Stair climbs, solemn ceremonies mark 25th anniversary of 9/11 at overseas bases

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — U.S. military bases around the world marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks Friday with ceremonies, stair climbs and other physical challenges honoring victims and first responders.

At Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southwestern Japan, participants in the installation’s 13th annual 9/11 stair climb donned firefighting gear and carried hoses and other equipment up six flights of stairs 22 times, symbolizing the 110 floors of the World Trade Center towers.

Each participant carried a photo of one of the 343 New York City firefighters who died responding to the attacks.

“It’s a living memorial to the firefighters, police officers and rescue workers and the thousands of innocent lives who died running toward danger instead of away from it,” MCAS Iwakuni commander Col. Kenneth Rossman said at the event.

Photos of the 343 New York firefighters who died responding to the 9/11 attacks were part of the 13th annual memorial stair climb at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on Sept. 11, 2026. (Janiqua Robinson/Stars and Stripes)

On Okinawa — home to several major U.S. installations — the services commemorated the anniversary in various ways.

The Navy hosted an early morning hike, walk and run at White Beach Naval Facility, while the Air Force planned a similar event in the afternoon at Kadena Air Base.

About 75 Marines, Japanese firefighters and others gathered at Camp Foster Fire Station 1 for a half-hour ceremony that included a moment of silence for the 2,977 people killed in the attacks.

Lance Cpl. Noah Terrazas takes part in the 13th annual 9/11 stair climb at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on Sept. 11, 2026. (Janiqua Robinson/Stars and Stripes)

Heavy rain forced an indoor ceremony at Yokosuka Naval Base — the 7th Fleet’s home south of Tokyo — where about 200 people watched base commander Capt. Jonathan Hopkins and Navy Region Japan Fire Chief Christopher Soliz lay a wreath for the victims.

“I think [this] demonstrates that we are honoring our pledge to never forget,” Soliz told Stars and Stripes after the ceremony.

At Osan Air Base in South Korea, the 51st Fighter Wing marked the anniversary with a 5-mile march, a stair climb and a ceremony that included reading victims’ names, a moment of silence and the traditional tolling of a firefighter’s bell.

A sailor rings a ceremonial bell during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony in the C-2 Auditorium at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Sept. 11, 2026. (Jonathan Baez/Stars and Stripes)

Senior Airman Michael Russell, a crew chief with the 51st Civil Engineer Squadron’s Fire Emergency Services Flight, explained that bells historically signaled the start of a firefighters’ shifts, summoned crews to emergencies and marked the end of an alarm.

“When a firefighter had died in the line of duty, paying the ultimate sacrifice, it was the mournful toll of the bell that solemnly announced a comrade’s passing,” he said.

In Germany, hundreds of military personnel, their families and German and American firefighters turned out for an early morning memorial ceremony and march at Ramstein Air Base, the largest U.S. military base in Europe.

Guest speaker Army Col. Christian Labra, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s chief of executive medicine, described how 9/11 changed the trajectory of his life.

Labra, who grew up just north of New York City, was a young second lieutenant at Fort Sill, Okla., when the attacks occurred. Just over two years later, he was leading a platoon in Baghdad when a cinderblock wall collapsed and crushed him, breaking his pelvis and back and fracturing his legs.

He later lost eight soldiers in his platoon in a suicide bombing.

“The grief was devastating,” Labra said, becoming choked up. “Twenty-five years later, it’s (still) devastating apparently,” he said.

Supporting the survivors and the soldiers’ families helped lead Labra to change careers. After being “rebuilt by military medicine” at Landstuhl, he became an Army physician to serve “my fellow wounded,” he said.

U.S. service members, civilians and families turned out for a 9/11 memorial ceremony and march at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. The event, to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, drew several hundred people. Sept. 11, 2026 (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)

At Panzer Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, retired Army Col. Jim Erbach recalled being stranded at Ramstein on Sept. 11 while returning to Hungary, where he commanded a U.S.-NATO logistics hub.

Erbach, who later deployed twice to Iraq, said he chooses to dwell on the international support that followed the attacks. After he returned to Hungary, the country’s air force held a ceremony to demonstrate unity with the United States, he said.

“It was the whole world that stacked arms and got after it,” Erbach said. “It happened in the United States, but the impacts were felt worldwide.”

U.S. service members marched in uniform at the Woodlawn Golf Course on Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Friday morning, as part of events to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Sept. 11, 2026 (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)

In Italy, U.S. personnel held a wreath-laying, memorial run and stair climb at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza. In nearby Padova, American and Italian first responders gathered at the “Memoria e Luce” monument, which contains a nearly 20-foot girder salvaged from the site of the World Trade Center.

Among them was Terry French, a captain with the U.S. Army Garrison Italy fire department, who carried a wreath to the memorial.

“We’ve got to do this every single year,” he said. “The world changed that day ... it’ll never be the same again.”

A U.S. soldier salutes during the playing of the National Anthem in a ceremony Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, that was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and to honor the first responders and others killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pa., in 2001. Representatives of U.S. Army Garrison Italy, including members of its fire department, took part in the event held at a monument in Padova, Italy, where a twisted beam salvaged from the rubble of the World Trade Center is displayed. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes) (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)

French had just finished his first 24-hour shift as an Air Force firefighter at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota when the towers were struck. Within days, he boarded a C-17 without knowing his destination and landed at Masirah Air Base in Oman to support the invasion of Afghanistan.

Months later, he deployed to airfield north of the country’s capital when it was still a “bone yard” covered in land mines, he said.

“It was a pretty wild first two years in the Air Force,” he said.

Stars and Stripes reporters Chad Garland, Jennifer Svan, Jonathan Baez, Ryan Breeden, Alejandro Carrasquel, Brian McElhiney and Janiqua Robinson contributed to this report.