Wings Across America: 25 Doves Take Flight in Edgewood to Mark Quarter-Century Since 9/11

EDGEWOOD, N.M. — Twenty-five sets of white wings caught the morning sun Friday, spiraling upward over the pines and cedar before setting their compass north toward home.

For 25 years, the White Wings Across America tribute has summoned people across the nation to look up on the morning of Sept. 11. But at Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood, the anniversary bore a special, tender symmetry: a flock of 25 white doves taking flight a quarter-century after the world changed.

The national White Wings Across America movement originated in the raw aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when dove and pigeon fanciers across the United States coordinated simultaneous releases to symbolize peace, mourning, and resilience. In Edgewood, the tradition was first suggested a quarter-century ago by the late husband of Cherie Smylie.

He passed away three and a half years ago, but Smylie kept both the birds and the memory alive.

“He was the one who suggested that this start 25 years ago because he had the doves to be able to fly,” Smylie said, watching the flock lift off. Carrying on his chores and his legacy, she brought 25 birds to the park Friday with the help of friend and fellow pigeon keeper Clay Williams.

From the park, the flock faced a five-mile homeward flight to their loft. “They’ll beat me home,” Smylie smiled softly.

The birds’ release set the stage for a solemn gathering of veterans, first responders, and community members dedicated to a single creed: never forget.

Mark Chavez, who served 24 years with the Albuquerque Fire Department, spent his last decade with the department as chaplain and deployed to Ground Zero three times in the aftermath of the towers’ collapse. Addressing a crowd that included children born decades after the attacks, Chavez emphasized the growing urgency of remembrance.

“It’s been 25 years since 9/11. Time surely makes itself wings and flies away,” Chavez said. “If you can believe it, there are 100 million Americans that were too young to remember that day. … The struggle of humanity is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”

Chavez recalled standing in an Albuquerque fire station that clear Tuesday morning in 2001, coffee in hand, watching a black-and-white television in shock as the second plane hit. He implored the crowd not to live as unfeeling machines, but to cherish their loved ones and hold tight to the enduring cost of liberty.

During the ceremony, Chavez paused to honor the man who has anchored the memorial for 25 years: Wildlife West founder and director Roger Alink. Chavez presented Alink with a commemorative keepsake coin and a replica Medal of Honor in recognition of his quarter-century of steadfast patriotism, hosting community members, veterans, and first responders year after year.

“Every year for the past 25 years, he’s opened this place up,” Chavez said. “He is a true American hero.”

Col. John Brault, who was stationed inside the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building, reminded the crowd that the scars of that day remain open wounds. He noted that thousands of rescue workers and service members continue to suffer or die from toxic exposures, illnesses, and trauma sustained in the line of duty.

“For those of us who lived through September 11th, those moments from that day will remain remarkably vivid to all of us,” Brault said. “Think of yourself on Flight 93. You knew you were a missile. … They had to make the decision that they didn’t want to make to keep it from doing any more damage.”

Brault, who retired from the military only to volunteer to return to active duty in 2008 for a 14-month deployment to Afghanistan, called on every citizen to answer the anniversary not with division, but with community service and civility.

“We are more divided now than we were on 9/11, and we really, as a country, need to get back to that—we need to be united again,” Brault said. “It’s all about service.”

As the morning ceremony drew to a close with handshakes, shared tears, and memories recounted beside park trails, the sky above Edgewood remained empty—the doves having already found their bearings, carrying the memory home.