At Bossier City’s terraced water feature Liberty Garden, emergency personnel and area residents gathered yesterday to reflect on 9/11 and those who’ve fallen in the line of duty. The ladders of two fire trucks hoisted an enormous American flag high into the air at the ceremony site. Christi Rhodes performed the National Anthem.
“As a citizen of Bossier City all my life, I think everybody can say that on this day you knew exactly where you were and what you were doing. I was at Central Park Elementary School working and watching Air Force One come to Barksdale Air Force Base and take off, and just knowing that today everything was going to change for us," Rhodes said.
The atrocities of 9/11 motivated Bossier City tax assessor Bobby Edmiston to reenlist 22 years after he had left the Louisiana National Guard. He recounted in his speech how his un-deployable unit was called up in 2010 to serve a one-year tour in Iraq. He’d step up again if country called, he said, and he hopes young people understand why.
“Kind of like me with Pearl Harbor, I wasn’t there, I didn’t see it. But obviously we remember it. I just hope that they always remember the sacrifice people made on their behalf, and what it takes to truly keep a country free," Edmiston said.
Edmiston is in the 156th Army Band based in Bossier City.
