Twelve years after the worst terrorist attack in American history, students at Florida State University honored those who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
On their hands and knees, students planted American flags in the damp grass of Landis Green to commemorate the twelfth anniversary of 9/11.
Red, white and blue decorated the lawn, forming the date of the tragic event that ended in the destruction of the World Trade Center.
The Students for America’s Military of FSU sponsored the event with a daylong memorial display of American flags. Meghan Peterson, a fourth-year music student at FSU from Alexandria, Va., and president of Students for America’s Military, said each flag represents someone who was lost on 9/11.
“Students will come by and write the name of the lost loved one or one who fought in war to remember them,” she said. “Then each person will take their paper and stick it around the stick of the flag.”
Peterson said she remembered exactly where she was 12 years ago.
“I was 10, and my dad was working at the Capitol at the time,” she said. “I was little and naive, but I remember seeing everything on the news and worrying about my family.”
Two tents were set up in front of the memorial display. One tent had a banner plastered across it, which read “9-11: Never forget project” and invited others to join the Students for America’s Military as they remember those who died and honor those heroes with an American flag memorial.
Ashley Fasshauer, a senior criminology student from Brooklyn, N.Y., helped to organize pictures, paperwork and other documents underneath the tent. She said the attack hit close to home, as she was about thirty minutes away from what is now known as “Ground Zero.”
“I was in fourth grade,” said Fasshauer, as she glared off into the sky to recall her exact location at the time of the attack. “It was 9 in the morning and my school went on lockdown. I thought my dad had died.”
The most vivid image she said she remembered was going to the girls bathroom that day and seeing smoke through the window.
“Later that day, my dad came home, covered in soot and debris,” Fasshauer said. “The color was white, and I freaked out, and I was in shock.”
Adding one of the final flags to complete the display, third-year economics student Robert Shultz recalled the importance of celebrating 9/11.
“A lot of people risked their lives,” Shultz said. “It was such a brave and selfless thing to do, and it united the nation.”