25th Anniversary Sept. 11th Memorial
(Students and community members placed 2977 American flags on Stemmons Plaza on September 10, 2026. This annual tradition was established in 2021, and is always a highlight of the opening of the fall semester. | The Generals Redoubt, Daniel Straub, ‘28)
On September 10, Washington and Lee students and community volunteers gathered on Stemmons Plaza to plant 2,977 American flags in memory of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The following evening, the community returned to the plaza for a memorial featuring remarks from representatives of the College Democrats, College Republicans, and The Generals Redoubt, along with music from the University Singers. Photographs from this year’s observance are included below, followed by remarks delivered by TGR Executive Director Kamron Spivey ’24.
Good evening.
Thank you all for coming out tonight to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11. My name is Kamron Spivey, and I am the Executive Director of The Generals Redoubt.
Five years ago, when I was a sophomore at Washington and Lee, I helped organize my first flag planting on campus. At the time, I spoke about a problem that has only become more pressing in the years since: for my generation, September 11, 2001 is not a memory. I was born about ten months later.
Today’s students are another five years removed from it. And on this twenty-fifth anniversary, I think the responsibility to preserve the memory of such a tragic occasion is more important than ever.
The number of flags behind me — 2,977 — is difficult to comprehend. For those of us who helped place them last night, amid the work of systematically drilling holes and planting wooden stakes in the ground, it can be easy to lose sight of what each flag symbolizes. These were people. They were mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. They were firefighters, police officers, EMTs, servicemen, stockbrokers, and flight attendants. While diverse in their backgrounds, beliefs, and occupations, these victims were united by their shared humanity.
Two of these flags represent members of our own Washington and Lee community: Robert Allan Schlegel, Class of 1985, and James Andrew Gadiel, Class of 2000. If you were to visualize them among these flags, they would probably be on opposite ends of this memorial. It’s likely they never even met.
“Jamie,” as his friends and family called him, was just 23 years old. He had graduated from W&L the year before, where he majored in economics and was a member of Sigma Nu. After graduation, he moved to New York and began working as an assistant trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. On the morning of September 11, he was working in the company’s equities office on the 103rd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building.
Robert Allan Schlegel — Rob — was working about 220 miles away, at the Pentagon. A 1985 graduate, Rob studied journalism and French at Washington and Lee. He was Phi Beta Kappa, a member of Chi Psi, and involved with the Ring-tum Phi, WLUR, and the Jazz Lab Band. After briefly working as a reporter, he followed the footsteps of his father and two brothers into the United States Navy.
By 2001, Rob had received numerous military distinctions and risen to the rank of commander, a promotion he had received only a month before the attacks. He was serving at the Pentagon as Deputy Current Operations and Plans Branch Head for the Chief of Naval Operations. At 9:37 that morning, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the western side of the Pentagon. Rob was 38 years old.
A few months ago, I had the privilege of speaking with Jamie’s father, Peter Gadiel. He shared kind stories about his son that I had not before had the privilege of hearing. What touched me most, however, was how vividly he recalled Jamie’s smile, his good nature, and his willingness to help those around him.
A quarter-century later, Mr. Gadiel has not forgotten those things, and he never will. He has not forgotten the young man his son was before September 11 made him part of a national tragedy. And Mr. Gadiel was deeply appreciative of the students and members of this community who continue to help keep Jamie’s memory alive.
That conversation has stayed with me as we prepared for tonight.
In a day or two, these flags will come down. Stemmons Plaza will return to normal, and most of us will cross it countless times before flags are planted here again. But our connection to Rob and Jamie does not exist only during the week of September 11.
The next time you attend a social, remember that Rob was a Chi Psi and Jamie was a Sigma Nu. When you walk through the Colonnade, remember that they once walked through those same columns, and sat in some of the same classrooms. They studied here, made friends here, and took part in many of the same traditions that continue to define campus.
And had they not been taken from us that morning, there is every reason to imagine that they would still be part of this community. Perhaps we would see them during Alumni Weekend, or back in Lexington for a home game. Rob would be 63 today. Jamie would be 48.
That is how I hope we will think about them — not simply as two names associated with a tragedy, but as fellow students and alumni whose lives meant so much to their families, their friends, and the people fortunate enough to know them.
So when these flags are put away, I hope you will carry this memorial with you. Remember the 2,977 lives represented here. And throughout the year, as you go about your own life at Washington and Lee, make your own memories, figure out your own path, never forget the two men who once did the same.
Remember Rob. Remember Jamie. Not simply for how their lives ended, but for the exceptional lives they lived.
Thank you, and may God Bless you all,
Kamron M. Spivey, ‘24