9/11 remembrance ceremony takes place in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — WNCT is providing team coverage of several of the 9/11 remembrance ceremonies across Eastern North Carolina Wednesday.

In Jacksonville, thousands of servicemen and servicewomen were also remembered for their ultimate sacrifice. The backdrop of the ceremony was a steel beam from the World Trade Center.

“The idea that terrorists could hijack planes and hit targets in this country, it just, it was beyond me. I just couldn’t grasp it,” President of Onslow County Veterans Council Paul Levesque said.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Levesque was waiting on a phone call from a future employer. As a veteran, he was in between jobs at the time and he soon would find out why that future employer couldn’t speak to him when he turned on his television.

“I’m thinking, thinking, ‘Wow, they just lost control of the plane and crashed into this phone tower,'” he said. “The next thing you know, another one hits. And then you know this. As I said, this is something wrong, something really bad.”

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