Grim Toll of 9/11 Still Being Borne 12 Years Later

This summer, 12 years later, he was serving his third combat tour with the United States Army when insurgents attacked his base in Afghanistan.

Staff Sergeant Ollis, 24, a Staten Island native, was killed. He was one of 92 New Yorkers who enlisted after 9/11 and died in battles that were spawned in the smoldering rubble of ground zero.

As the families of those killed on 9/11 gathered on Wednesday morning in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia to mark the anniversary of the attacks, Sergeant Ollis’s death, one of thousands during a decade of war, offered a reminder that the costs of what happened 12 years ago are still being borne across the globe.

And with the nation once again in the midst of a debate about America’s role in the world and the wisdom of launching military strikes, the memorial ceremonies offered not just an occasion to pay tribute, but a moment to take stock.

Edwin Aviles, 41, who lives in Brooklyn and was working near ground zero just before the memorial Wednesday, said time had done little to ease his sense that there are enemies looking to harm New York.

“I don’t think anything has changed,” he said. “Just like then, just like now we got to stay on point. Got to stay on top of everyone else. Anything can happen at any given moment.”

At the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed on 9/11, President Obama noted the continuing threat.

“Let us have the strength to face the threats that endure, different though they may be from 12 years ago, so that as long as there are those who would strike our citizens, we will stand vigilant and defend our nation,” he said.

The president paid tribute to the four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who died one year ago in an attack at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. On Wednesday morning, a car bomb exploded outside the Libyan foreign ministry in Benghazi, causing no casualties, according to state media, but offering a reminder that the day holds significance for extremists as well.

In New York, the anniversary ceremony has taken on the familiarity of ritual.

Bruni Sandoval has come each year to remember her friend, Nereida De Jesus. “It helps a little,” she said.

Families began to gather quietly between the reflecting pools, the rush of water and the distant sounds of bagpipes the only sounds rising above the crowd.

The ceremony at ground zero began with bagpipers and drummers; the Brooklyn Youth Chorus performed the national anthem.

At 8:46 a.m., when the first plane struck the north tower, there was a moment of silence. In Washington, President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., their wives by their sides, stood on the White House lawn, heads bowed.

A military bugler played taps, as the couples held their hands over their hearts. They then turned and walked silently back into the residence.

At 9:03, a second moment of silence marked the moment a second plane hit the south tower. There would be four more moments of silence interrupting the reading of the names — twice to mark the time when each tower fell and to mark the moments of the attacks on the Pentagon and on Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

The ceremony will also be the last over which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presides.

Elected to office just weeks after the attacks, Mr. Bloomberg has taken a forceful role in shaping New York’s efforts both to honor its dead and to rebuild ground zero.

He will continue to play a role, in his capacity as the chairman of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum foundation. But next year his place will be occupied by one of the winners of the mayoral primary held Tuesday.

Bill de Blasio, who won the most votes in the Democratic primary, was at the ceremony, as was the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who was soundly beaten after holding a commanding lead in early polls.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrived at the ceremony on a Harley-Davidson, having joined the musician Billy Joel, firefighters and others in a tribute ride from a Midtown firehouse to ground zero.

He was joined by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Gov. George E. Pataki.

In 2002, when Mayor Bloomberg first ascended a podium overseeing a vast pit of rubble, there was a moment of seeming national unity and moral clarity.

But that clarity long since eroded in the sands outside Fallujah and the ancient alleyways of Baghdad.

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