CFAY marks the 25th 9/11 Anniversary with a Remembrance Ceremony
FLEET ACTIVITIES YOKOSUKA, Japan (Sept. 11, 2026) — Sailors and community members at Fleet Activities Yokosuka honored the 2,977 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during a ceremony on the attacks' 25th anniversary.
The observance is an annual tradition at the U.S. Navy's largest overseas installation. Participants gathered in the C2 auditorium, where bells tolled for each of the four hijacked aircraft.
Capt. Jonathan Hopkins, commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, and Chris Soliz, acting deputy fire chief for Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) Fire and Emergency Services, laid a wreath in remembrance.
"Chief petty officers are the custodians of Navy history and heritage," said Chief Electronics Technician Chanece McKoy, the event coordinator. "Involving chief selectees alongside chief petty officers emphasizes the duty to preserve these traditions and reinforces to the next generation of service members why maintaining a resilient warfighting mindset remains essential."
The attacks killed 343 New York City firefighters, along with eight emergency medical workers and 60 law enforcement officers.
"Twenty-five years is significant because we are honoring the pledge to never forget," said Soliz. "Those are easy words, but I will be doing the same thing in another 25 years, and every year in between."
Soliz, a firefighter since 1994, was assigned to Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado on the day of the attacks, the underground complex housing the North American Aerospace Defense Command's operations center. Off duty at home, he learned the installation's blast doors had been sealed for the first time in its history. Friday was his first time taking part in the Yokosuka ceremony.
Chief Information Systems Technician (Select) Philip Schwenk, the master of ceremonies for the event, was a fifth grader in Staten Island, New York, in 2001.
"We should pass along our stories to our junior Sailors and families," Schwenk said, "some of whom had not even been born yet on that fateful day."
Nineteen hijackers seized four commercial airliners that morning. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 struck the World Trade Center. American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pa., after passengers and crew fought to retake the cockpit from hijackers believed to be headed for Washington.
"I want attendees to walk away understanding the magnitude of how this event affected everyone," McKoy said, "whether they were in New York or watching it unfold on an old television set."
For more than 80 years, CFAY has provided, maintained, and operated base facilities and services in support of the U.S. 7th Fleet's forward-deployed naval forces, tenant commands, and thousands of military and civilian personnel and their families.
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