By Andrew WestSept. 11, 2026 — Way back in the 1990s, this editor could always count on an annual visit from a World War II veteran asking that we publish information about a Pearl Harbor event. He knew we were all too young to have experienced it and fully understand it.
We would always honor — and respect — his request. Simply, there was an obligation to never forget.
Today, there are similar feelings about 9/11 and the impact it had on Americans, including our Delaware friends and neighbors.
Yes, most of us do remember exactly where we were when planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City.
But there is a growing realization that we now have an obligation to share our memories and experiences with younger generations. Consider, too, that there are now young teachers in our schools who had not yet been born.
Nearly a third of all Delawareans are younger than 30. The images of 2001 may be in color, but they have taken on historic hues like those from 1941.
That said, we can share some snippets of life in Delaware that day by looking back. The following “From the Editor” column from 2011 was unearthed for today’s readers.
***
Sept. 11, 2011 — Along with the rest of the nation, we will reflect today on the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Ten years ago, Delawareans watched and listened with horror as news reports came in on a Tuesday fall morning that went from typical to historical. The first plane hit the World Trade Center that morning at 8:51 a.m., and over the next 90 minutes, we were stunned by news reports from New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
It seemed like everyone flocked to a television set to try to absorb what was happening.
In the Delaware State News newsroom that day, we spent much of the morning watching television and making calls to find out how the community was reacting.
Dover Air Force Base almost immediately increased its security to its highest level, “Force Protection Measure Delta.”
Flights in and out of Dover ceased. There was an unusual quiet in the skies.
Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner ordered public schools to close shortly before noon. Many businesses closed.
Some teachers, before sending children home, shared with students what had happened.
“This is your generation’s JFK,” Dover High history teacher Dianne Beck told her fifth grade class that day. “Everyone from my generation knows where they were when JFK was shot.
“You will always remember where you were when this happened.”
As the day progressed, it was interesting to watch our state’s reaction, from horror to how-can-we-help.
Delaware first responders headed to Smyrna for a convoy to New Jersey, answering a call to head north in case their assistance was needed.
Clergy began planning services.
The Delaware State News reporting team put its full efforts on local response.
Senior writer Tom Eldred called Michael C. Tocchetti, then chief mortuary officer for the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base. Tocchetti said he had not received orders but started preparing anyway for the possible use of the military mortuary to handle the remains of those killed, knowing the base would be called upon to handle the enormous numbers of dead, as it had done during war times and other somber chapters in our nation’s history.
Tocchetti said he arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, as the plane hit the Pentagon. The meeting was canceled, and he headed back to Delaware.
“I was on I-495 on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge at the Virginia-Maryland line,” Tocchetti said that day. “I could see the black smoke coming from the Pentagon. Not only could you see it, you could smell it.
“It was unbelievable. Ambulances were coming down 495. There (were) cops, fire trucks, emergency vehicles, all heading south. I’d seen a big plane heading that way when I was driving in earlier, but I don’t know if it was the same one that hit the Pentagon.”
As it turns out, Tocchetti was asked to lead efforts to process the remains of those killed at the Pentagon.
One of the lasting post-9/11 images for Delaware will be the CH-47 Chinook helicopters flying in to Dover. The unique sound and sight of the Chinooks were present for weeks, as more and more bodies were recovered.
The mortuary went from a team of seven workers to more than 500.
This editor recalls a late-afternoon meeting on Sept. 11, 2001, with then-publisher Tammy Brittingham, who came by the newsroom to see how we were doing. She wanted to know what our front-page plans were.
Brittingham said it was a pretty good bet that most of the newspapers in the country would have huge images of the flames and destruction at the World Trade Center in the next day’s edition. She wanted us to balance that with images that showed the caring responses of people in our community.
She also wanted us to consider a headline that captured the spirit of what people would be feeling in the morning.
We talked about President George W. Bush’s reaction. His now-famous quote was, “Freedom itself was attacked this morning. And, I assure you, freedom will be defended.”
The last four words ended up being our banner headline on Sept. 12, 2001.
Something else that has stuck with this editor for the past 10 years are words from the late Ben Bowings, a World War II veteran, and the late Wright Robinson, a Seaford newspaper editor and publisher who was 93 at the time of the attacks on America.
Bowings, who was stationed in Hawaii in 1941, told a reporter that he turned to his wife as he watched the news reports and said, “This looks like another Pearl Harbor.”
Robinson said he could remember nothing in his lifetime that was as overwhelming, not even Pearl Harbor.
“Television exposure electrified the world because you could see it,” said Robinson. “With World War II, you could only imagine the horror.”
Andrew West is the editor-in-chief of the Daily State News. In 2001, he was the newspaper’s managing editor.
