Flags throughout the area were at half-staff this past Wednesday, marking the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But the one out front of the Sperry Armory is different from most in that it has a direct connection to that day.
Erected there a few years ago by late Sperry resident Billie Moss, the flag pole and benches accompanying it serve as a memorial to his son Brian Moss, who was killed in the attack on the Pentagon.
I wrote an Our Lives story on Billie
after his death in May 2012.
A proud Navy veteran himself, Moss had encouraged his son when he, too, decided to enlist, even driving him to the recruiter. And it seemed like a great career move: At the time of his death, Brian was rising promisingly through the Navy ranks.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child period, much less in as horrific a way as Billie and his wife, Pat, lost Brian.
But I can only hope I’d handle it with similar grace and dignity.
Billie Moss lived just a short distance from the armory, and in the years up until his death, locals would see him there often, looking after his son’s memorial.
A one-time amateur boxer, rodeo bull-rider and truck driver, Moss was as tough a customer as they come.
The way that image contrasts with this later scene, the quietly tender gestures of a father making sure his only son would never be forgotten, is deeply moving and hard to forget.
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