KINGSVILLE, Texas — Kingsville marks 25 years since 9/11 with ceremony at Javelina Stadium featuring Pentagon survivor Army Ret. 1st Sgt. Ulysses Bell
The city of Kingsville held a gathering Thursday at Javelina Stadium at Texas A&M University-Kingsville to commemorate the lives lost 25 years ago on September 11, 2001.
The keynote speaker was Army Retired First Sergeant Ulysses Bell, who was part of the crew that helped clear debris at the Pentagon. Bell says September 11 started as a normal day — in fact, it was his birthday.
"But during that time, it was just business as usual, just like everyone else during that 9/11 day, and it was my birthday, so I was looking forward to celebrating, but as, as life would have it, you know, everything went the way it went," Bell said.
Bell and the soldiers of the Army's Old Guard were rehearsing for Spirit of America — a production about the nation's history — when a soldier told them a plane had hit the World Trade Center. They watched the second plane strike, then saw black smoke rising from the Pentagon. Knowing it was no accident, they were deployed to the scene.
"When we were attacked at the Pentagon, everything changed," Bell said.
Bell says what unfolded did not feel real.
"No one knew what was going on. The sky suddenly just got quiet, no planes flying, no nothing. People coming out of buildings, especially Washington D.C., it was gridlocked. But there was another plane still flying around, and that's the plane that we talked about earlier, Flight 93," Bell said.
Flight 93 was the fourth plane hijacked that day. Passengers fought back against the terrorists after learning what was happening. The plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
"Because they knew what was happening. And they chose to fight. Because if they didn't fight, we'd have more losses. That last plane was headed towards our U.S. Capitol again," Bell said.
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