Executive Staff
Sewanee students, faculty, and other community members are invited to the Quad on
the morning of Friday, September 11, 2026, to plant American flags to honor the nearly
3,000 lives lost 25 years ago.
The memorial, jointly sponsored by the University Chaplaincy, the Sewanee Fire
Department and the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club, will begin at 8am with the
planting of 3,000 flags in memory of the lives lost in New York City, at the Pentagon,
and aboard United Airlines Flight 93 as its passengers forced the plane down in
Pennsylvania hijackers from diverting it to attack Washington D.C.
A brief service will begin at 9 am on the Quad, led by the Reverend Chris Epperson,
University Chaplain.
The 2001 tragedy, felt across America and around the world, remains fresh for many on
the Mountain. Sewanee residents include people who were in the U.S. Capitol, lived within
a few miles of the flight 93 crash, lost friends in the towers, or reported on the attack
and its aftermath in Washington D.C. and abroad.
“We commemorate this event to remember,” Epperson said. “It’s a horrific loss of so
many lives, and also a loss of innocence for our country and the world, one that
reverberates to this day.”
Sewanee Fire Chief Terry Smith said student and community members of his department will
honor the first responders who died or suffered exposure that led to debilitating and fatal
illnesses as they rushed to save others, as well as the military service men and women who
fought in the ensuing Afghan War and the families who still grieve.
Later in the day, Sewanee fire fighters will participate in a private 9/11 workout that has
become a quiet tradition here and in fire departments around the country. The workout
traditionally involves donning full turnout gear and air packs to simulate climbing the equivalent
of the 110-floor Twin Towers and carrying injured civilians and colleagues, all while listening to
recordings of 9/11 emergency radio transmissions from New York fire and police and other first
responders.
“We will honor those people with a field of flags that will represent the thousands of people
who died that day. “Everybody was affected, through themselves, their families, people they
know,” Smith said. “There’s not enough field to hold the flags of all the lives touched by 9/11.”