Dakota City 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony to Be Held Indoors

In remembrance of the lives lost on 9/11 19 years ago today, a ceremony will be held at the Dakota City Fire Hall tonight at 7 p.m. American Legion VFW Posts, Dakota County Sheriff’s Department, South Sioux City Police Department, and Fire and Rescue Departments from the surrounding tri-state area in northeast Nebraska organized the event. The public is encouraged to attend the service.

Names will be read, bells will ring and a candle vigil will be held tonight to honor and remember the victims of 9/11. John Ludwick is the post commander for the American Legion Post 307 in South Sioux City and says the event honors those who were called into action.

"This is remembrance for those first responders that they bravely went in to save people, and lost their lives doing it," Ludwick says. "Heroism above and beyond the call of duty."

Due to weather concerns, the event will be indoors and won’t have an American Flag retirement and disposal outside.

"Later on in the week, when the weather straightens up, we will do the flag retirement at Freedom Park, and that's when the fire departments show up," Ludwick says. "As we burn the flags, the fire trucks will shoot a stream of water at each other, trying to make a halo, and we do the ceremony from there, do a proper flag retirement."

Despite the short ceremony and weather conditions, Dakota City Fire Chief Clint Rasmussen, says it is important to continue the remembrance.

"9/11 was a very important day in American history and we continue to remember and reflect on what events happened that day," Rasmussen says. "The firemen, the EMTs, first responders, police officers, and all the public people that lost their lives, that we will always remember this day, and we will always be there to honor them for their sacrifices they made that day."