Marking 25 Years Since 9/11 with Thomas Locke, Retired FBI Special Agent

Middle and Upper School students came together on Monday, Sept. 14, to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks during a special combined Chapel.

"Twenty-five years doesn't mean that a family stops missing someone, and the consequences didn't end when the fires went out," said this year's featured speaker, Thomas B. Locke. In 2001, he was a special agent with the FBI who oversaw the 9/11 investigation.

Mr. Locke began by telling students, faculty, and staff that this year's Chapel Theme, To Whom Much is Given, Much is Required, has a personal meaning for him. "On September 11th, I watched people live those words without ever saying them. They used their training, their courage, or simply their time to help someone else," he explained.

Mr. Locke encouraged those in attendance to keep the question in mind: "What will I do with what I have been given?"

He pointed out that Sept. 11, 2001, was more than a lifetime ago for current students. "For those of us who lived through that day, there are still moments that feel very close," Mr. Locke said.

He recalled the beautiful Tuesday morning at FBI Headquarters, "an ordinary workday until it wasn't," as the attacks unfolded in New York, at the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pa.

Mr. Locke was tasked with pulling together the initial investigation, which evolved into the largest FBI investigation in history. "We needed to identify who had done this, find anyone helping them, and determine whether another attack was coming," he explained. "We had to build the investigation while the crisis was still unfolding."

As information arrived in pieces, the FBI team sorted through it all and kept moving without knowing what the next report would bring.

"The urgency did not relieve us of the responsibility to get it right," said Mr. Locke. "What I am proudest of most is the way people answered the call."

Thousands of lives were saved as people escaped the burning buildings; co-workers helped one another, and emergency personnel entered buildings where many were struggling to leave. 

"For a time, Americans remembered what unites us is far greater than what divides us," Mr. Locke recalled. "I don't mean that every disagreement vanished; I mean the people understood there was something more important in front of them. I wish we could hold onto that understanding without needing another tragedy to remind us."

He pointed out to students that what they are learning now from their teachers and parents matters and will remain with them.

"You will be tested. I don't know when, I don't know how, I hope you never face anything resembling the decisions faced on September 11th, but there will be moments when doing what is right costs you something, " said Mr. Locke. "They are how you become someone that others depend on."

Mr. Locke was introduced by his grandson, Charlie Locke '29, and is the father of Greville Haslam Head of School, Dr. T.J. Locke, Hon. Watch here.

"May God bless those we lost and the families who loved them; may God bless The Episcopal Academy, and may God bless the United States," said Mr. Locke.

In the days and weeks after the attacks, 2,977 victims died. Twenty-five years later, several thousand have died from 9/11-related illnesses.