A Long-Awaited Opening, Bringing Closure to Many

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A Memorial to Never Forget

The Pentagon Memorial, which honors the 184 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, is dedicated by President Bush.

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Snipers patrolled a catwalk there, and security was heavy because of the guest list: President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and several Supreme Court justices were in attendance, along with other military and civilian dignitaries.

Separate commemorations were held in New York and Pennsylvania, and 2,998 U.S. flags were placed outside the dedication ceremony at the Pentagon, one for each of the day's victims. All 184 of the Pentagon victims' names were read at the dedication, interrupted only by a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. to mark the moment when the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

"On the morning of September 11th, 2001, the unthinkable arrived on this spot. With this memorial we pay our respects to 184 souls; to the many who were injured; and to the families who still grieve," Gates said. "While no public display can make up for the injustice, or lessen the pain of these losses, the memorial we dedicate today binds all of America to the dead and their survivors. Your suffering and your solace, so personal to you, become the nation's as well."

As families gathered after the ceremony, Julie Beckman, who designed the memorial and oversaw its construction with her husband, Keith Kaseman, took in a scene she had been trying to picture for years. The couple had wondered how people would interact with the winglike, 14-foot, 1,100-pound objects, not sure if they would be physically embraced. Seeing the families sitting on them and the children playing, she was beaming.

"It's beautiful," she said.

Nearby, a family kneeled at the place where their loved one's name was engraved into the end of the steel bench, making a paper rubbing of the letters. All around, Beckman said, she was seeing "little acts of discovery, exploration and intimate moments."

"It's a place where old memories, and new memories, will happen," Beckman said.

Just a few rows away, a family in identical purple T-shirts with a large silkscreen picture of Amelia Fields milled around her bench, decorating it with flowers and balloons.

Sept. 11, 2001, was Fields's 46th birthday, said her husband, William Fields, a Montclair resident. It was her second day at work at the Pentagon. "She would have been 53 today," he said. "Purple was her color -- she loved purple. And chocolate cake. . . . She was a wonderful wife and mother."

Fields, who recently retired from the Marine Corps, said he plans to go often to the memorial, which will be open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "Anytime I'm feeling depressed, this is where I'll come. It doesn't take all the pain away, but every time I come here, I'll be honoring her."

As he listened to the names of the victims and watched their faces appear and fade on the video monitor above the stage, tears streamed down John Yates's cheeks.

"I had 24 friends whose names were read," said Yates, a Fredericksburg resident who was working as a security manager for the Army when the plane hit the building. He sustained second- and third-degree burns over 38 percent of his body but survived and returned to work less than a year later at a location in Crystal City.