Today, DIA pauses with the nation to remember our fallen friends and colleagues who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the many who were injured trying to escape or help others.

DIA lost seven employees in the Pentagon that day, all working in the agency’s Comptroller’s Office on the E-ring. Today, and every day, we remember Rosa Maria Chapa, Sandra Foster, Robert Hymel, Shelley Marshall, Patricia Mickley, Charles Sabin and Karl Teepe. At the World Trade Center, New York City firefighter and U.S. Army Reserve Warrant Officer Ronald Bucca, a reservist assigned to DIA, also died. Bucca reached the impact area on the 78th floor of the South Tower and was assisting in evacuations when the tower collapsed.

The agency will honor these colleagues with a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m. at five of its locations around the country to coincide with timing of American Airlines Flight 77’s impact to the Pentagon. A wreath is being placed at the 9/11 Memorial at DIA Headquarters.

Dedicated in 2009, the memorial was designed by Jacob Robison, an artist with Classic Glass of Alexandria, Va. Constructed of eight stainless steel frames encapsulating glass, the memorial symbolizes an unfurled American flag. Seven of the memorial’s frames rotate 360 degrees, each representing the life of one of the seven individuals honored. The eighth frame is stationary and displays an excerpt of an essay titled “In Troubled Times” by James Henry Leigh Hunt. A polished piece of limestone taken from the Pentagon debris is mounted at the base of the structure. The names of the seven DIA victims are inscribed on the stone, along with the memorial’s title, “United in Memory – Committed to Freedom.”

DIA honors Bucca each year through an annual award named after him. The award is given to a military reservist who demonstrates excellence in fulfilling the counterterrorism mission, the area that Bucca worked while at DIA.

Despite the passage of time, the events of that day and the memories of those taken from us remain in our hearts and minds.