Johnson tells Patriot Day crowd of close brush with Sept. 11

The U.S. Marine Corps League Honor Guard presented the colors during Friday's Patriot Day Observance on Shelbyville's public square. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Order this photo]

Whether you were at home, work, attending school or commuting, it's hard to erase that day from memory.

For Scott Johnson, director of Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, the day has special meaning. He was supposed to be at the Pentagon for a meeting on that day.

Johnson related his story Friday to a crowd of over 200 that attended the county's Patriot Day observance on the Shelbyville square to honor the city's and county's first responders.

Calling the events of eight years ago "the worst and most cowardly act of terrorism ever committed on American soil," Johnson asked the crowd if they remembered how they reacted when they heard or saw what had happened.

Images like the ordinary people leaping from the World Trade Center in New York will stay with us forever, Johnson said.

Johnson was working as a federal agent for the Air Force that morning. Fortunately for Johnson, the meeting at the Pentagon was rescheduled.

But his wife Alice, who was teaching in a nearby suburb of Washington, D.C., did not know the meeting had been moved, so when the school principal came in to tell her that the Pentagon had been attacked, she tried to get in touch with her husband.

However, phone lines were overwhelmed and she could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon. While she assisted with locking down the school, it would be several hours until she would learn that her husband was unharmed.

Johnson was across the Potomac River at Andrews Air Force Base, where he helped put together forensic teams to sift through the carnage left in the wake of the terrorist attack.

In honor of those who died in the nation's capital that day, Johnson wore his Pentagon ID badge.

Our society has all sorts of heroes, Johnson said, but the ones that stood out that day were the first responders who entered the World Trade Center that morning ...many of which never returned.

Special recognition was given to the county's first responders who were represented -- the Tennessee National Guard, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Bedford County Sheriff's Department, Shelbyville's police and fire departments, Bedford County Fire Department, Bedford County Emergency Medical Service, Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, the 911 Communications Center and Bedford County Rescue Unit.

As each group was named, members of each agency would activate the lights on their emergency vehicles.

County Mayor Eugene Ray also issued a special proclamation honoring Curtis Stacy for his 36 years of volunteer work with the county's rescue squad.