they've built bridges, challenged stereotypes and carved out new spaces for themselves.

There is "this sense of being Muslim as a kind of important identity marker, regardless of your relationship with Islam as a faith," says Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at The University of Chicago who studies Muslim communities. "That's been one of the main effects in people's lives … it has shaped the ways the community has developed."

Mistrust and suspicion of Muslims didn't start with 9/11, but the attacks dramatically intensified those animosities.

For John Wesley, no day has a greater significance than Sept. 11, 2001. His reasons are deeply personal, powerful and inspiring.

Images of his fiancée are indelibly etched in Wesley's mind, heart and soul. Sarah Clark died when terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and deliberately crashed into the Pentagon.

"She saw the same old world each day with new eyes, and her compassion never blinks," Wesley said.

Authorities allowed Wesley to watch the boarding gate video. He saw two of the hijackers looking at a child playing with an Elmo toy, seniors being pushed onboard in wheelchairs and students securing their backpacks.

"For me, how could you look at that and still do what was on your mind?" Wesley said.

Wesley decided at the last minute not to go on the trip with Clark because it was his first day on the job as an actor on HBO'S "The Wire."

"Growing up in Mississippi, I just believe I would have fought," Wesley said.

Every year on the 9/11 anniversary, Wesley visits the Pentagon crash site. He will be there this year, as well. In 2018, former Vice President Mike Pence mentioned Clark in his remarks. Wesley said her positive influence has made him a better man. He said she helped lead him back to his faith.

"People need help. People need compassion. And I wanted people to know that I had no malice, that I never asked God why. I just thanked him for the time that I had with her and all the things that happened with her," Wesley said.

Clark taught sixth grade at Backus Middle School in Washington, D.C. She was on Flight 77 to chaperone students to an ecology conference sponsored by National Geographic.

Days before the flight, Wesley and Clark decided to bump up their wedding date to December. They picked a place to hold their wedding reception and shopped for wedding bands.

Wesley had the grim task of identifying Clark's remains.

"I was looking for this ring because this is the ring she would have had on," Wesley said.

Wesley said that over the years, he has focused on writing music and books inspired by Clark.

"If we are going to stop this hatred, we are going to have to start with the children," Wesley said. "That's the real lesson, and that will be our saving grace if we learn to love each other."

Wesley has since found a new love, which he said has helped him emotionally. His work in the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights is his passion.

"It seems I am where I'm supposed to be," Wesley said.

Wesley has advice for anyone who has suddenly lost a loved one, saying life is short, to honor them by doing a simple act of kindness and use that depth of pain to lift others up.

A special report released Tuesday by the Justice Department said they believe that more people have died of 9/11-related illnesses than those killed on September 11, 2001.

The report was revealed through the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, a fund set up in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks for survivors and victims' families.

According to the report, more than 19,000 people filed a claim listing cancer as one of their eligible conditions, which makes up 48% of the claims filed.

"It is also sobering to see that more people are now believed to have died of 9/11-related illnesses than were lost on September 11, 2001," the report stated.

"As I reflect on the 20 years that have passed since September 11th, 2001, we at the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program mourn for those lost in the attacks and affirm our commitment to those living with 9/11-related health conditions," Dr. John Howard, Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Administrator, World Trade Center Health Program, said in the report.

The DOJ said more than 40,000 people had received nearly $9 billion from the VCF.

According to the Associated Press, nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001, when terrorists of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The report comes just four days from the 20th anniversary.

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden will visit all three 9/11 memorial sites to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and pay his respects to the nearly 3,000 people killed that day.

Biden will visit ground zero in New York City, the Pentagon and the memorial outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 was forced down, the White House said Saturday.

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a separate event before joining the president at the Pentagon, the White House said.

Biden's itinerary is similar to the one President Barack Obama followed in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Obama's visit to New York City coincided with the opening of memorial at the site where the iconic World Trade Center towers once stood.

Next Saturday's anniversary falls less than two weeks after the end of the nearly two-decade-long U.S. war in Afghanistan. The war was launched weeks after the 9/11 attacks to retaliate against the al-Qaida plotters and the Taliban, who provided them safe haven.

Biden has found support from the public for ending the conflict but has faced sharp criticism, even from allies, for the chaotic evacuation of U.S. troops and allied Afghans during the final two weeks of August.

Biden on Friday directed the declassification of certain documents related to the Sept. 11 attacks in a gesture toward victims' families who have long sought the records in hopes of implicating the Saudi government.

The conflict between the government and the families over what classified information could be made public came into the open last month after many relatives, survivors and first responders said they would object to Biden's participation in 9/11 memorial events if the documents remained classified.

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Superville reported from Wilmington, Delaware.

CHICAGO — Founded more than 500 years ago in the Punjab region of South Asia, the Sikh faith has more than 25 million adherents worldwide. There are some 500,000 Sikhs living in the U.S. today, with the first immigrating in the late 1800s.

Four of the eight victims in last week’s deadly mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis were Indian Americans of the Sikh faith. Now, activists, artists and political leaders are calling for solidarity and acknowledgement.

At a virtual vigil for the victims of the FedEx mass shooting thousands mourned the loss of life.

A large majority of employees at the FedEx warehouse facility were of the Sikh faith. It's something that some allege the shooter, a former FedEx worker, would have known when he opened fire.

Among the dead four Sikh Americans: Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Jaswinder Singh, 68 And Amarjit Sekhon, 48.

“People have been, you know, shaken in agony and pain. We've been quiet. We've been gathering together among ourselves to tend to each other, said Valarie Kaur, civil rights activist, attorney, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project.

“This vigil was a way to invite people to stand in solidarity with Sikhs and see us not just as victims, but as people who have something to offer for how to find resilience and longevity in the face of ongoing injustice."

The murders come as anti-Asian hate crimes have been surging. On Thursday, with wide bipartisan support, the Senate passed a hate crime bill condemning discrimination against Asian communities in the U.S.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and the advocacy group Sikh Coalition have called for an investigation into whether the Indianapolis attack was driven by anti-Sikh motivations.

“The fact that the shooter had reportedly been on white supremacist websites is a critical piece of new and relevant information,” said Sim J. Singh, senior manager of policy and advocacy at the Sikh Coalition. “And that's why we're still underscoring the need for that investigation with potential bias, motivation.”

“We have been hearing eyewitness accounts from the ground that the gunman specifically targeted Sikh employees during his rampage. In essence, he hunted us,” said Kaur.

Anti-Sikh sentiment and violence is not new. In the aftermath of 9/11, more than 700 attacks and discriminatory harassment were reported against the community.

Balbir Singh Sodhi, an Arizona gas station owner who possibly targeted because of his turban and beard, was murdered in the first post-9/11 retaliatory hate incident.

“People believed that individuals who look like myself weren't really a part of the United States,” said Singh.

In 2012, a white supremacist fatally shot six worshippers at a Sikh Temple in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek. It sent shockwaves through the tightknit community.

“He knew that he was shooting up a Sikh house of worship,” said Singh. “This was not a case of mistaken identity.”

“In the wake of Oak Creek, we were just trying to get the nation to talk about white supremacy and our community in that narrative, but we couldn't even get them to pronounce Sikh or ‘Seek’ or know who we were or what we were about. And then, the nation moved on,” said Kaur.

And concern is growing.

According to a new Pew study, 32 percent of Asian adults say they have feared someone might threaten or physically attack them, more than other racial or ethnic group. The vast majority (81 percent) also say violence against them is increasing.

“My own son heard the words ‘Go back to your country’ when he was only 4 years old,” said Kaur. “And memories from Oak Creek are coming back to me, memories from post 9/11 are coming back to me, and all of us are in this kind of deep trauma as a community.”

Kaur says in light of the killings in Indianapolis, it’s time for others to recognize that racial violence must be called out and reckoned with.

“We're calling for our fellow advocates to use the hashtag #StandwithSikhs to see us as part of the broader narrative to hashtag #StopAsianHate to see us as part of the broader narrative to stop and end racial violence in this country.”

For now, the Sikh community is standing in solidarity and praying for justice.