MONTCLAIR - About 100 people at Watchung Plaza took 25 minutes out of their lives to remember and reflect on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 2001 here to the hour here Sept. 11.

The 25-minute ceremony opened with an eight member Montclair Police Honor Guard plus bagpiper Christopher Kavanagh marching to the township's Sept. 11 memorial to the music of "God Bless America." The service ended with Montclair Fire Chief Kevin Allen tolling a fire bell 20 times just before Kavanagh played "Amazing Grace" and Rev. George Hillman, of Calvary Chapel of Montclair's benediction.

"The four rings of five is something we borrowed from the New York Fire Department," said Allen. "The FDNY ring that pattern to signify a firefighter killed in the line of duty."

 

In between were recollections of horror and heroism that mark the attacks by 19 hijackers of four airliners on New York's World Trade Center and Washington, D.C.

The two hours of mass murder began with the first airliner striking WTC's north tower at 8:46 a.m. Montclair Mayor Jerry Fried, speaking for several observers, noted how Saturday morning's almost cloudless sky was similar to that fateful Tuesday morning nine years earlier.

The two hours ended with rebelling passengers helping to force down the fourth airplane into a Shanksville, Pa. field. In between was a second plane slamming into the WTC South Tower and a third into the Pentagon at Arlington, Va.

There would be 2,996 men, women and children from 90 countries - both civilian and in uniform - who died. 2,757 people were killed at the destroyed World Trade Center alone. About a quarter of the murdered were New Jersey natives or residents - second to New York in state death tolls.

There were 411 first responders who died in the towers - including 343 firefighters.

It was therefore no surprise that Montclair's remembrance was repeated throughout the Local Talk area and New Jersey, at the four crash sites and across the globe. Ceremonies of varying degrees of elaboration were also held in West Orange, Belleville, Nutley, Glen Ridge and Newark.

There is also the annual reading of names and four bell tolls at Ground Zero - where the towers stood in lower Manhattan.

Fried, State Assemblyman Thomas Giblin and some 98 other people at the plaza remembered the nine Montclair residents who died: Michael L. Collins, Caleb Arron Dack, Emeric J. Harvey, Scott M. Johnson, Howard L. Kestenbaum, Robert M. Murach, David Lee Pruim, Ron Ruben and Michael J. Stewart. Their names were also read at the Eagle Rock Reservation memorial in West Orange and at Ground Zero.

Diana and Eamon Stewart - widow and a son of M. Stewart - were present, standing with Fried and Allen. M. Stewart, 42, was working for Carr Futures on the north tower's 93rd floor - one flight above impact.

"I've been here for every service except for when I was in Villanova University and one year at Ground Zero," said E. Stewart after the service. "I like it much better here - there is not as much noise or business."

The Stewarts huddled with Rev. Hillman by Montclair's 9/11 memorial during "Amazing Grace."

"I was invited to present the invocation and benediction," said Hillman. "I usually pray and reflect on Sept. 11."