By Jane Anderson, WPAOG Staff

On the traumatic day of 9/11, a small Canadian town opened its homes and hearts to 7,000 stranded travelers when their planes were forced to land. On April 6, 2025, WPAOG hosted West Point graduates and their guests for an evening at Eisenhower Hall that included a social hour, dinner, and a historical account of that event’s impact, followed by a performance of “Come From Away,” the acclaimed play that recounted the generous actions of the people of that town. After the performance, grads and guests were invited backstage for a meet-and-greet with cast members.

“We can all remember where we were, who we were with, and how we felt that day,” said CPT Travis Salley, History Instructor at USMA and keynote speaker at a dinner preceding the performance.

Salley described how on September 11, 2001, hundreds of aircraft carrying 30,000 people were ordered to land at 17 airports. “It was one of the largest acts of aircraft redirection in airline history,” Salley explained. Thirty-eight of those planes landed at the airport in Gander, a small town in Canada’s Newfoundland. And Gander—population of about 10,000 at the time—had to find a way to welcome, house, and feed 7,000 guests.

“The events of 9/11 marked the last significant world event before the digital age,” Salley added. “As a result, it’s powerfully analog in our memory; and it showed us that in the darkest times, strangers can love and help each other.”

When Salley concluded his remarks, Pat Ortland ’82, Chief Operating Officer for WPAOG, presented a WPAOG coin to Salley in honor of his achievements.

The storyline of “Come From Away” itself—of travelers rerouted far from home—was somewhat familiar to Brenda Jordan ’87. On 9/11, her husband Gary Jordan, also from the Class of ’87, was on a plane enroute to Chicago for what he thought was a day trip to attend a conference. When the FAA closed the airspace above North America, his plane was diverted to Toronto, where he remained for six days before obtaining a one-way rental car to drive home. The Jordans were living in Maine at that time; terrorists attempted to board the flight from Bangor to Boston that was Gary’s first leg of his travel, but it was sold out.

“The play also portrayed my perspective of the loved one at home with him unaccounted for because he didn’t arrive at his final destination of Chicago and he was on an American Airlines 0800 flight out of Boston…. I was glued to the TV for information,” Jordan said. “And in the midst of this time period, we were mobilized with our Guard unit.

“I thought the musical was amazing in touching upon all the various perspectives, difficulties, and emotional roller coasters of that day and the several days in the aftermath,” she continued. “Yet the delivery, tempo, beautiful music, and rapid transitions kept me riveted.”

During the backstage meet and greet, cast members cordially greeted guests and shared thoughtful conversations. Hannah-Kathryn Wall, who portrayed “Hannah” and others, noted that the premise of strangers dropping everything to help is not as common in today’s reality. “There was a ‘yes, and’ mentality: Yes, and how else can I help?” she said. “Today, though, people might precede an offer to help with, ‘Whose side are you on,’ as more of a transactional exchange.”

Charles Sulewski ’96, called the alumni event “a true red carpet VIP experience.”

 “Specifically, as a graduate who deployed as a direct result of 9/11, it was nice to be among company with similar experiences,” Sulewski said. “The performance was a high-energy, fast-paced musical providing positive vibes and depicting an uplifting story about the goodness of humanity surrounding a dismal time. I left the show reaffirmed that goodness surrounds us even during the worst of times.”

Stan Warrick ’77 and his wife enjoyed the evening, too.

“The dinner was excellent, the play was over the top, and then the icing on the cake was getting to go backstage and meet the actors,” Warrick said.

The play itself, originally co-produced in 2015 and since earning an Olivier award for Best Musical, received a standing ovation.