MIDLAND, Texas — A new generation is now part of the 9/11 anniversary tradition — Midland Independent School District Air Force Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC).
The JROTC is a U.S. federal program that prepares high school students for leadership roles and aimed to educate about their rights and responsibilities. The program is offered at accredited secondary schools and some middle schools, as well as in military bases worldwide.
In a Facebook post, the district is asking the public to "join us in remembering the victims of 9/11 at Centennial Park this Wednesday."
"This event is free and includes the presentation of colors, MHS choir performance of the National Anthem, flag display by the Patriot Guard Riders, moment of silence, and TAPS," the post read.
The ceremony is one of many that will be held throughout the country in honor of a date that will be forever impacted in the United States and throughout the world: Sept. 11, 2001.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed when al-Qaida hijackers crashed four jetliners into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a field in southwest Pennsylvania on that tragic day.
While the members of the MISD were not yet born on that day, the date still resonates.
According to an article by the Pew Research Center: "the enduring power of the Sept. 11 attacks is clear: an overwhelming share of Americans who are old enough to recall the day remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Yet an ever-growing number of Americans have no personal memory of that day, either because they were too young or not yet born."
