Officials mark 9/11 anniversary

IRONWOOD — The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 continue to affect our lives, even as the event itself happened 19 years ago.

Scott Erickson, the manager for the city of Ironwood, said the anniversary is a good time for people to reflect on the service of first responders in our community. Firefighters, law enforcement and medical first responders rose to the occasion on 9/11, and they continue to go into harm’s way every day to keep communities safe and healthy, he said.

“I guess for me, this is a time to just remind people to reach out and appreciate the first responders that we have in our area,” Erickson said. “They were there to help people during that catastrophic event and they continue to help people here on a daily basis.”

Sgt. 1st Class Alexander Voss, the station commander of the U.S. Army recruiting office in Ironwood, said he joined the Army shortly after 9/11 in 2002. His entire 19-year career so far has been during the war on terror in the post 9/11 world.

“September 11 to me is a yearly reminder of the importance to serve others and to protect your community,” Voss said.

For John Sendra, the town board chair of Mercer, the anniversary can still make the hair on his arms stand up thinking about what did happen, but also about what could have happened.

For the country and the world, he said 9/11 is “a day that will remain infamous in history,” paraphrasing President Franklin Roosevelt’s speech to Congress following the Dec. 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the naval air forces of Imperial Japan. But 9/11 also hits closer to home as Sendra had friends and associates who were to be in a meeting at a hotel near the Twin Towers on 9/11.

“I was in the potato fields of Wisconsin Rapids,” Sendra said of where he was on 9/11. “I was still working with Cisco at the time and was doing a tour.”

During a break just after 10 a.m. he was listening to the radio when he learned about what was happening at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. He quickly realized that people he knew may be in peril.

Sendra was about to embark on a project in the financial industry with his son-in-law. His son-in-law, attorneys and another associate were to be meeting at the Marriott Hotel within the Twin Towers complex that same day to go over details of the wholesale securities project.

“I called my daughter and asked what was happening, and she said he is at home,” Sendra said.

It turned out that one of the attorneys fell ill and the meeting had been pushed back two weeks, he said. It was good that they weren’t killed but the nearly 3,000 people who died in the Twin Towers and on the ground were not so lucky, he said.

“It is a very momentous day for me,” Sendra said.

Sendra and his son-in-law ended up buying a small security wholesale company in Wichita, Kansas, which progressed to become Claymore Securities. The company was ultimately bought out by Guggenheim Partners, a large investor advisor.