Defense Deputy Secretary Urges Public to Commemorate Lives Lost During 9/11 Attacks

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, a 2023 Wash100 awardee and a speaker at a past Potomac Officers Club event, has encouraged the public to visit the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial located in the southwest corner of the Pentagon and pay respects to the people who died there on Sept. 11, 2001.

During the terrorist attacks two decades ago, American Airlines Flight 77, one of the four aircraft hijacked by al-Qaeda militants, crashed into the Pentagon. A total of 184 people were killed.

According to the website of the national memorial, a Visitor Education Center will be built at the site to help people understand the events that took place that day.

Speaking at the 9/11 employee observance ceremony at the Pentagon on Monday, Hicks highlighted the importance of the national memorial. An increasing number of Americans were too young or had not been born yet at the time to understand how the acts of terrorism impacted their lives, Hicks said.