US defense chief honors 9/11 victims

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta flew to New York Tuesday to honor September 11th victims at a stunning new memorial built at Ground Zero, accompanied by troops who enlisted following the attacks.

As part of a week of events commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Panetta traveled to New York City in a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey with the young troops to pay his respects at the site of the World Trade Center.

Rainy weather, however, forced him to cancel plans to head to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the four hijacked planes on September 11, 2001 crashed into a field, after passengers overpowered the hijackers.

Panetta brought along a member of each branch of the armed forces -- the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard -- who signed up to serve in uniform in the aftermath of the attacks, officials said.

With his one-day trip, Panetta wanted to remember those who died in the attacks and to recognize the importance of public service, particularly for those in the "9/11 generation" who joined the military, a spokesman said.

"This generation of men and women in uniform, like previous generations, have stepped forward when they needed to step forward. And the country is a better as a result," spokesman Douglas Wilson told reporters.

Four of the five troops traveling with Panetta deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 9/11, including Air Force Staff Sergeant Robert Gutierrez, 31, who directed air strikes for Army special forces in Afghanistan.

The forward air controller was wounded on one of his tours and has been awarded the prestigious Bronze Star for valor, according to the Pentagon.

Gutierrez enlisted in January 2002, though he wanted to sign up in the days after the attacks.

"I tried to enlist the next day but they told me there was a waiting list," he said.

Officials said Panetta is the first cabinet member to get a first-hand look at the national 9/11 memorial in New York, which is due to be officially unveiled on Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

Amid a steady rain, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave Panetta a tour of the memorial site, walking past rows of white oak trees to two giant, sunken fountains dug into the footprints of the old Twin Towers.

The granite fountains appear like somber waterfalls, with rushing water flowing into a central square below, evoking the terrible loss of life suffered on September 11.

The names of the victims are carved into a dark parapet on the edges of the fountains, with new skyscrapers now rising nearby.

A few steps from one of the fountains, Panetta stood before a callery pear tree that has become a symbol of resilience.

The tree was found charred in the rubble after the attacks, but was brought back to health at a nursery in the Bronx and replanted at Ground Zero.

Later this week, the defense chief will attend events in remembrance of those killed at the Pentagon on 9/11, when a hijacked plane struck the enormous Defense Department headquarters shortly after two other hijacked airliners slammed into the Twin Towers in Manhattan.

The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people. The vast majority of those killed, 2,753, were in New York, while 184 people died at the Pentagon and another 40 at Shanksville. Those figures exclude the 19 hijackers.