Veterans, community members, local law enforcement officers, and First Responders recently participated in a 9/11 Roundtable moderated by Gerald Decker, Commander of Leland’s Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Chapter 12196. The 2-hour event, held on September 11, 2026, honored the nearly three thousand victims who lost their lives 25 years ago at the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, PA. Participants discussed the events of that day and the inevitable repercussions of the largest terrorist attack on American soil.

In the Blossoms Restaurant meeting room at Magnolia Greens, Decker led an open discussion on the events and aftermath of 9/11 and the security implications that forever changed American society. Roundtable member John Hacker, 2nd Vice Commander of Leland’s John E. Jacobs American Legion Post 68, described the greatest maritime evacuation in history, in which an estimated 150 private boats, fireboats, tugs, ferries, and commercial vessels evacuated nearly 500,000 people from Lower Manhattan to New Jersey in less than nine hours. Among the roughly 30 attendees, others reflected on their own experiences and memories of that fateful day. The overall theme of “Never Forget” reminded meeting participants of the resilience of the American people and the unity on display on September 11, 2001, and in its immediate aftermath.