BARNEGAT – Many of us will remember watching smoke pour from the World Trade Center or waiting for word from someone who never came home. Among those gathering in Barnegat 25 years later will be people who witnessed the devastation firsthand, survived it and returned to help with the rescue and recovery effort.
Their stories will be at the center of the township’s 9/11 commemoration, which will also bring together high school musicians and NJROTC members, first responders, veterans and a retired Air Force general who flew missions over New York City after the attacks.
The memorial service begins promptly at 8 a.m. Friday, September 11, outside Barnegat Town Hall, 900 West Bay Avenue. It is expected to last approximately one hour and conclude with a keynote address by retired Brig. Gen. Lawrence S. Thomas III and, weather permitting, a flyover.
Deputy Mayor Fred Rubenstein, who is organizing the ceremony, said the choice of words matters. He does not refer to September 11 as an anniversary, a word he believes suggests a celebration. He calls it a commemoration of the 2,977 people killed in the attacks and the thousands of survivors, first responders and recovery workers who became ill in the years that followed.
“Never forget,” Rubenstein said.
The commemoration will take place in the same area used for the township’s farmers market. Chairs will be available, and Barnegat police officers will direct motorists to designated parking areas. If inclement weather forces the ceremony indoors, it will be moved to the adjacent Barnegat Recreation Center.
The morning will open with the national anthem performed by the Barnegat High School Marching Band. Members of the school’s NJROTC program will join the Barnegat Township Police Department in an honor guard that Rubenstein said should offer a stirring display of patriotism and community unity.
Monsignor Ken Tuzeneu of St. Mary’s Church will deliver a nondenominational invocation. The township’s fire department, first aid squad and local veterans organizations are also expected to participate.
Stories From Ground Zero
Each of the speakers were present for the attacks or became directly involved in the rescue and recovery effort. They include retired Barnegat Police Officer Steve Tatur, retired New York City police Officer Bill Cox, a representative of the American Legion Executive Committee and Rubenstein.
The keynote speaker, retired Brig. Gen. Thomas, began his military career as a naval aviator in 1977, flying the F-14 from the USS Nimitz before becoming an F/A-18 Hornet instructor. He joined the New Jersey Air National Guard in 1986 and later commanded the 177th Fighter Wing in Egg Harbor Township.
Following the September 11 attacks, Thomas flew F-16 contingency missions over New York City, Washington and Camp David, according to his official National Guard biography. Rubenstein said Thomas commanded the 119th Fighter Squadron and flew the lead fighter responding to lower Manhattan that morning.
Committeeman Rubenstein carries his own account of that morning. Then in his 28th year with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, he was scheduled to attend a 9 a.m. transportation planning meeting at 7 World Trade Center. He had taken the subway downtown and emerged near Pace University when he heard the roar of aircraft engines.
He initially wondered whether the first crash was an accident. Rubenstein knew commercial airliners did not normally fly over heavily populated portions of lower Manhattan. Then his pager began delivering reports about the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“My God, we’re at war,” Rubenstein recalled saying to a young police officer standing nearby.
As people covered in gray dust fled lower Manhattan, Rubenstein headed to an MTA bus garage. There was no established plan for a disaster of that magnitude, but available buses were used to carry firefighters, police officers and medical personnel into the city when other transportation was unavailable.
Rubenstein returned to Barnegat after 36 sleepless hours. He soon went back to Ground Zero with Tatur, where they joined recovery workers searching through debris. Rubenstein knew transit employees who were missing, giving him both a professional and personal reason to take part.
The workers searched alongside dogs trained to locate human remains. What began as a rescue effort became a recovery mission, but Rubenstein said they continued digging to make certain no one was left beneath the debris.
The toxic conditions followed him home. Rubenstein has survived prostate and liver cancer and is now being monitored for a malignant thymoma between his left lung and heart. He faces the possibility of major surgery if it begins to interfere with his heart or breathing.
Now in his 54th year of work involving transportation agencies and consultancies, Rubenstein continues helping certify eligible applicants seeking assistance through the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
Remembering The Loss
Five years ago, approximately 300 people attended Barnegat’s commemoration marking two decades since the attacks. Tatur held up a piece of glass recovered from the South Tower and spoke about choosing to look beyond its scratches to see the beauty on the other side.
The focus was also on the unity that emerged after the attacks, when flags appeared on homes, vehicles and highway overpasses and differences briefly seemed less important than being neighbors and Americans. Those gathered were urged to remember the lives lost and the people who responded, volunteered and put themselves at risk.
This year’s program will again recognize the township’s 9/11 memorial in front of Town Hall. Installed approximately two decades ago, the memorial incorporates material recovered from the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan.
Details of the planned flyover, including the type of aircraft, were still being finalized. Rubenstein said it will depend upon weather and operational conditions.
A quarter-century has passed, but time has not diminished the losses carried by families, friends, first responders and recovery workers. Barnegat’s commemoration will offer those who remember that morning, and those born long after it, an opportunity to hear the history from people who lived it while they are still here to tell it.
