12 September 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Many around Wichita vowing to never forget the devastating attacks that occurred 22 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001. While in different places at the time, they are all remembering the lives that were lost.
“A lot of the people we have on the job now here weren’t born or were a couple of years old when it happened, and so just making sure we share the stories. So much like we share the stories of the guys that we’ve lost at the job here, it’s important we share guys that were lost in other places,” said Wichita Fire Captain Keith Niemann.
One Wichita virtual math teacher was a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force in 2001, stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. She was a medic responding near the Pentagon.
“This was the time that we had trained for. I don’t think I had time to be nervous or overwhelmed. I had to just keep a state of mind to be prepared,” said LaKeshia Brooks.
She says the experience was difficult to comprehend.
“We knew on that day that everything changed. We knew that nothing was going to be the same,” she added.
Fire Captain Niemann was working at Wichita Fire Station 5 when he learned about the attacks.
“The whole city kind of shut down, all the fire houses shut down, all the businesses closed. It definitely just changed the whole mood of the day for sure,” he explained.
Larry Burks was the JROTC instructor at Southeast High School.
“We just turned on the broadcast and just watched that the entire morning, and I thought what I was trying to teach my students there paled in comparison to what was going on,” said Burks, who is a veteran and Director of Military Veterans Services at Wichita State University.
Retired three-year commander Jeffrey Rians with the Wichita Memorial VFW Post 3115 was working on the west coast in aviation at the time.
“The national airways were shut down, and so we were glued in front of the TV at work. Our flight school where I was working was shut down indefinitely,” he said.
Twenty-two years later, they are all commemorating the lives lost. Brooks teaches her students to never forget.
“Because it’s traumatic, a lot of people lost their lives that day. And I was sharing with them that we must remember so that those People their lives that were taken that day, it won’t be in vain,” she explained.