An annual remembrance held at MCC on this anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks focused on comments by veterans.
It's common for 9/11 ceremonies to talk a lot about veterans and their service right after the 2001 attacks, but it has a particularly important focus at MCC, because that college has an especially large contingent of students who are veterans and are either looking for academic advancement, or career training.
Among the speakers at this year's ceremony, Doug Williams, a Marine Corps veteran and MCC student who served in the first Persian Gulf War.
"We have veterans here who are from Vietnam era, who served in Vietnam as students, as well as vets who are just returning home, so we're one big military and non-military, we're one big college family.”
Also at the MCC ceremony, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn was pleased that 13 years later, there is still a strong focus on remembering 9/11 and what has happened since then.
"It’s good to see that people are remembering that lives were lost in a very terrible, terrible tragic incident. However, what it did to bring the community together, that's what we don't want to ever forget."
There is a concrete memorial at the college which depicts the World Trade Center Towers. It was built in 2002 as a result of the efforts of several MCC student leaders.
