Nearly 700 Embry-Riddle ROTC cadets and midshipmen — most if not all of whom were born after 9/11— traversed about 2,100 steps at the Daytona International Speedway to remember the lives lost in the terrorist attacks 25 years ago.

In the darkness Friday morning, students from all branches of ROTC programs at the Daytona Beach Campus —  Air Force, Space Force, Army, Navy and Marines — came together under the stadium’s bright lights. They formed a solid line and climbed the grandstands.  

The stairs represented the equivalent of 110 stories, the height of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.

It was a physical challenge. Sweat dripped. War cries rang out.

“It’s easy to get almost a runner's high,” said Johanna Archbold, who was participating in her third stair climb and is the cadet commander for Army ROTC Eagle Battalion. “But there is this moment where you have to remember why you're doing it and what it's all about.”

Archbold, a senior studying Aerospace Engineering, said it was important for her generation to remember 9/11 because they owe it to the firefighters, police, first responders and others who died. The terrorist attacks still reverberate across the military, even for young people like her, said Archbold, who is 22,

“We are being taught and learning from those who either were serving when 9/11 happened or came into the service because of 9/11, so it’s really a part of our military’s legacy,” she said.

A long line of climbers ascends the Daytona International Speedway grandstand stairs under stadium lights during the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb.
Students from all branches of Embry-Riddle’s ROTC programs at the Daytona Beach Campus — Air Force, Space Force, Army, Navy and Marines — climbed the grandstands. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/Steven Sobel)

Lt. Col. Craig Maddy, commander of the Eagle Battalion, said the onus is on more senior generations to remind students about the significance of 9/11. The stair climb — now in its third year — is a tool for that, he said.

“When they are actively doing the climb, they are being competitive with each other, which is healthy and what we want,” Maddy said. “Afterward, hopefully, we’ve set the conditions that they reflect on 25 years ago.”

Capt. Claudia Moran, an assistant professor of Military Science, said she hoped the event gave the cadets and midshipmen some perspective as to the scale of what the first responders faced trying to save people’s lives. At the track, they crossed nearly the entire grandstand, snaking up and down the top level until finally descending to the lower tier.

“Seeing them all be together in one team, one fight, and physically commemorating the sacrifice that all those people gave to our country on 9/11 is incredible,” she said.

Samantha Mauk, a senior studying Mechanical Engineering, said her connection to 9/11 comes from growing up in Virginia, just outside D.C. Her father was on his way to work at the Pentagon when the attacks occurred. 

“I didn’t see it. I wasn’t alive. But I heard the stories,” she said. “The solemness of that day is instilled in me because of the experiences of everybody that I know.”

Mauk worried that “this generation” could one day lose sight of 9/11.

That’s why it’s important, she said, “for us to come together today and do something to remember and reflect.”

Lessons Never Forgotten

Later in the day, students packed the atrium in the College of Aviation on the Daytona Beach Campus to hear from Dr. Mike McCormick, who provided a detailed and chilling account of his work as the air traffic manager for the Federal Aviation Administration’s New York Air Route Traffic Control Center on 9/11.

“I made a decision, ‘if they're using aircraft as weapons, the only thing that I can do to prevent that is to remove the weapons,’” he recounted. “So I shut down all of New York Center's airspace.”

McCormick said he gave the talk to impart lessons to students who have no recollection of the attacks and are bound to enter aviation.

“It's become a part of history for them,” he said. “So it's up to us, those who have lived it, those who have experienced it, to reinforce what it means to our country, and what it means to our future. And what is the role that they play in keeping our country safe.”

Carrying the Flag

At Embry-Riddle’s Prescott Campus, a memorial run began at midnight Sept. 11. Air Force cadets planned to carry the American flag and the POW/MIA flag around campus continuously for 24 hours in honor of the victims of 9/11.

Student organizations Eagle Club and Arnold Air Society also joined the relay.

“I would like participants to have the realization that they are coming together as a community to remember and honor those affected by 9/11,” said Maxim G. Stefanoutine, an Aeronautics student and organizer of the run. “Honoring them means ensuring that their stories, sacrifices and experiences will not be forgotten by future generations.”