Staff photo / Dan Pompili Mahoning County Commissioner David Ditzler, left, presents a proclamation to guest speaker J.R. Blakeman, center, while Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti stands by to lend Blakeman a hand, during Wednesday morning’s commemoration ceremony at the Mahoning Valley 9/11 Memorial Park in Austintown. Blakeman was featured speaker at the event.

AUSTINTOWN — J.R. Blakeman remembers exactly where he was on Sept. 11, 2001.

He was sharing some doughnuts and coffee with a retired priest — the last stop on his route that morning. As police chief in Washingtonville back then, after finishing up paperwork and checking reports starting at 6 a.m., he would regularly go visit senior citizens and shut-ins.

As they finished their doughnuts, a call from dispatch told him he needed to get to a TV.

He and the priest watched the immediate aftermath of the first plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Then, they watched in horror as the second plane struck the south tower. And they knew the United States was under attack.

“We felt safe on our own soil right up until that very day,” he told the audience at the Mahoning Valley 9/11 Memorial Park on Raccoon Road on Wednesday. “I realized then just how vulnerable we really were.”

Blakeman is a retired police officer who served in Lowellville after resigning as Washingtonville chief in 2004, citing health reasons. He also ran a helicopter unit as a U.S. Marine sergeant in Vietnam. Blakeman was the featured speaker at Austintown’s annual 9/11 commemoration ceremony.

He said he returned that day to his office to find citizens lined up outside town hall, worried about their safety and about the country.

He told them their small town was surely not on the terrorists’ radar, and the best thing they could do was go home and be close to their families.

He left the audience Wednesday with a similar message:

“You’re not promised tomorrow. Tell your friends and family how much you love them,” he said.

Following his brief speech, Blakeman stood at the podium as local officials presented him with plaques, proclamations and honors, thanking him for his service to the region and the country.

The accolades included a flag flown at the Ohio Statehouse, presented by State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown.

“It is a fantastic symbol of the fact that although we are a country of individual states, together we form a strong nation,” McNally said.

The ceremony — marking the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., and those who died fighting the hijackers on United Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pa. — included presentations by many Mahoning County officials.

Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti read the times of the flight departures, the crashes and the falling of the towers. Austintown police and fire representatives read “The Firefighter’s Prayer” and the “Police Officer’s Prayer” and presented the wreaths at the memorial stones honoring the police and fire personnel who died in the attacks and the aftermath.

The Springfield Local High School Choir sang the national anthem, while the Austintown Fitch Concert Choir — which regularly performs at veterans hospitals across the country — sang “Land of the Free Because of the Brave,” and later performed Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”

They capped off the latter tune by leaving the dais to walk through the crowd, shaking the hands of every veteran and thanking them for their service while still singing.

The Youngstown Police Department Honor Guard offered a 21-gun salute, and Ethan Williams of the Fitch High School Orchestra and Gale Reedy of American Legion Post 301 played taps.

The event closed with 9/11 committee member and master of ceremonies for the day Jim Davis presenting Austintown trustee and Marine Corps veteran Robert Santos with a plaque.

Davis thanked Santos for his efforts to secure a $50,000 grant from the state that will allow the township to expand the 9/11 park with a new memorial museum.