“I can remember exactly what I was doing 25 years ago. I got a call from my daughter, and I could tell from her voice there was something going on.”
That was Dale Michelic’s story, and most Americans have one: a story of where they were when they heard the news on Sept. 11, 2001, that planes had struck the World Trade Center in a terror attack that would claim the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
Michelic, the president of Brookfield’s Joshua Harris VFW Auxiliary Post 2868 shared his story in a speech given the morning of Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at a memorial event held at Veterans Memorial Park, at the intersections of Grand Boulevard and Sunnyside and Grant avenues, at 11 a.m.
The event had about 40 people attending, including many Brookfield police and fire staff. It included the lowering of the United States, Illinois and Brookfield flags before Village President Michael Garvey and Michelic gave speeches. Then, Police Chief Michael Kuruvilla and Interim Fire Chief Matthew Dubik placed a red, white and blue wreath before the memorial statue for those killed in action. The ceremony concluded with a moment of silence before the playing of taps, a bugle call used to mark the end of such memorial events as well as military funerals.
Garvey began his speech by sharing the statistic that about 100 million Americans were too young to remember or were born since Sept. 11, 2001.
“It’s very important that we share our memories, and we make sure they know what the day is about, what happened that day and what happened after that day,” he said. “What I remember most prominently has changed. I remember the day it happened, the first thoughts through my head were, I think, what a lot of people had: shock, anger, fear about what was going on.”
Now, he said, his primary association with the attack is the reactions people had in its wake.
“I remember the heroes, the people that stepped up, the first responders that ran toward the burning buildings, the number of people that helped out in the days, weeks and months after that and continue to do so. I remember how the country came together and acted as one. We were unified,” he said.
He lauded people who decided to join the military after the attack to seek justice and “protect us from that ever happening again” as well as the “renewed sense of respect” that communities across the country developed for first responders.
Michelic began his speech by recounting the events of the day: the first impact on the World Trade Center at 8:47 a.m., the second impact 17 minutes later, the impact on the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. and the plane crash into a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, after the passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers. All told 2,977 people died that morning.
“I, like other Americans, got together that evening with my family, wondering who was responsible for these attacks and what next might happen. I recall looking in the sky that evening and not seeing any planes. That was very surreal,” he said.
Afterwards, he recounted the story of his phone call with his daughter and the impact of the attacks on him to the Landmark.
“It made me more aware of my surroundings and much more aware of people and all that you have to watch for,” Michelic said. “I think it made us all more aware of what’s going on in this world. I hope it keeps us safer.”
