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Remembering Sept. 11, 2001

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks on our country on Sept. 11, 2001.

At exactly 8:45 a.m., our national sense of security would be forever shattered when the first hijacked jetliner was flown into the World Trade Center by Islamic terrorists.

Despite the passage of 16 years, our nation still faces the threat of radical Islamic terrorism attacks. This year we are facing a renewed threat of nuclear war with North Korea, whose rogue leader keeps launching missiles he claims are capable of reaching the United States and its territories, while also posing a menacing threat to our allies in South Korea and Japan.

While all Americans remember and mourn the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2011, for Columbiana Countians the pain is especially deep because we lost two of our own that day. Wellsville native Catherine Salter died in the World Trade Center collapse and former East Liverpool resident Lt. Col. David Scales was killed at the Pentagon.

Cathy Salter was an honor student and a talented athlete during her days at Wellsville High School. She was 37 years old and worked on the 102nd floor in the South Tower of the World Trade Center when the terrorists flew the jetliner into the tower.

Scales, who had spent his early years in East Liverpool, was a talented pianist who graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in music composition. He was assigned as the personnel policy integrator in the deputy chief of staff’s office at the Pentagon when it was struck by another of the airliners. He was 44 years old when he died in the attack.

We pray that some day our nation will be free of threats of terrorism and war and while we recognize that day may never come, we must be ever vigilant in striving for that goal and never forget those who have lost their lives at the hands of terrorists or in fighting to defend this great nation.

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