Blake Baur, an Air Force veteran and Yale College student from Wisconsin, was just a toddler on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. He first recalls learning about the terror attacks, a few years later, from older family members who shared their memories, or when teachers would wheel TV sets into his elementary school classroom to screen documentaries on 9/11 anniversaries. Karolina Burtell, a Michigan native who also served in the Air Force before enrolling at Yale, also remembers her parents trying to explain to her the events of that awful day, years after the fact, and watching online footage as a young girl.Like most other current Yale College students, Gabe Sachs, a junior from Maryland and Naval ROTC student, wasn’t even born yet. Indeed, while so many people old enough to remember Sept. 11 count it among the indelible experiences of their lives, for a generation of young adults it’s a chapter of history absorbed through classroom lessons, films, and YouTube clips.
Some want to feel closer to it, or at least better grasp the meaning of the tragedy. Among them Thursday were scores of ROTC students and military veterans who gathered at Yale’s Reese Stadium for a memorial stair climb in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the 2001 attacks.For these students — more than 80 of them, including members of Yale’s Air Force, Naval, and Army ROTC, as well as peers from across the region — the early morning challenge offered an opportunity to better appreciate 9/11 and the sacrifices made by so many people that day and in the years since.“We do this to honor the men and women who lost their lives in service of others or in defending our freedoms,” said Michalah Dillard, a senior cadet in the Air Force ROTC from Southern Connecticut State who organized the event. “The events of 9/11 inspired a generation of people, including those of us who are here today.”
