Solemn Jill lays wreath at the Pentagon for 9/11 – while husband Joe is 4,300 miles away: First Lady joins top military leaders and vows to ‘always remember those lost that day’

Jill Biden laid a wreath at the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon on Monday in honor of the 185 people who died there during the September 11 attacks.

The first lady was accompanied by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. It was her first public appearance since testing positive for COVID last week. She tested negative on Thursday.

Jill Biden was one of several administration officials who took part in the commemoration ceremonies taking place across the country to mark the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.

She was there to represent President Joe Biden, who spent the birthday thousands of miles from the site of Ground Zero in Alaska. Vice President Kamala Harris represented the government in New York at Ground Zero and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff was in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“Twenty-two years ago today, the horror of September 11 changed us all in some way,” she said at a second event later Monday. “We must always remember those lost that day and in the aftermath. And we will hold their families in our hearts forever. We stand with them today and every day.”

She laid the wreath at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, a permanent outdoor memorial to the 184 people who died in the building and on American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the west side of the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks.

Wearing a black dress, she was greeted by Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chief Chairman Mark Milley and Mrs. Holly Anne Milley.

Biden touched the wreath and folded her hands in front of it in prayer. Then she stood with her hand over her heart as a lone trumpet played Taps. General Milley and Secretary Austin saluted.

She then went to greet the approximately 80 people present to watch the wreath laying ceremony. She spoke briefly to the crowd and walked down the rope to shake hands.

Earlier on Monday, officials said unfurled the American flag on the west side of the Pentagon – the same place where one of the hijacked planes struck.

Every year at Ground Zero, a ceremony honors the nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, the president has drawn criticism from September 11 families for his absence from one of the key sites of the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.

Biden’s planned stop in Alaska marks the first time a president has not attended one of the anniversary services at Ground Zero, the Pentagon or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania — or at least hosted a memorial service at the White House, where Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama each did so for one year of their terms.

Biden marked the occasion in Alaska, where he is expected to be on the ground for less than two hours. He is at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where he stops on his way home from a trip to India and Vietnam.

Traditionally, presidents spend September 11 at one of three sites where planes crash and kill 2,977 Americans, or host a ceremony at the White House.

But Biden is at a military base 4,500 miles away from Ground Zero.

In total, six moments of silence were observed Monday – commemorating the moment each of the towers was struck and collapsed, as well as the times corresponding to the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of United Flight 93.

The first occurred after the bells tolled at 8:46 a.m., marking the start of the attacks — when hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 on floors 93 to 99 of the North Tower. All 92 on board were killed on impact.

At 9:03 a.m., a second moment of silence was held—to mark the moment hijackers deliberately crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into floors 77 through 85 of the South Tower—leaving no doubt in the minds of New Yorkers at the time that the attacks were planned and malicious in nature.

The next was at 9:37 a.m., when another group of terrorists deliberately crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, just outside the nation’s capital.

A fourth moment of silence took place at 9:59 a.m. to mark the moment the South Tower, the second affected train, collapsed, with another four minutes later – to mark the moment passengers on United 93 heroically stormed the cockpit in a attempt to recapture the plane from their attackers.

In response, the hijackers crashed the plane in an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, likely saving many lives, as many theorized that the plane’s target was the White House or the Capitol.

The final moment of silent mourning came at 10:28 a.m. — the time the North Tower collapsed, leaving the 40-acre site of the World Trade Center in ruins and the collective American consciousness in tatters.

Harris was at Ground Zero in New York. She said nothing, but was present when the first bell rang and listened to some readings of the names of the dead.