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Weho's Brad Burlingame Gives Keynote Address at 9/11 Ceremony

Brother of the American Airlines Flight 77 pilot speaks at the unveiling of the 9/11 Memorial Garden in Beverly Hills.

Hundreds gathered in front of the Beverly Hills Fire Department Sunday afternoon to remember the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, and to witness the dedication of the .

Brad Burlingame, brother of American Airlines Flight 77 pilot Capt. Charles “Chic” Burlingame, presented the keynote address for the ceremony. Chic’s plane was flown into the Pentagon after being taken over by hijackers.

“Ten years ago today, my wife and I woke up like any other Americans. What I didn’t know was that at that very moment, Capt. Charles Burlingame was in a fight against the terrorists who had burst into his cockpit,” Burlingame said. “The struggle lasted almost five minutes. Chic was a pretty tough guy, but he was outnumbered and was one of the first to die in the war against terror.”

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While Chic’s wife hoped searchers would find his wedding band in the rubble, only Chic’s passport and a prayer card from his mother’s funeral 10 months earlier were recovered. The prayer card is currently on display in an exhibit featuring Sept. 11 memorabilia at the .

Although a decade has passed since the single largest loss of life from a foreign attack on U.S. soil, the impact of those events was evident to anyone at the ceremony who happened to look up. Beverly Hills SWAT team snipers were strategically placed on all nearby rooftops to protect those gathered from anyone attempting to interfere with the event.

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Cub Scout Ryan Robertson, 9, was born one week after the Sept. 11 attacks. He was at the ceremony to see the memorial and to “thank the firefighters for trying to help our country.”

Ryan has learned about Sept. 11 in school, but said it doesn’t scare him. “I don’t think anything like that will happen again,” Ryan said. “We’re prepared now.”

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