Honoring a legacy of duty and remembrance: New England District commemorates the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11

CONCORD, Mass.— Sept. 11, 2026, marked the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. To commemorate the tragic events and honor those who lost their lives, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New England District team, led by District Engineer Col. Charles W. Comfort, held a flag-lowering ceremony and observed a moment of silence on the morning of Sept. 11 at its Concord Park headquarters. The moment of silence began at exactly 8:46 a.m., marking the precise moment the first hijacked plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

“Twenty-five years later, the tragedy of September 11 remains deeply etched in our hearts, but so too does the enduring legacy of courage and unity that defined our nation’s response,” said Col. Charles W. Comfort, New England District Commander.

Thousands of lives were lost that day when terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, plunging two into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York and a third into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth aircraft, Flight 93, crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after brave passengers breached the cockpit in a heroic effort to retake the plane.

“If the terrorists sought to break the American spirit through fear, they failed. Instead, that dark morning revealed the absolute best of humanity through countless acts of bravery,” said Comfort. “As thousands ran away from the burning towers to seek safety, police officers, firefighters, and emergency personnel ran directly toward the danger, entering the buildings to save others. Tragically, many of those heroes made the ultimate sacrifice when the towers collapsed.”

That very evening, the New England District was tasked with establishing an Emergency Response and Recovery Office in New York City. The District’s Emergency Operations Center immediately activated, and by the next morning, the call to deploy went out to the District team. Larry Rosenberg, now the retired chief of public affairs, served as the USACE World Trade Center Public Affairs Support Team Leader when he volunteered to deploy to the disaster site.

“I was at my desk with the radio tuned into a local talk station when one of the announcers said to his partner, ‘you're not going to believe this, but some nut just flew a plane into the World Trade Center,’” he said. “I immediately turned on the TV only to watch another plane slam into the second tower. Without hesitation, I called Peter Shugert at the New York District Public Affairs Office and got Sue Hopkins on the phone. As she was being evacuated, I told Sue (naively) that I was only an hour or two away and could fly in to assist should Peter need a hand. Little did I know I would be on the ground the next day.”

Ultimately, nearly 40 members of the New England District team answered the call, accompanying then-District Commander Col. Brian Osterndorf to Ground Zero. Two of the District’s vessels, the MV Wampanoag and the MV Catumet, deployed along with their crews to join a growing fleet of USACE vessels. Once on-site, the vessels and their crews worked tirelessly, shuttling stranded citizens across the Hudson River out of Manhattan, transporting emergency personnel to the scene, and delivering critical supplies—including fuel, food, and water—that allowed first responders to remain at their posts.

Upon arrival, team members were met with a surreal and devastating landscape. Lynne Bleakney, a retiree from Information Management (now ACE-IT), recalled the heavy, eerie silence that blanketed the empty city, the intense security presence, and the unforgettable sight of the first responders.

"As we made our way down to Ground Zero to deliver supplies, we passed first responders leaning against the wall of a building, trying to catch their breath,” she said. “They were completely covered in ash and debris, and the sheer despair on their faces was devastating. There was an absolute, heavy silence—you could have heard a pin drop. When we finally reached the site, the magnitude of the destruction was overwhelming; massive steel beams were impaled in the sides of the surrounding buildings. Standing in the shadow of that ruin, I could barely comprehend the horror of the collapse, or the unfathomable courage of those who had rushed directly into the wreckage while it was still in rescue mode."

In the chaos of the recovery efforts, many district team members stepped outside their usual areas of expertise, performing whatever tasks were necessary to accomplish the mission. John Pribilla, a park ranger from the Cape Cod Canal, served as a logistics specialist, with duties that included driving extended passenger vans. He recalled a high-stakes moment when he had to transport then-Sen. James Jeffords from Madison Square Garden to a critical meeting at Pier 50 in just 15 minutes. Pribilla proved more than equal to the task.

“We drove very aggressively with blue lights and horns blaring thru intersections, over sidewalks, around vehicles and arrived just in time with everyone in the van very tense from that aggressive driving style,” he said. “The senator asked me where I learned to drive like that and I told him in the rotaries of Cape Cod, which made him laugh and helped alleviate a little of the stress.”

While colleagues worked on the front lines at Ground Zero, those who remained in Concord did their part by backfilling positions to ensure the district's day-to-day mission never faltered. The Emergency Operations Center operated around the clock from the day of the attack until the immediate threat subsided.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played a vital role in one of the most significant recovery operations in American history. Working side by side with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other partners, USACE was tasked with providing engineering expertise, project management, and technical oversight to support the recovery. Team members assisted across a spectrum of critical operations, including debris removal, environmental remediation, structural assessments, construction management, and infrastructure restoration. Ultimately, the USACE team helped clear millions of tons of debris, supported complex investigative requirements, and worked to restore critical services to the grieving city.

As the historical successors to the first USACE engineers in the nation, the New England District was among the very first to answer the call for help—a legacy of readiness that continues to guide the District's response to disasters today. A quarter-century later, we remember the lives lost, while honoring the enduring courage of those who stepped forward in the dark days after September 11 to help a nation rebuild.

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