![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/091126_911_25YearsOn_GH_006.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOfficials gathered with interfaith leaders, veterans and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the attacks and the wars that followed to ensure their memories are never forgotten. <\/p>\n
Sep 11, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 4:18 pm PT<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From left, Mayor Daniel Lurie, San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Matthew Smith, YMCA of Greater San Francisco President and CEO Jamie Bruning-Miles, a U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve veteran, and U.S. Army veteran and law student Leslie Ortega stand onstage during a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the Presidio\u2019s Main Post in San Francisco on Sept. 11, 2026.\u00a0(Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Friday marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11<\/a> changed a nation.<\/p>\n Nearly 3,000 people were killed. It also changed an untold number of lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n Each year, Masanao Morimoto wears a shirt honoring Mark Bingham, a friend from the UC Berkeley rugby team, who attempted to take back United Airlines Flight 93 from the hijackers before it crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people in our lives who support us, and maybe we don\u2019t appreciate how much they support us, or how much they impact our lives, until they\u2019re gone,\u201d Morimoto said, describing Bingham as a jokester and a steadfast teammate.<\/p>\n On Friday, officials, interfaith leaders and residents across the Bay Area gathered to honor the lives lost on 9\/11, the communities forever transformed and the veterans who served in the wars that followed in its wake.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe remember when the towers fell, and the lives were lost,\u201d said Rev. Staci Current, pastor of Temple United Methodist Church in San Francisco, speaking at an event in the city\u2019s Presidio. \u201cWe remember the dust, the despair, the smoke, the grief. We remember this sense of vulnerability and shock. We remember that numbness that overwhelmed us as we watched our screen for hours and hours waiting for explanation or understanding that never came. We remember.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Katie Miller, a veteran and an ambassador for the Heart and Armor Foundation for Veterans Health, was a sophomore in high school when the towers went down.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI remember very specifically walking into my parents\u2019 room, and the news was on, and my dad said, \u2018We\u2019re going to war.\u2019I think back to it now and that day changed the entire course of my life,\u201d said Miller, who joined the military as soon as she graduated from college and served in the U.S. Navy for 10 years.<\/p>\n Army veteran Andre Rogers spoke on Friday about how finding ways to serve his community after leaving the military helped him adjust to civilian life.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cServing as a civilian has been good for my soul. Purpose helps me heal. Even when you are tired, discouraged, doing something for others always makes life feel better,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cIt\u2019s better to give blessings than to receive them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kashif Abdullah, a veteran and the principal of the San Francisco Islamic School, described the ways that 9\/11 changed life in America for Muslims, many of whom experienced a wave of Islamophobia after the attacks and the subsequent \u201cWar on Terror.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs the principal of an Islamic school, the only one in the city, I must also acknowledge that our students inherited a different part of the 911 story,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cMuslim Americans experienced suspicion, discrimination and hatred after the attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdullah emphasized the importance of remembering these events in their entirety, because learning about the attacks and their aftermath \u201cteaches us what can happen when fear becomes stronger than our commitment to one another.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat may be one of the greatest lessons of Sept. 11,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cDo not allow fear to decide who your neighbor is. Remember that America that emerged in those first days, the America where strangers embraced strangers, where different faiths prayed together, and where Americans asked not, \u2018What religion are you?\u2019 but \u2018How can I help you?\u201d<\/p>\n KQED\u2019s Brian Krans<\/a> and Sara Hossaini<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Officials gathered with interfaith leaders, veterans and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the attacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-461877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/091126_911_25YearsOn_GH_008.jpg\")
A San Francisco officer looks toward the stage during a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the Presidio\u2019s Main Post in San Francisco on Sept. 11, 2026.\u00a0(Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/091126_911_25YearsOn_GH_012.jpg\")
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi poses for a photo with Vietnam War veteran Mickey Kwok during a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the Presidio\u2019s Main Post in San Francisco on Sept. 11, 2026.\u00a0(Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n