Fairfax County honored two public safety officers who died from 9/11-related illnesses at a 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 16.

The ceremony at Public Safety Headquarters featured personal accounts from responders who rushed to the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and closed with a tribute to local officers whose service that day led to fatal illness years later, the Connection reported.

Deputy Fire Chief Bill Betz, who responded to the Pentagon as a firefighter stationed in Chantilly, introduced the tribute. He asked for a moment of silence to honor colleagues who died from illnesses tied to their Sept. 11 service.

Department leaders then read two names. The Connection identified them as Master Police Officer Donald "Donnie" A. Lillard Jr., who died March 1, 2023, and Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Michael "Mike" Tameler, who died Dec. 28, 2023.

Betz shared his own memory of that morning in 2001. He had been preparing for a routine simulated plane-crash drill in Chantilly when news of the attacks arrived. The drill was called off. Crews watched the crisis on television before being ordered to the Pentagon.

"… I think the first thing I recognized was the sheer magnitude of the incident," Betz said. He recalled that the scene dwarfed what he had seen on TV.

The ceremony drew county leaders who recounted where they were when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., killing 184 people.

Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay recalled sitting in a meeting with then-Supervisor Gerald Hyland at Sherwood Hall Library when news broke. Sheriff Stacey Kincaid said she was awakened at home after a midnight shift by a supervisor's call telling her a plane had hit the Pentagon. Fairfax County deputies deployed there while others traveled to New York to support law enforcement, Kincaid said.

Fire and Rescue Chief John Butler invoked the 343 FDNY firefighters and paramedics who died at the World Trade Center. Police Chief Kevin Davis said the attacks changed the scope of local law enforcement. Before Sept. 11, 2001, only the military and federal agencies fought terrorism, Davis said. That responsibility now falls on all officers.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi also spoke at the ceremony.

The event bridged generations. Fairfax County Firefighter Kevin Huheey, who sang the national anthem, was not yet born on Sept. 11, 2001. When Betz asked where he had been that day, Huheey replied: "Well, I wasn't born yet."

Two Reston residents were among those killed aboard Flight 77: Norma Cruz Khan, 45, and Leonard Taylor, 44. A bronze memorial sculpture by artist Kathy Walden Kaplan stands at Freedom Grove at Brown's Chapel in their honor.

After the ceremony, attendees were invited inside Public Safety Headquarters to view museum artifacts from the response.