Nashville Remembers 9/11

Nashville stopped on Friday morning to recognize the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.

The remembrance featured a procession and memorial service outside of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, where a permanent memorial sits. Several 9/11 first responders were in attendance.

Nashville Fire Department paramedic Robert DeMeo sat in the front row. He joined the department in 2022, but in 2001 he was working for Hunter Ambulance in New York City and responded when the first tower was struck by the hijacked airliner. DeMeo was wounded when the towers collapsed; his partner Mark Schwartz was killed.

Retired New York City firefighter Robert Madden, who responded to the World Trade Center as a volunteer firefighter, also sat in the front row. He wore the badge of fallen firefighter Raymond York, who worked in the firehouse that Madden later served in — the two men having never met each other.

“I’m just glad that nobody’s forgetting,” Madden, who now lives in Middle Tennessee, told Scene sister publication the Nashville Post.

Speakers reflected on the historic tragedy of the day and called for unity.

“Twenty-five years later, we stand at an important inflection point in the story of 9/11 because we are about to reach a moment when more than half of all Americans were born after 9/11 or were too young to really remember it,” said Mayor Freddie O’Connell. “Twenty-five years from now, I hope we'll still be telling those stories of 9/11, but more than that, I hope we'll be living its greatest lesson: that we are at our best when we look out for one another and stand together.”

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake noted the “contagious community spirit” shared among Americans in the days, weeks and months following the attack. Nashville Fire Chief William Swann said, "We have proven we can unite when the sirens are wailing," but it is more challenging to stay united in times of normalcy.

“We live in a time when our country feels loud, where we often focus on not the things that pull us together, but pull us apart — the difference in our race, or our origin, or our opinion," said Swann. "It is easy to retreat in our own corner, but if we only unite during a catastrophe, we are merely just surviving. If we can carry the spirit of those who sacrificed everything, the spirit of the neighbor helping the neighbor into our quiet spaces [and] everyday moments, we will be unstoppable."

A previous version of this article was first published by the Nashville Post.