Nineteen years ago, three Westfield natives were among those killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, and their hometown remembered them Friday in an annual ceremony at the memorial erected in their honor.
The 9/11 Memorial Park is dedicated to Westfield natives Tara Shea-Creamer, Brian Murphy, and Daniel Trant, who died in the attacks launched on Sept. 11, 2001. Shea-Creamer was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first of two planes to crash into World Trade Center towers in New York, while Murphy and Trant were at work in the World Trade Center.
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The ceremony was led by Mayor Donald F. Humason Jr., and included speakers U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, and state Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield, all of whom spoke of the need to never forget 9/11, the nearly 3,000 lives that were lost that day, and the resiliency of our country.
Velis said it is critical for the citizens of Westfield and the rest of the country to always remember the importance of 9/11, which left a profound effect on world affairs to this day.
“Here in Westfield we don’t forget the day that changed America forever,” he said. “I wonder if the cowards who are to blame anticipated that 19 years later we’d still be here today.”