Patriot Day, known officially as National Day of Service and Remembrance, will be observed next Thursday, September 11, 2025, just as it has been every year since 2001 in honor of the individuals who lost their lives as a result of terrorist attacks on September 11 of that year.
Although not a federal holiday, Patriot Day is observed with ceremonies and activities, including remembrance services nationwide. Because Patriot Day has been added to the Flag Holidays listed in section 174 of the US Flag Code, flags are displayed at half-staff, and a moment of silence is observed beginning at 8:46am Eastern Daylight Time in recognition of the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.
Only a few BVA members of 2025 would be aware that dozens of blinded veterans and some of their family members, perhaps about 100 veterans that included then BVA Executive Director Tom Miller, were together in Iowa City, Iowa, for what was then known as the TEE Tournament (now the National Disabled Veterans Golf Clinic) when the tragic attacks occurred.
“I just want to tell you that some unbelievable things are happening right now,” announced Valerie Duffy to a busload of veterans. Val was one of the TEE Tournament’s founders and a regular staff member at the event. “You may want to watch the development on TV inside—two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York, and a third has just crashed into the Pentagon in Washington.”
Val’s announcement to the group on a bus, reported in a subsequent BVA Bulletin, was an incomparable punch in the gut to the veterans who had looked forward for perhaps a year to the week of golf and a few other adaptive recreational activities. A similar feeling came to Joe Burns at home in New Orleans. Joe, still today a BVA active member and leader in the Louisiana-Mississippi Regional Group, had been sworn in as the Association’s National President on September 1, just ten days before, at the 56th National Convention in Las Vegas. He describes those sentiments in his subsequent President’s Page 24 years ago, reprinted here in its entirety, as follows:
Feelings, But No Words
On Monday, September 10, I was finishing up my first President’s Page. This page was supposed to be a hearty expression of thanks to convention delegates for electing me National President. I also described some of the challenges facing blinded veterans and the Blinded Veterans Association in the near and long term.
Still early on Tuesday morning, September 11, the words I had written the day before seemed to have little meaning. The events that took place in a matter of an hour have changed our lives. We still have the challenges that I had set out to publish but now is not the time to debate and discuss what we will do about them.
When I turned on my radio the morning of September 11, the first building was in flames. But there seemed to be a lot of confusion. I then turned on CNN just as the second plane crashed into the second building. I, along with millions of Americans, watched in horror as the buildings collapsed.
I watched the replays that erased all doubt that these were anything but intentional acts. In total shock, I wanted to discount what I was hearing. It had to be some kind of mistake. As reality set in, however, a burning rage seemed to consume me. There have already been an infinite number of words written and said about the vicious attacks, and more are yet to come. Here are a few thoughts that I would like to add as well.
Now is the time for us, yes us, not as blinded veterans but as Americans, to support our leadership, to mourn the dead, to repair the damage, and to prepare ourselves for the inevitable things to come.
As we see Americans speaking with a single voice, and as we see a spirit of unity many thought impossible, we must resolve to complete our mourning, to rebuild our buildings, and to defend our country against enemies, both foreign and domestic. As time goes by, the pain edge of our emotion will lessen, but our will to fight terrorism must not. The steel and concrete of our buildings can be broken, but our spirit, our will to find and punish terrorists, can never be broken.
Not long after the disaster, I was listening to a call-in talk radio show. A former Marine phoned in to give his opinion. He related how he had walked out of the Chosin Reservoir in that terrible Korean winter. The Marine spoke of the incomprehensible misery he had endured. At the end of his call, he emphatically declared: “I am now drawing Social Security, but if the Department of Defense needs Social Security money to get those bastards, I don’t care if I get another cent.”
That is the kind of resolve we must maintain.
After the fires of the rage have subsided, after the urge to blow something up has eased, we must then go about our business. For me, that transition happened at church on Sunday, September 16. The minister said few words, but the short scriptures and the old-time hymns, followed by “America, The Beautiful, allowed me to change my attitude from anger to determined resolve – a resolve to do what I can, to get back to my life, and to end the disruption.
None of us will ever forget where we were or what we were doing when we heard about the atrocities that occurred in New York, in Washington, and over the sky in Pennsylvania. Nor should we forget them. They are now a part of us forever.
Let us maintain our unity, our resolve, and our spirit.
