Tomorrow marks the nine year anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Almost three-thousand people died in the series of coordinated suicide attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda. The group targeted New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia. An airplane also crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Holmes County native, Edgar McDaniel, like many of us, has clear memories of that tragic day.
"I was driving down the interstate. I was listening to public radio. It was almost surreal. And, I had to pull off to the side of the - excuse me, sorry - off the side of the road when I found out the pentagon was involved," recalls McDaniel.
Two men he watched grow up together in the small Mississippi town of Durant, died that day.
"It was almost like losing part of my family because these guys were special," expresses McDaniel.
Joe Ferguson, who was working with National Geographic, was on American Airlines flight 77. Don "DD" Dickerson, a Lt. Col. with the U.S. Army, was working inside the Pentagon when Ferguson’s airplane crashed into it. Two Mississippi natives connected both in life and death.
"I don't want us to ever forget it because history teaches us not to make mistakes over and over again," explains McDaniel.
And, he hopes this memorial for the two men will last forever.
"This experience has kind of infused the DNA of these two guys into the whole community," adds McDaniel.
McDaniel says he visits the memorial in Durant several times a year.
There are two displays at the site in Durant. One is a state project, the other is a community effort.
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