PEORIA HEIGHTS Ill. (WMBD) — Monday marked 22 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
Two hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly three thousand U.S citizens.
American Legion Post II is doing what it can to honor those who lost their lives, including those from Illinois.
Commander Jim Ulrich said it’s frustrating to see the day has lost its meaning for a lot of people.
“People just forget, and I don’t want people to forget I mean 3,000 people, well 2,977 people lost their lives,” said Ulrich.
He stressed the importance of teaching history to make sure the same mistakes aren’t made twice.
“You want to destroy whatever part of history you don’t like, well no. History needs to be recorded and taught so everybody knows what happened. You may not agree with it but it happened and you need to know it,” said Ulrich.
Dennis Medley was one of a few spectators among the crowd at Tower Park. He said he goes to a 9/11 memorial service every year to pay tribute to the day and those who were killed.
Dennis Medley, a Peoria resident, said “Those people are American people that we lost and weren’t expecting it and they’re our heroes and they should be always remembered and that’s why I’m here and we should just never forget them,” said Medley.
