DERBY – Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Rak said that in the Navy, the concept of a ship is simple: when trouble finds you, there is no place to run.

“You can’t abandon your post. You can only look to your left and to your right, and fight for the person standing next to you,” he said.

On Sept. 11, 2001 – America was that ship.

Rak, a Derby native who spent 27 years in the Navy and retired as vice-president and chief of staff at the U.S. Naval War College, was the keynote speaker Friday at a ceremony on the Derby Green to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

About 250 people attended.

Almost 3,000 people lost their lives that day after suicidal al-Qaeda terrorists flew commercial airliners into both Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon in Virginia, and into a field in Shanksville, PA after passengers, hearing the news about the other planes, fought back.

The speakers in front of the gazebo on the Green each recalled the darkness of Sept. 11 and the American resolve that was unleashed in response. 

The ceremony’s organizers took those in attendance directly back to the morning of Sept. 11, to the core of the horror as it unfolded.

They did so first by playing a brief audio clip from Don Imus, the iconic New York City radio personality who built an entertainment career on the absurd. In the clip, Imus reads a news alert he didn’t seem to believe.

“You know, MSNBC has just flashed on my screen – it looks like a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center?” he said.

Next, the organizers played an audio message Brooke Alexandra Jackman left for her parents. She was trapped on the 104th floor of the North Tower after it had been struck.

She tells her family she loves them. The messages were her last words. 

She was 23 years old.

The ceremony is embedded in the YouTube video below.

The speakers Friday recalled Brooke and people like her who were murdered while doing nothing other than living their lives and reporting to work on that “crisp, blue day,” as Rak described.

The speakers recalled the families who were left behind. They recalled the thousands of people who have become ill or died from breathing in the toxic air from the wreckage in the aftermath.

They recalled the firefighters, police and EMS workers who ran toward their deaths in New York City, motivated only by their sense of duty.

It is a day, each speaker said, we must never forget.

“When the call comes, you don’t stop to ask, ‘Who needs help?” said Thomas Lenart Sr., the chief of the Storm Ambulance Corp, a retired Derby police officer and a current Derby police commissioner. 

“You don’t ask whether the person is a Democrat or a Republican. You don’t ask what neighborhood they live in, what religion they practice, what color their skin is, or where they were born,” Lenart said. “You simply go because someone needs you.”

In Attendance

In addition to Rak and Lenart, the speakers Friday included Derby Mayor Joseph DiMartino, Ansonia Mayor Frank Tyszka, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, Derby Fire Commissioner Gary Parker, Derby Elks Club Exalted Ruler Maria Blackwell, Derby Fire Department Chief Thomas Briggs, Derby Police Department Chief Brian Grogan, and Deacon Victor M. Lembo of Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles Parish at St. Mary’s Church.

Past Derby Fire Department Capt. Mike Witek was the emcee. 

Public figures in attendance included members of the Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen, state Sen. Jorge Cabrera, state Rep. Kara Rochelle, state Rep. Mary Welander, and Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis.

The Derby fire and police honor guard were in attendance,  along with the New Haven Fire Department Emerald Society, along with Troop 3 Scouts.