September 11 attacks

On the morning of September 11, 2001, hijackers seized four airliners. Two of them, both bound from Boston's Logan Airport to Los Angeles, were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York; a third struck the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. Among the passengers of the first, American Airlines Flight 11, was Jessica Sachs of Billerica, a 23-year-old accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers who was on her first business trip to the West Coast. She is the only Billerica resident known to have died in the attacks.

In the days that followed a large non-denominational vigil was held at St. Theresa's Catholic Church on Boston Road. The town's fall celebration, the Yankee Doodle Homecoming Weekend, was cancelled "due to the horrific events that occurred on September 11th in our country." The first session of the Annual Fall Town Meeting, on October 2, 2001, opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and "stirring renditions of patriotic songs" by the Billerica Memorial High School Special Vocal Ensemble. In its report for the fiscal year the Board of Selectmen wrote that the year "cannot be recounted without remembering the great tragedy and loss to our country on September 11, 2001," and that "We felt the loss with the death of Jessica Sachs, a passenger aboard one of the planes flown into the World Trade Center building." When the Homecoming weekend returned in the fall of 2002, "a special tribute honored America's heroes."

At the high school the 2002 yearbook gave a section to September 11, 2001, with a portion of the proceeds of its World Beat pages going to the September 11 Jostens Disaster Relief Fund, and seniors of 2002 and 2003 listed "9-11-01" among their memories of high school. The attacks led to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which drew Billerica's service members and their families into a new generation of war.

The church where Jessica Sachs worshipped, New Colony Baptist Church, made a prayer garden with two benches on its grounds in her memory. At the spring town meeting of 2012 a firefighter presented Fire Chief Anthony E. Capaldo with an American flag that had flown on September 11, 2011, the tenth anniversary. From 2016 the town's recreation department ran motor coach tours to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York. At the Annual Fall Town Meeting of 2019 the session opened with a brief service of remembrance for Jessica Sachs and for the first responders who died as a result of the attacks, with Pastor Phil Wilkes of New Colony Church giving the invocation.

People

• Anthony E. Capaldo: Fire chief presented at the 2012 spring town meeting with a flag flown on September 11, 2011.

References

1. Town report 2001, PDF p. 282: Yankee Doodle Homecoming Weekend cancelled because of the events of September 11.
2. Town report 2002, PDF p. 127: Annual Fall Town Meeting, first session, October 2, 2001; patriotic songs by the BMHS Special Vocal Ensemble.
3. Town report 2002, PDF p. 285: Board of Selectmen on September 11, 2001 and the death of Jessica Sachs.
4. Town report 2002, PDF p. 337: Recreation; Yankee Doodle Homecoming Weekend tribute to America's heroes.
5. Billerica Memorial High School yearbook The Warrior 2002, PDF p. 86: September 11, 2001; World Beat proceeds to the September 11 Jostens Disaster Relief Fund.
6. Town report FY2012, PDF p. 98: spring town meeting; flag flown on September 11, 2011 presented to Fire Chief Capaldo.
7. Town report 2017, PDF p. 267: Recreation tours to the New York City 9/11 Museum.
8. Town report 2019, PDF p. 212: Annual Fall Town Meeting; service of remembrance for Jessica Sachs and the first responders.
9. WBUR, "10 Years Later, Boston's 9/11 Wounds Still Felt" (Sept. 6, 2011): Jessica Sachs and the New Colony Baptist Church prayer garden.
10. Boston Globe, the names of 9/11 victims with ties to Massachusetts: Jessica Leigh Sachs, 23, Billerica, accountant.