Former Vice President Mike Pence has published an essay marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, recounting his own experience that day and paying tribute to the servicemembers, police officers, firefighters and border agents who have defended the country since.
Pence, who was a member of Congress on September 11, 2001, wrote that he crossed the street to the Capitol shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and later joined other members in the basement of the Capitol Hill Police headquarters for a briefing on the unfolding threat. He recalled that Tom Ridge, then serving as President George W. Bush’s homeland security adviser, told the group: “The only thing we know for sure is that they want to hit us again, and they want to hit us worse.”
A History of Attacks Before 2001
Pence’s essay traces a string of terrorist attacks against Americans in the decades before 9/11: the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 American servicemen; the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, including 190 Americans; the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured more than 1,000; the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people; and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors.
He argued that before 9/11, the government’s posture toward terrorism was largely reactive — investigating and mourning after each attack rather than working to prevent the next one.
“September 11 Broke That Rhythm”
Pence wrote that the attacks changed that pattern permanently, citing the firefighters and police who ran into the Twin Towers and the passengers who stormed the cockpit on the flight that went down over Pennsylvania as the start of a new national resolve to find terrorists before they could strike again.
He credited nearly three million American servicemembers who deployed in the wars that followed, noting that more than 7,000 gave their lives and tens of thousands were wounded in the effort to dismantle terrorist networks and kill or capture their leaders, including Osama bin Laden. He also pointed to the later campaign against ISIS, in which American forces and allies liberated nearly 110,000 square kilometers of territory and freed 7.7 million people from the group’s rule.
Defenders at Home
Beyond the battlefield, Pence highlighted law enforcement officers, Border Patrol agents and air marshals who have worked to prevent attacks on U.S. soil. He specifically noted that in New York City, 58 children of FDNY firefighters killed on September 11 have since grown up to join the same fire department their fathers served.
“Their greatest accomplishment is measured by what did not happen,” Pence wrote, arguing that the wave of catastrophic attacks many feared after 9/11 never materialized — not because terrorists stopped trying, but because those tasked with stopping them succeeded.
A Call to Remember
Pence’s essay closes by asking Americans to remember the 2,977 people who died in the attacks and to honor those who died in the conflicts that followed. He wrote that the country’s security since has been paid for “by Americans whose names we know and countless others whose names we never will.”
Invoking the nation’s founders, Pence wrote that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” and urged Americans not to forget the sacrifices made over the past 25 years or to let down their guard going forward.
