It has been 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks rocked our nation.

Men and women gave their lives, not only in those attacks, but in the years that followed as part of the war on terrorism.

To honor the men and women who gave their lives in combat since that fateful day, a group in Elizabethtown has been creating a display at the Veterans Grove in the Masonic Village.

The Sojourners, who are Masons who served in the military and were honorably discharged, spent last Thursday laying out the grid for the display.

On Saturday, residents placed flags for those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the Massing of the Colors.

Carol Wolford, a former librarian at L.B. Morris Elementary School in Jim Thorpe, has participated in the Massing of the Colors for at least seven years.

The reason is simple, she said, two of her former students - A.J. Baddick and Jeremy Maresh - are part of the display.

“I remember A.J. and Jeremy very well,” Wolford said, reminiscing about how their lives have intertwined with hers.

“Jeremy wanted to be a Tyrannosaurus rex” in elementary school, Wolford said.

“He walked on his toes - the way it looks like the giant terrible lizards used to. I remember that when he was in sixth grade I told him what a great young man he had become and how happy I was to have him as my student.”

And Baddick, who also volunteered as a Jim Thorpe EMT, drove the ambulance for Wolford, who was also a volunteer EMT, shortly before he died.

“The night before he returned to Iraq he stopped by our house to say goodbye,” she said.

“I can’t tell you how much I miss these young men,” she said.

And because of this, two flags are adorned with roses with their names on them.

U.S. Army Sgt. Andrew “A.J.” Baddick of Jim Thorpe, died in Iraq on Oct. 1, 2003, while attempting to rescue another soldier whose Humvee veered off the road and entered a canal.

U.S. Army National Guard Spc. Jeremy E. Maresh, 24, of Penn Forest Township, Jim Thorpe, died April 24, 2007, while serving in Iraq.