20 Years Later, Remembering Secaucus' 6 9/11 Victims

Secaucus NJ

10 September, 2021

12:55 PM

Description

NEW JERSEY— Anyone older than 25 in New Jersey likely remembers where they were on 9/11. Americans felt a collective trauma as first one and then another plane flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. As the truth dawned on people watching from their TVs that America was under attack, another plane took aim at the Pentagon. A fourth was brought down in a field in Pennsylvania in a final act of heroism by passengers who realized their flight had been hijacked. Nearly 3,000 Americans, including 750 from New Jersey, were killed in the suicide attacks carried out by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida. On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, here are all the Secaucus residents killed in 9/11. All of these people were working in either the North or South World Trade Center tower when they died: Arlene Babakitis: Worked a 30-year career at the Port Authority, as an E-ZPass coordinator in the World Trade Center. Richard Cudin: Killed while working in his Can­tor Fitzgerald office on the 105th floorNancy Perez: 36, A Port Authority supervisor at One World Trade Center. Kenneth Simon: 34, an equities trader for Cantor Fitzgerald in 1 World Trade Center, where his father, Arthur, worked a few flights down.Michael Tanner: 44, lived in Secaucus, a trader with Cantor. Nicknamed "Tiny" because of his tall height. He was a husband and a father who grew up in Secaucus. He was a star football player in high school and went on to Cornell University, where he lettered in football for all four years as the quarterback.Steven Strobert: 33, a Secaucus native who had recently moved to Ridgewood. He worked as a trader for Cantor, where he had worked for the past 11 years. 20 minutes before the towers were hit, he called his wife to let her know he had gotten to work OK. The town of Secaucus will hold its ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the memorial site at the Secaucus Library. At the 9/11 memorial in Lower Manhattan, the names of the fallen will be read aloud. The annual "Tribute of Light," which are lights pointed to the sky in the shape of the Twin Towers, will go on that night. Most 9/11 victims were from either New York or New Jersey, where many who lived across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center recall the horror of watching the twin towers collapse from their homes in Hoboken and Jersey City. More than 2,700 people died at the World Trade Center alone on 9/11, including the passengers of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. Another 184 were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and 44 died on United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.