9/11 Service in Manhattan Beach

He lingered, two laminated pieces of paper in hand. All but a few attendees from the city-sponsored 8 a.m. 9/11 ceremony remained, chatting with one another and checking out Manhattan Beach's Sept. 11 memorial at the corner of 15th Street and Valley Drive.

For Brandon of Harbor City, this wasn't his first visit to the MB 9/11 memorial. He'd been to previous 9/11 ceremonies on the site, paying his respects to two friends he lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

He worked with Chandler [Chad] Keller, a Manhattan Beach native, at Boeing in El Segundo and had attended high school in New Jersey with Jeaninne Damiani-Jones. At 28, she perished while working for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of Tower 1 at the World Trade Center. At 29, he was on American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon.

As he lingered, with laminated articles that showed his friends, Brandon touched the beams from the World Trade Center that stand erect, not fallen, in the monument. He snapped photos from different angles. He looked at the flowers placed on and around the memorial. He looked like he didn't want to leave.

Through silent tears, he explained how devastating the loss of his friends remains and how he'd tried to find Keller's surfboard tribute bench in Bruce's Beach the night before but wan't able to. He was heading there next to find the bench in the daylight. Then he was off to church.

Manhattan Beach firefighter Tim O'Brien, who'd gone to ground zero to assist with technical rescue along with fellow firefighter Jeff Sanders [now retired] right after the tragedy, said that he wanted the day's focus to be on those who died that day and the people who'd lost their loved one(s). He saw his efforts in 2001 as what needed to be done, doing his job. He said he and Sanders provided ears for New York firefighters' stories of loss while working 12-hour shifts trying to find survivors. They didn't find any. 

In a strange coincidence, he and Sanders took a special piece of equipment, in development by Hi-Shear Corporation, to New York to drill through rubble. The man who'd created the portable and compact, therefore easily transported, piece of equipment died on 9/11 when he was a passenger on one of the jets that hit the towers.

Several hundred people and some dogs gathered in the intersection of 15th Street with Valley Drive adjacent the 9/11 memorial for the city's 9/11 ceremony.

The ceremony began with the city's fire and police honor guards posting the colors. MB Police Explorer Mike Estrada led the pledge of allegiance. Manhattan Beach Middle School Senior Wave Chorale sang The Star Spangled Banner and the school's string ensemble delivered poignant versions of America the Beautiful and God Bless America.

MBPD Sergeant Ryan Small gave the invocation and benediction; MBFD Battalion Chief Ken Shuck welcomed and introduced guests and gave closing remarks; Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Powell and Councilman Richard Montgomery spoke, as did MBFD Chief Robert Espinosa, MBPD Chief Eve Irvine and the architect of the city's 9/11 memorial Patrick Killen.

A particularly touching moment was the release of white doves that circled in the Manhattan Beach sky and disappeared.

Anyone who would like a program from the ceremony can pick one up in the lobby of the police/fire building at 400/420 15th Street or access the PDF of it attached to this article and print.