2026年9月6日 09:19 美国东部时间 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
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更新于：2026年9月6日 / 上午10:47 美国东部时间 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
在“永不忘记9·11”与“时刻铭记”之间，其实有着微妙的界限。纪念过了头会显得不合时宜，纪念得太少又不失敬意。
你或许会觉得，时隔这么久，该敲响的警钟都已敲响，该许下的祈祷都已说过，该传唱的歌曲也都已唱遍。25年过去，我们能想到的最贴切的纪念方式，就是倾听那些亲历者的讲述。
归零地
“你能看到北塔的四面八方都有火焰窜出来，”哈里·汉德勒说道，当时他在世贸中心2号楼的67层。“大楼广播说‘世贸中心1号楼发生事故，在世贸中心2号楼的人员请返回工位’。我当时就想，这主意简直糟透了。”
17分钟后，第二架飞机撞向了他所在的大楼。他开始一级级地往下跑，一次跨12级台阶。
然后他停了下来。“我碰到一位靠在楼梯扶手上哮喘发作的女士，”汉德勒说。“我说‘我扶你下去吧’。她挽住我的胳膊。尽管她呼吸急促，我们还是慢慢沿着楼梯往下走。”
他们完全不知道第三架飞机已经撞向了五角大楼。
五角大楼
“一切都乱了套，”海军陆战队少校丹·潘塔莱奥说道，他主动冲进去帮忙，尽管没人要求他这么做。“有一块办公桌残骸卡在天花板上。还有一个看起来像保险箱的东西被翻了个身，嵌进了墙里。”
宾夕法尼亚州乡村
就在半小时后，最后一架飞机——大概率也是原定飞往华盛顿——撞向了宾夕法尼亚州尚克斯维尔的一片田野。乘客们得知纽约和五角大楼遇袭的消息后，冲进了驾驶舱。
“在那个黑暗的日子里，40个人做出了给美国带来希望的举动，”蒂姆·兰伯特说。“他们面对的是最糟糕的情况，却下定决心要做点什么，他们也确实做到了。”
兰伯特一家自20世纪30年代起就拥有联合航空93号航班坠毁地点的这片土地。
“那些树木承受了爆炸的主要冲击力，”他说。“之后，大自然慢慢开始重新接管这里。青草重新生长，野生动物也回来了。但那里发生的一切的印记，始终清晰可见。”
93号航班纪念墙上的名字之一是副机长勒罗伊·霍默 Jr.。他唯一的女儿劳雷尔当时只有10个月大。“我觉得这件事至今仍让我十分纠结，”劳雷尔告诉我们。“就好像我的人生本该是另一种样子，而不是现在这样，我甚至都不知道自己本来会成为什么样的人。”
哈里·汉德勒、劳雷尔·霍默和海军陆战队少校丹·潘塔莱奥。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
随着时间推移，她参加了为遇难者家属举办的夏令营，但25年后的今天，当年参加夏令营的孩子都已成年。
“我从小到大都对这件事带着一种羞耻感，也曾因此被人欺负过，”霍默说。“有个女孩在纸上写了‘DD’，问我这是什么意思，然后她自己说‘是Dead Dad（爸爸死了）’。从那以后，我觉得自己一直找不到一个能健康地抒发悲痛的地方。”
三人对每年的9·11纪念活动都有着各自不同的感受。
“都不好受，”汉德勒说。“有时候我睡不好，就会想‘哦对了，又到九月了，大家又在惦记这件事了’。”
哈里·汉德勒在曼哈顿下城的9·11纪念现场。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
潘塔莱奥说：“情绪如潮水般涌来。我记得当时家家户户挂满美国国旗，随处可见。我会回想起那个场景，心怀希望，但同时也会想起那场难以置信的浩劫和破坏，那对我来说是截然不同的感受。”
在四天时间里，潘塔莱奥从仍在闷烧的五角大楼中找回了100多具遗骸。但他也找到了一丝光明：一面猩红配金色的海军陆战队旗帜，令人惊奇的是，它仍然直立着，在废墟边缘摇摇欲坠。“在四楼看到它完好无损、丝毫未受周围破坏的影响，简直不可思议，”潘塔莱奥说。“当时就觉得，我们绝不能让这面旗帜也成为受害者。”
海军陆战队少校丹·潘塔莱奥从五角大楼中取回海军陆战队旗帜。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
在一片混乱中，潘塔莱奥很快乘坐升降机缓缓上升，去取下那面还残留着航空燃油气味的旗帜。他将旗帜安全地带了下来，就像哈里·汉德勒在纽约世贸2号楼救下那位陌生人一样。
“我把她扶到救护车上，说我会留下来陪她，”汉德勒回忆道。“我已经把她完全带出大楼了，他们却说‘不行，你必须离开’。”
几分钟后，世贸2号楼轰然倒塌，正好砸在他将那位他本以为救下的女士留在那里的救护车上方。
“我当时想，我得找到她的家人，”汉德勒说。“几周后公司举办了一场‘劫后余生庆祝会’，我在会上说我在找这位女士的家人。他们说‘她就在那边’。”
她的名字是冯尼·约翰逊。汉德勒说，每年9月11日他都会收到约翰逊的邮件，直到大约10年前，邮件戛然而止。“我四处打听，试着想弄清楚她到底怎么了，但一直没能找到。”
我们也没能找到她。毕竟，25年是一段很长的时间。
随着岁月流逝，设计和建造合适的纪念场所这项艰巨却又具有疗愈意义的工作慢慢推进。
蒂姆·兰伯特最终将他在宾夕法尼亚州尚克斯维尔的部分土地捐赠给了93号航班遇难者家属。“我曾发誓，绝不从这片坠机现场所在的6英亩土地上获利，”他说。
至于那面从五角大楼救出的旗帜，如今被安放在弗吉尼亚州国家海军陆战队博物馆的荣誉展柜中。“我认为它成为了我们韧性、绝不放弃的象征，”潘塔莱奥说。“背后的理念是，我们不会离开，我们会昂首挺胸，我们会坚强挺立，哪怕遭遇这一切浩劫，我们仍将继续前进，做出回应。”
这场回应持续了接下来的20年。超过7000名美国军人在伊拉克和阿富汗战争中阵亡。美国纳税人为此付出了数万亿美元的代价。
劳雷尔·霍默失去了父亲勒罗伊·霍默 Jr.，他是联合航空93号航班的副机长。家庭照片
劳雷尔·霍默也付出了自己的代价：“我可能这辈子都得为此接受心理治疗，”她说。“我三岁就开始接受这方面的治疗，所以偶尔也会有好日子，但我甚至不觉得自己真正开心过。我觉得，哪怕在本该最开心的日子里，我还是会想起失去的亲人，想起自己不曾拥有的东西。”
当被问及他是否认为9·11得到了应有的纪念时，潘塔莱奥回答说：“可能没有，可能没有，因为我们太专注于当下发生的事情。我觉得有时候我们会忘记回头看看。”
对许多幸存者来说，这次25周年纪念和第一次、第十次、第二十次纪念并没有什么不同。事实上，9·11的故事仍在被书写。
“已经快25年了，”霍默说。“也许我该再往前看一点。但这仍然很难，真的很难，我真的不知道该怎么办。”
Remembering 9/11: Where tragedy left its marks
2026-09-06 09:19 EDT / CBS News
By
Updated on: September 6, 2026 / 10:47 AM EDT / CBS News
There’s a fine line between “never forgetting” 9/11, and “always reminding.” Too much is distasteful, too little is disrespectful.
You might think after all this time, there’s no bell left un-rung, no prayer unsaid, no song that hasn’t been sung. After 25 years, the most fitting way we can think of to keep the day close is talking to those who were there.
Ground Zero
“You could see flames shooting out of, you know, all sides of the North Tower,” said Harry Handler, who was on the 67th floor of the other tower, 2 World Trade Center. “The building made an announcement that said, ‘There’s been an incident in 1 World Trade Center. If you’re in 2 World Trade Center, return to your desks.’ I thought, this is just a bad idea.”
Seventeen minutes later, a second plane hit his tower. He began leaping down flights of stairs, 12 steps at a time.
And then he stopped. “I ran into a woman who was leaning against the bannister having an asthma attack,” Handler said. “I said, ‘Well, let me take you down.’ She took my arm. Even though she was breathing heavily, we went very slowly down the stairs.”
They had no idea that a third plane had hit the Pentagon.
The Pentagon
“Things were not where you’d expect them to be,” said Marine Major Dan Pantaleo, who rushed in to help, though no one had asked him to. “There was a part of a desk that was sort of in the ceiling. There was what looked like a safe that was turned sideways and embedded into the wall.”
Rural Pennsylvania
Just a half an hour later, the last of the planes, likely headed to Washington, too, crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Passengers, having gotten word of the attack on both New York and the Pentagon, had stormed the cockpit.
“On that dark day, 40 people did something that gave America hope,” said Tim Lambert. “They’re faced with the worst thing, and they voted to do something about it, and they did.”
Lambert’s family had owned the land where United Flight 93 went down since the 1930s.
“Those trees took the brunt of the explosion,” he said. “And then, over time, we saw Nature start to take hold again. Grass was growing, wildlife was coming back. But the reminders of what happened there were always constant.”
One of the names on the Flight 93 Memorial is First Officer LeRoy Homer Jr. His only daughter, Laurel, was 10 months old. “I feel like it’s something I struggle with a lot still,” Laurel told us. “It’s like what my life was supposed to be, versus what it ended up being, and just not even knowing who I would have been.”
Harry Handler, Laurel Homer, and Marine Major Dan Pantaleo. CBS News
Over time, she attended summer camps organized for survivors, but after 25 years, those camp-goers are now all adults.
“I kind of grew up with a level of shame to the whole thing, and I was bullied at points for it,” Homer said. “This girl, like, wrote ‘DD’ on a paper, and she was like, what does that stand for? And then she said, ‘Dead Dad.’ And then ever since then, I don’t think I really had a great place to grieve in a healthy way.”
Each sees these annual 9/11 observances a little differently.
“They’re all tough,” said Handler. “Sometimes I don’t sleep well, and think, ‘Oh right, it’s September. People are thinking about it again.’”
Harry Handler at the 911 Memorial in Lower Manhattan. CBS News
Pantaleo said, “There’s a flood of emotions. I remember things like all of the American flags on people’s houses just popping up all over the place. So, I go back to that, and I’m hopeful, but then I also recall the incredible devastation and destruction, and that’s a different experience for me.”
For four days, Pantaleo recovered more than a hundred sets of remains from the still-smoldering Pentagon. But he also recovered a bit of light: a scarlet-and-gold Marine Corps flag that, remarkably, was still standing upright, teetering on the edge of the scar. “It was just incredible to see it up there on the fourth floor, pristine, untouched, unfazed by all the destruction around it,” Pantaleo said. “It felt like we just couldn’t let that flag be another victim.”
Marine Major Dan Pantaleo retrieving a Marine Corps flag from the Pentagon. CBS News
In the midst of the chaos, Pantaleo soon found himself on a lift inching up to get the flag still wreaking of jet fuel. He brought it down to safety, much the way Harry Handler brought that stranger down from Tower 2 in New York.
“I took her to an ambulance and I said I’ll stay with you,” Handler recalled. “I had gotten her all the way out of the building, and they said, ‘No, you have to leave.’”
Minutes later, Tower 2 collapsed right on top of the ambulance where he left the woman he hoped he’d saved.
“I thought, I need to find her family,” Handler said. “There was an event that the firm had, it was like a happy-to-be-alive event a few weeks later, and I was explaining that I was looking for this woman’s family. And they said, ‘She’s right over there.’”
Her name is Vonnie Johnson. Handler says he got an email from Johnson every September 11th, until about ten years ago, when the emails stopped. “I looked around, you know, and searched and tried to find out what happened to her, but I never did.”
We didn’t find her, either. After all, 25 years is a long time.
As the years passed, the difficult but healing task of designing and building fitting memorials crept along.
Tim Lambert ended up donating part of his property in Shanksville, Pa., back to the Flight 93 families. “One of the things that I had vowed was to never take money for those six acres that were part of the crash site,” he said.
As for that flag rescued from the Pentagon, it now sits in a place of honor, at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia. “I think it became a symbol of our resilience, our refusal to quit,” Pantaleo said. “The idea behind, we’re not going anywhere, we’re standing tall, we’re standing strong, and all this devastation, we’re gonna still step forward and respond to this.”
That response lasted for the next 20 years. More than 7,000 U.S. service men and women were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost to U.S. taxpayers was in the trillions.
Laurel Homer lost her father, LeRoy Homer Jr., who was first officer aboard United Flight 93. Family Photo
Laurel Homer paid her own price: “I’ll probably be in therapy for the rest of my life still about this,” she said. “I started therapy when I was three about this, so I’ll have good days and stuff, but I don’t even know that I’ve ever been fully happy, and I feel like, even on the days that I’m supposed to be the happiest, I still am thinking about who I’ve lost and what I don’t have.”
Asked if he believes 9/11 gets the remembrance it deserves, Pantaleo replied, “Probably not, probably not, because we’re so focused on what happens right now, today. And I think sometimes we forget to look back.”
For many survivors, this 25th anniversary is really no different than the first, the 10th, or the 20th. Truth is, the story of 9/11 is still being written.
“It has been almost 25 years,” said Homer. “Maybe I need to move forward a bit more. But it’s still really hard, so I don’t know, I really don’t.”
