ARLINGTON, Va. – All over the country, people are gathering to remember the victims of the Sept. 11th attacks.
On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to walk around the hallowed grounds and observe wreath-laying ceremonies at the Pentagon Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknowns.
“It’s good to remind ourselves that freedom isn’t free,” Cpl. David Bixler, who knows the cost of freedom all too well. He was on a routine mission in Afghanistan when the enemy attacked.
“I blew up…Two mortars strapped together with enough explosives to take out a platoon,” he says.
Bixler saved his team but lost both of his legs.
“Nevertheless, I consider it a win because everyone came out alive from that event,” he says. “And we shouldn’t have. So it was a win, a success. I have no regrets. I’m happy with the consequences.”
He told the walkers to never forget the service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice to preserve and protect the United States.
Participants walked more than two miles around the cemetery to the Memorial Amphitheater, where a wreath-laying ceremony took place at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Operation Homefront, which organized Freedom Walk 2013, provides assistance to families of service members and wounded warriors. The event was sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton.
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