BLACKSBURG, Va. – Many college students are too young to fully remember 9/11 when it happened, but the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets remembered the tragedy on its 18th anniversary with a special salute.
All of the more than 1,200 cadets in the corps arranged in a "silent formation" Wednesday morning to honor the 9/11 victims. The cadets only do the silent formation on 9/11 and on April 16, the anniversary of the 2007 mass shooting on Virginia Tech's campus.
"We remember and honor those who have fallen, but also strive for a better future by following in their footsteps," said cadet Jillian Skahill.
The program also honored Virginia Tech's current first responders.
Although most of the cadets were infants or toddlers when 9/11 happened, they say they're still aware of the impact it made on America and the world.
"Everything we do is building towards preventing or leading through a scenario like this, which hopefully never happens again," said Skahill.
Ruben Arbex-Murut and his group, the Virginia Tech Young Americans for Freedom, also witnessed the cadets' salute. His group also paid their respects to 9/11 by arranging 3,000 American flags on Virginia Tech's drillfield; each flag represents a 9/11 victim.
"This makes me proud of my school, the Corps of Cadets, and my country," Arbex-Murut said. "Even if you don't remember personally watching it on TV when we were infants, we definitely all know about it and hope our generation doesn't forget about it."