Jim Matheson: “when we evacuated our office a year ago, and I could see the black smoke rising above the Pentagon, I knew our country…”

“when we evacuated our office a year ago, and I could see the black smoke rising above the Pentagon, I knew our country was under attack. The inconceivable was taking place. The passing days brought more heartache than many of us thought we could bear. The hijackings and plane crashes took the lives of three Utahns--two who were on board the plane that hit the north tower of the World Trade Center and one who was on duty at the Pentagon. Mary Alice Wahlstrom, of Kaysville, Utah and her daughter Carolyn, died together--two talented musicians whose families still grieve for the loss of their wives and mothers. Brady Howell of Centerville, Utah died--along with 188 others--when hijackers struck the Pentagon. His family--including his wife Liz--had to endure one agonizing week before learning his fate. A year of sorrowful birthdays and holidays has gone by, with a much-loved husband and wife, brother and sister, son and daughter, missing from the family pictures. Their names and their lives will always remind us of the goodness that is America--goodness that the terrorists sought to destroy. But we know that the terrorists will not succeed. Their cowardly attack took the lives of 343 members of the New York City Fire Department, but not the determination of 62 search and rescue team members from Salt Lake County. They rushed to New York, working 12-hour shifts, searching the rubble at Ground Zero for more than a week.”