Mountain Home, Ark., community gathers to remember 9/11

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. (KY3) - On Monday, Mountain Home served as the central hub for many in Northwest Arkansas to gather and reflect on the worst terrorist attack in American history.

“I learned of the event just like every other American, right? I got home, I was eating a bowl of cereal, and I turned on the TV, and the first tower was there,” said John Ceriello, who was a member of FDNY’s Rescue Company 1.

Ceriello was off duty on Sept. 11, 2001, but quickly jumped into action once he saw what was going on.

“I jumped on my bike real quick, and I zipped in over the Brooklyn Bridge. And when I was on the bridge, something let go in the building- a massive explosion. I didn’t know it was a second plane; I didn’t hear a plane, I didn’t see a plane, but I felt the concussion. I felt it, and I just said, oh man, this is a major disaster,” said Ceriello.

Chris Holm was working at a shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when a coworker broke the news.

“A coworker came out into the shop area and said that there had been a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. So we all piled into a very small break room, and we were watching the live account of what had happened with the first plane crash,” said Holm. “And then while we were watching the television, we saw the second plane hit; it took a few minutes to kind of understand what I’d just seen.”

People from all around joined the Mountain Home community to remember and reflect on that day nearly 25 years ago.

“We might be hundreds of miles away from New York City, but I want us to remember here,” said Tommy Feliccia, an engineer with the Mountain Home Fire Department.

The event happened in the Mountain Home Plaza, right in the line of sight of a 9-11 memorial that was erected in 2022, commemorating the events of that day. Right in the middle of the two towers is an actual piece of the World Trade Center.

“We were able to raise money, and we built this memorial here. Not only does it have the towers, it has the Pentagon and Flight 93,” said Feliccia, whose uncle served with FDNY during 9/11, and whose grandfather also served with FDNY. “You’ll come out here on any given day. There might be flowers, there might be flags on it. Everybody has their own version of 9/11 and how they remember it. But I think they come here and kind of find peace.”

This event is just one of the ways that those who remember what happened that day can ensure the next generation never forgets.

“Events like today held throughout the nation, even exactly on 9/11 at the time of the first tower being struck, help make the memory more visible. I’m hoping that in history books and schools, the students are being taught about what happened that day,” said Holm. “And that, like the bombing and the attack on Pearl Harbor, that it’s never forgotten because there’s some way or someone that is capable of carrying that memory forward for future generations.”

“It is like my version of Pearl Harbor. I don’t know anything about Pearl Harbor other than reading it. And most kids now these days, that’s how they know 9/11 is they read it,” said Feliccia. “Something to just keep remembering so history doesn’t repeat itself.”

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