As the country remembers those who perished 17 years ago that fateful day, West Virginia's brave men and women continued to do the same into the night.
Bobby Palmer and his Bradley-Prosperity Volunteer Fire Department was one of countless stations participating in Raleigh County's 17th 9/11 Silent Parade.
"They do it out of the kindness of their heart," Palmer said. "Ever since the first year that this parade went on, literally every year that it's progressed it has grown more and more each year."
The parade was a three-mile quiet processional of all lights and no sirens. Nevertheless, the message was loud and clear for anyone watching by. Madison Day and Carly Burgess were both born after 9/11, but understood the profound impact it had on all of humanity.
"Those people died there," Day said. "It really made me sad."
"You can celebrate the people that died," Burgess said.
The parade was an illuminating tribute to men and women of courage, who were gone too soon.