Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, will host a ceremony on Wednesday in honor of the 184 people killed 23 years ago in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon. The private event will be for family members to remember their loved ones who were killed when Islamist radicals hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the building.

On Tuesday, Pentagon employees gathered in the center courtyard for an outdoor ceremony honoring colleagues who lost their lives in the attack, part of a coordinated terror strike on sites in New York and Washington that signaled the start of America’s 20-year war on terror in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Rebelling passengers helped bring down one of the hijacked jets at a site near Shanksville, Pa.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said it was hard to imagine that 23 years have passed since Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, where she was working at the time.

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“If you’re of a certain age, you can likely recall vividly where you were, what you were doing, and the mixture of emotions you might have felt … for those who perished here, and in New York, and Pennsylvania,” Ms. Hicks told the crowd, a mix of military personnel in uniform and civil servants in suits and ties.

“And yet, on one of the darkest days in American history, a sense of duty arose instinctively and immediately throughout the nation, including here in the Pentagon,” Ms. Hicks said. “Many of us here today have personal memories of what happened — our own firsthand accounts of what transpired. Those memories remain vivid.”

Adm. Christopher W. Grady, vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said those who were inside the Pentagon during the attack are bound together “by a shared moment of profound reflection and remembrance.”

“We faced an unprecedented tragedy: The Pentagon, as a symbol of our nation’s strength and resolve, was struck by an act of terrorism that tested our grit and our unity,” Adm. Grady said. “We mourn the loss of the innocent lives who were taken from us here, and we honor their memory with our lasting commitment to ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain.”

Jennifer C. Walsh, director of administration and management at the Defense Department, was working in the Pentagon when the jet slammed into the building. She evacuated the burning building but returned the next day. She couldn’t fully comprehend the enormity of what had happened because it was all so fresh and painful.

“But we were here to continue the mission [and] very mindful of the significance. We were back doing our jobs and showing that we were hit, but we were not down, and we certainly were not out,” she said.

Pentagon workers crawled through choking clouds of smoke and across scenes of complete destruction to rescue trapped and wounded colleagues. Others organized ad hoc rescue and recovery efforts until the trained first responders arrived at the scene.

“Whether you had an unimaginable and heart-wrenching task or a task that mirrored regular life, every task mattered in those ensuing days, weeks and months,” Ms. Walsh said. “Every team member’s contribution made a difference in the face of tragedy.”

September 11 shook the very foundations of American society, revealing both the depths of human cruelty and the heights of human resilience in the face of adversity, Ms. Walsh said. 

“It feels like the lifetime that the calendar suggests it is, and simultaneously, it also feels like just yesterday in our hearts and minds,” she said.