ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A U.S. Army veteran who spent much of his career as a Special Forces Green Beret in command of hundreds of soldiers was honored at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony Wednesday.
The Warehouse Arts District’s annual remembrance ceremony took place at the RISE Monument at 515 22nd St. S. in St. Petersburg.
At the ceremony, three community members received the Phoenix Award. It’s the first time this award has been given and is inspired by the heroes of 9/11.
The commemorative plaques are small replica statues of the RISE Monument and made with steel salvaged from the Twin Towers.
Col. Jay Powers says when thinking back to the events on the morning of Sept. 11, it still gives him goosebumps. He was stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as part of a special forces group working in counterterrorism.
He was taking part in a training exercise in preparation for an October deployment when the first plane hit the north tower. After realizing the magnitude of the situation, Powers says he knew he would be redirected. In the coming days, their initial orders were canceled and he received new orders to deploy in response to the attacks.
“Those first orders that we got in the upper right-hand corner,” he said. “There’s a date that says when your orders expire and you have to be home from that date,” he explained. After 9/11 the first copy we got said indefinite.
“So it felt like WWII and we’d deploy and fight until there was no more fighting to be done.”
Powers was first sent to Kuwait and then to Afghanistan to raid and seize locations expected of housing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
“The amount of unknowns were just hard to conceive,” he stated, recalling that deployment. “Like we knew we’d go, we just had no idea what we were getting into.”
Over the next 19 years, Powers climbed the ranks and was deployed a total of ten times following the 9/11 attacks. After the first, six were to Iraq and another three to Syria. He retired in 2022 and became Plant City High School’s wrestling coach and a volunteer.
He called receiving the inaugural Phoenix Award a humbling experience, saying that each 9/11 anniversary he thinks about the heroes who ran towards the twin towers and those on Flight 93.
“I think it’s wonderful they’re doing things to remember that day. When I think of 9/11 it also makes me think of Dec. 7. The day that will live in infamy,” he said. “But I think on Dec. 7 we’re thinking about a lot of other things than what happened that day — so I would hope that doesn’t happen to 9/11 as well.”