COLUMBUS – Nearly 3,000 flags on the lawn of the Ohio Statehouse are one of the ways that Ohioans are marking the 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The display is part of a remembrance ceremony scheduled for Friday. The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, which oversees the Statehouse grounds, says the flags represent the lives lost during the 2001 attacks.
When seen from above, the flags’ arrangement is designed to represent the World Trade Center towers, with a space in the shape of the Pentagon and an open strip representing the field in Pennsylvania where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.
The flags will be on display Friday through Monday.
Col. Timothy Gorrell, U.S. Army Retired, director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services will participate and give closing remarks during a ceremony that will begin with as moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., when the first hijacked jetliner struck the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
As part of the this day of remembrance, members of the Ohio Chapter of Bugles Across America and The Mt. Vernon Pipes bagpipe band will perform to remember the victims as the attacks unfolded between 8:46 and 10:15 a.m.
Kasich has declared Friday Patriot Day in Ohio, has ordered that all flags be flown at half-staff from sunrise until sunset and has asked that all Ohioans observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m.
Kasich will also take part in a memorial observance First Responder’s Park, 473 W. Main Street, Westerville at noon.
The City of Columbus 9-11 Remembrance Ceremony is scheduled for City Council Chambers at City Hall, 90 W. Broad Street, at noon.
Speakers will include Mayor Michael Coleman, Council President Andrew Ginther, Council member Eileen Paley and special guest speaker Lt. Dominick Maggiore from the Fire Department of New York.
The Hilliard community will hold a ceremony at noon at its First Responders Park in Old Hilliard.