Ceremonies held at ground zero

NEW YORK – Hundreds of troops here for Fleet Week took time off Friday to attend two events to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – one a very public show of strength, the other quiet and private.

Almost 300 members of the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard took part in the first event, a three-mile run around lower Manhattan that was followed by a wreath-laying ceremony beside the former World Trade Center site.

As they stood under a cloudless sky at the site of the terrorist strikes, the group let out a shout that reverberated across the 16-acre gap where the towers once stood.

“The Marine Corps like to be loud when they do this; it’s a pride thing,” explained Sgt. John Hoellwarth, 24, of Antioch, Calif. “They want New York City to hear them.”

The other event was held inside the gates of the site, where new buildings will soon rise. A small group, including a woman who lost her sister in the attacks and an Army reservist who helped with the recovery effort, gathered inside the footprint of one of the towers to pray and thank members of the military for their sacrifices.

Cedith Michael of Lebanon, Ohio, came to New York to see her only child, Lance Cpl. Mark Ryan Smith, 20, who recently returned from an eight-month stint in Iraq.

Smith, in town for Fleet Week, took part in the run around lower Manhattan.

“I didn’t want to miss him,” she said. “In the military, that’s one thing you learn – to wait.”

Both events highlighted the connection between the civilians killed in the terrorist attacks and the men and women now in uniform.

Marine Capt. Dan McSweeney, of Manhattan, who attended the wreath-laying ceremony, said visiting ground zero “forces you to remember that our world changed on Sept. 11, and that service members’ lives continue to be directly impacted by the events of the day.”

Fleet Week is an annual event in which thousands of sailors and Marines visit the city as the public gets a chance to view their ships.