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In New Memorial Location, Emotions Change

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The Associated Press

Published: September 12, 2007

NEW YORK - Victims' families huddled under umbrellas Tuesday in a park to mark the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the first remembrance ceremony not held at ground zero, an event that failed to evoke the same emotions as the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center site.

'I guess they mean well, but I really wasn't happy,' said Sal Romagnolo, whose son Joseph Romagnolo worked in the trade center's north tower. 'I never got my son back. That's the only place we have.'

'I get nothing out of this park.'

Across the country, Americans went through familiar mourning rituals as they looked back on the day when terrorists hijacked four jetliners and killed nearly 3,000 people.

President Bush attended ceremonies at the White House and the Pentagon. The 40 passengers and crew who died when a flight crashed into a Pennsylvania field were honored as 'citizen soldiers.'

The Manhattan ceremonies were held in a public park because of rebuilding at ground zero. First responders, volunteers and firefighters who helped rescue people from the twin towers read the names of the 2,750 victims - a list that grew by one with the addition of a woman who died of lung disease in 2002.

Similar scenes played out at other anniversary ceremonies.

In a speech to family members of some of the Pentagon victims, Defense Secretary Robert Gates vowed that: 'The enemies of America ... will never again rest easy, for we will hunt them down relentlessly and without reservation.

'Here at the Department of Defense, we pay an ongoing tribute with our firm commitment to defend the United States against any and all enemies, wherever they may exist,' Gates said.

'As American citizens we're all looking at our heroes,' said Kay Roy, whose sister Colleen Fraser, died in the crash over Pennsylvania. 'These are our heroes, and I'm glad that one of my family members happens to be one of these heroes.'

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