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Sept. 11 Photo Exhibit 'Quite a Reminder,' Visitor Says
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service

Firefighters from Farmingville, N.Y., hike through dust and smoke at Nassau and Fulton streets in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001. The photo is among more than 3,500 that comprise the September 11 Photo Project, now on display at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., until April 7, 2002.
Image Credit: Robert McMahan.

"We saw both of the planes going into the World Trade Center buildings and some people were scared because they thought a plane was going to crash into the school," 11-year-old sixth-grader Noel Cawthorne said. "We had to go to the cafeteria. Some kids were crying and they told our parents to come and get us."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Beverley Bradley-Topping ambled from display to display down the long, curved exhibit gallery of the Women's Memorial as she slowly viewed the more than 3,500 pictures in the September 11 Photo Project.

Calling the huge display "quite a reminder," she said, "It causes each of us to reflect on the freedoms we have, the cost to defend freedom and the sacrifice that was made, and the devastation and loss of lives and property.

"It shows something that just can't be recovered," said Bradley-Topping, a human resources manager at the Office of Naval Intelligence in Suitland, Md.

She said, personally, the terrorist attacks on America only cost her time she would have spent with her husband. She was in her office in Suitland, and her husband, Lt. Michael Topping Sr., was aboard the USS Enterprise en route home on Sept. 11, 2001. The aircraft carrier group was ordered to turn around and its aircraft were among the first to fly strikes on al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

The photographs in the September 11 Photo Project awe 11-year-old sixth-graders Alena Watts and Noel Cawthorne of Washington.
Image Credit: Rudi Williams -- AFIS.

Lt. Topping is now the administrative officer in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Resources, Requirements and Assessments at the Pentagon.

Bradley-Topping's March 14 visit to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial coincided with the DoD Women's History Month observance there hosted by David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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