9/11 Observences Bring Rare Public Doubleheader for Mattis and McRaven

Posted Sep 9, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Sep 9, 2011 at 08:19 PM

Whenever I get the chance, I like to listen to the brass who lead the men and women of the military.

In separate remembrance ceremonies today – the first at MacDill, the second at Joe Chillura Courthouse Square – the heads of Special Operations Command and Central Command spoke, a rare public doubleheader.

Unfortunately, I am working night cops tonight and was asleep during both speeches.

Fortunately, my colleagues Chip Osowski, at MacDill, and Keith Morelli, downtown, were there to get the goods.

Hillsborough County’s official 9/11 remembrance ceremony took place Friday afternoon. It lasted an hour, and more than 1,000 people crowded into Joe Chillura Courthouse Square to hear words from keynote speakers like Gov. Rick Scott and Adm. Bill McRaven, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base.

McRaven, dressed in a crisp white Navy uniform, said: “We lost our innocence and sense of security” in the terrorist attack, “but what we have is our freedom. That sounds trite, until you talk to people who don’t have it.

“We should never forget that there is great good in the world,” he said. “And good will prevail.”

The attacks “gave us our greatest tragedy,” he said, “but it also gave us our next great generation.”

He praised the young Americans who stepped forward, volunteering for military service, in the wake of the attacks.

“The nation and the people,” he said, “are stronger than we have ever been before.”

The ceremony kicked off a series of remembrances and commemorations in the Tampa Bay area throughout the weekend.

Earlier in the day, at MacDill, Centcom commander Marine Gen. James Mattis spoke.

“The unprovoked attacks on our homeland resulted in the loss of nearly three thousand innocent civilians,” he said.  “But what is very, very telling about this is those civilians were from over 90 countries.”

We may have been hurt, said Mattis.

But we weren’t scared.

“It’s an enemy of all civilized people everywhere and an enemy who thought by hurting us on 9/11 he could scare us.  And with the Americans, he was not aware that the descendents of Valley Forge, of Shiloh, of Midway and Normandy of Iwo Jima are not made of cotton candy.”