9/11 victims honored at memorial ceremony in Clovis
CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- One of the largest 9/11 memorial ceremonies on the West Coast was held Monday morning in the Central Valley.
The California 9/11 Memorial hosted a service featuring a wreath laying, gun salute, and flyover.
At 8:46 am on September 11, 2001, the first plane hit the North World Trade Center Tower.
Over the next hour and a half, a plane would hit the South Tower, another hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.
Across the nation, local law enforcement jumped into action, unsure if more attacks were coming.
"Immediately, we opened up what we called the Department of Operations. We did not know if this was going to be a widespread attack throughout American soil or if this was isolated to what had happened in New York," said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.
The ceremony at the California 9/11 memorial is to remember those who died and those like Will Jimeno, who to this day carry physical and mental scars from that day.
In 2001, the then 33-year-old was a Navy veteran and rookie Port Authority Officer.
"We were between both towers when a huge explosion happened. I turned around from where we were walking, and I could look into the lobby of two, and I saw a fireball the size of my house," said Jimeno.
Jimeno would spend 13 hours trapped under rubble.
He was just one of two from his team of five to survive.
He'd spend months in the hospital recovering and years battling PTSD.
He would eventually seek help for his PTSD and now dedicates his time to encouraging others, especially first responders, to take care of their own mental health.
"If you're one of those people in the darkness, remember you always deserve your sunrise," Jimeno explained.
In the years since 2001, Jimeno has always spent 9/11 at home in New Jersey.
On Monday, he was in Central California for the ceremony as he works to keep the memory of 9/11 alive.
Now, more than two decades after the attacks, the number of people who weren't old enough to remember 9/11 or were not even born yet is growing.
Today, there are first responders who only know about the day as history.
The memorial services remind them of why they serve and the first responders who risked everything on that September day.
"It's definitely something difficult to imagine to try to put yourself in those shoes, but that's what you sign up for in this job, being willing to take this risk and knowing that you might not go home that day," said Clovis Police Cadet Joshua Meraz.
Jimeno has written two books about his experience.
One is to help others work through their trauma, and another is children like Officer Meraz will only know about 9/11 through history.
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