The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
SIERRA VISTA — Today, a memorial will be dedicated at the Pentagon to honor the 184 lives lost — those who worked in the building and those on American Airlines Flight 77, whose plane was one of four hijacked by terrorists — on Sept. 11, 2001.
One of those who will be memorialized is Dave Laychak, who worked on Fort Huachuca before taking a civilian assignment and promotion to work with the Army in the Pentagon. His brother Jim is president of the Pentagon Memorial Fund.
In Sierra Vista, Dave is honored with a memorial at the city’s Tompkins Park, which also is where the community remembers all the victims of the terrorist attacks on that day. Seven years ago today, hijackers took over four commercial airliners, crashing two of them into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa. The last plane was reportedly on its way to crash into the White House when passengers attempted to take over control of the aircraft from the terrorists which ended up crashing into a rural field.
For nine years, Dave lived in Sierra Visa where he was involved in coaching children’s sports and playing in adult leagues.
  
|
He and his wife, Laurie, also were active in the ministry of Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church.
They have two children, Jennifer, now 15 and Zachary, now 17. When he was at Fort Huachuca, he worked at the Network Enterprise Technology Command.
The Tompkins Park memorial consists of two memorial benches a plaque dedicating the area to Dave and all the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, and a ramada named for him.
Every September the 9-11 memorial flag is flown, along with the U.S. and state flags at the park, which are raised every day. Today, the flags will be flown at half staff from dawn to dusk.
When the memorial in Tompkins Park was dedicated in 2002, another family attended the event, honoring a loved one killed in the attack on the Pentagon.
Patricia Scales, and her son, Ashton, now 20, had moved to Sierra Vista just before the attack for better climate to address the boy’s asthma.
Husband and father, Army Col. David Ashton, was eight months from retirement when he was killed.
Dave Laychak was buried in Virginia and Col. David Scales was memorialized at Fort Belvoir, Va., with a Reserve center being named after him. The Scales family also considered Virginia home.
More about the memorial
The Pentagon Memorial that is to be dedicated today in honor of the 125 people who served inside the Pentagon and 59 aboard American Airlines Flight 77 that was used by hijackers to crash into the structure on Sept. 11, 2001, consists of a number of elements, to include:
• Memorial benches each dedicated to an individual victim, with 125 of them facing the Pentagon inscribed with the names of the people killed in the building and 59 facing in the opposite direction for those on board the airplane.
• There is a memorial wall that starts at 3 inches tall and goes to 71 inches high, with each inch signifying a year of age of each victim. The youngest was 3 and the oldest 71.
• A granite tablet with the names and year of birth of each victim.
• Maple trees and flowing water under each bench create a reflective area.
Donations for the memorial may be made at http://memorial.pentagon.mil.
Event schedule
Schedule of events marking the seven-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks:
NEW YORK
The ceremony begins near ground zero at 8:40 a.m. EST today and proceeds soon after to memorial site. Mayor Michael Bloomberg will introduce four moments of silence to commemorate the precise times each plane hit the World Trade Center towers and each tower fell. Readings scheduled by New York Gov. David Paterson, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New York Gov. George E. Pataki.
Names of all 2,751 victims will be read. Music will be performed by bagpipers, drummers and the Young People’s Chorus of New York. Houses of worship throughout the city will toll bells. At sunset, “Tribute in Light” will return to the skies for the night, fading at dawn.
Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama will visit ground zero in the afternoon. They are scheduled for a joint appearance at 8 p.m. EST at Columbia University to discuss their views on public service.
PENNSYLVANIA
A ceremony in honor of the 40 passengers and crew killed on Flight 93 when it crashed into a field near rural Shanksville will be held today at 9:55 a.m. EST — the time the plane went down — at a temporary memorial near the crash site. Names of the victims will be read, with two bells tolled for each and a laying of wreaths. McCain is scheduled to attend.
WASHINGTON
The dedication ceremony for the Pentagon Sept. 11 memorial will begin at 8 a.m. EST today. President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will participate in the ceremony, which will include wreath laying, music and a reading of victims’ names. The memorial, built at the spot where Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon’s west wall, killing 184 people, opens to the public at 7 p.m. EST
Bush and first lady Laura Bush also will mark the anniversary during a moment of silence on South Lawn of the White House at 8:46 a.m. EST
At the Capitol, members of Congress will gather on steps for ceremony, with members singing “God Bless America” at 12:03 p.m. EST.
TOMBSTONE
American Legion Post 24 will host a 9/11 remembrance walk down at 11 a.m. today starting at Sixth and Allen streets and ending at the legion post at Second and Allen streets. A memorial service will follow at the post.
SIERRA VISTA
Area fire departments and the Sierra Vista Police Department will hold a Sept. 11 ceremony today at 6:30 p.m. at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Sierra Vista Fire Chief Randy Redmond, Sierra Vista Police Chief Ken Kimmel, Fry Fire Chief Bill Miller and Sierra Vista Mayor Bob Strain are among the speakers.
Compiled from staff and wire reports
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or at bill.hess@svherald.com.
