SCRANTON, Pa. — With a list of names in her hand, Karen Kalie of Shickshinny stared at the faces of more than 5,000 fallen soldiers who were killed in action following 9/11 at McDade Park in Scranton.
She's looking to find each person she's read about in war books.
"Were just looking for those individuals so we can see what they look like, and see more about their stories, and I love how they have the pictures of when they were younger or pictures with their family and those kinda things. So it's just kinda I guess my own little way of remembering someone that I never knew, but want to know something more about them," said Karen Kalie of Skickshinny.
The Remembering Our Fallen national monument is a part of a special ceremony that paid tribute and remembered the lives lost on 9/11 and those who died in the War on Terror from 9/11 to August 31, 2021, when the U.S. pulled troops out of Afghanistan.
Organizer Kendra Lynn's brother is among them.
Steven Tudor, the former Army staff sergeant, was killed in Iraq in 2007.
"It means a lot to not just know that there names, that there also face behind those names, and they all have a story, they were regular ordinary people just like us who chose you to know to give their life for our country, and that's just what they did," said Kendra Lynn.
Now the last time this memorial was here in our area was back in 2018. So to have it on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 is a very special honor.
"We have it, and we have it for a reason and that's for everyone out there to pay their respects to these heroes," Lynn said. "Whether you know them or not they still fought for you and we cannot forget about them."
"You know they were brave and served our country and I just felt like I wanted to say Thank-you and this is the only way I could think of it," said Andra Barycki of Old Forge.
A simple gesture, but it speaks volumes.
The memorial will continue to be on display here in Scranton until Tuesday night for anyone who wishes to see it.