As a perfectly clear morning unfolded across much of the United States on September 11, 2001, no resident of New York City could possibly foresee the calamitous event that was about to terrorize them.

In the Kelly household on Staten Island at 8:46 a.m., as American Airlines Flight 11, a 767 jet carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members, crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, an oblivious toddler named John Kelly III — now a senior linebacker on the Navy football team — sat in his high chair, waiting to be spoon-fed breakfast by his mother, Maureen.

Moments earlier, John Kelly, Jr., younger John's father and then a 14-year veteran New York City firefighter, had been running a charity event at nearby Silver Lake Golf Course, to raise funds for firefighters in need. There were already golfers on the course when AA Flight 11 —about 15 minutes later to be followed by United Airlines Flight 175 — stunned Kelly and other firemen and golfers by flying over the Hudson River with a deafening roar at a startlingly low altitude.

By 9:03 a.m., after Flight 175 had sliced through the trade center's South Tower, punctuated by a huge, fiery explosion, it was clear to New Yorkers and fellow Americans everywhere that the United States was under attack. Within 90 minutes, what were once the tallest buildings in the world had collapsed.

That sad, momentous day marked by far the deadliest foreign attack on American soil in the nation's history and the deadliest terrorist act in world history.

The attacks by 19 terrorist hijackers claimed nearly 3,000 American lives — including 125 murdered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed. Over Western Pennsylvania farm land, where some of the 55 passengers had tried to wrest control of United Flight 93 from terrorists likely aiming it for the heart of the nation's capital, that jet crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa.  

No one survived any of the four crashes, which killed 246 passengers and 19 hijackers who committed murder-suicide.  

The people of New York absorbed a major brunt of a horrific day of loss. The immediate deaths included 2,606 in the World Trade Center and the surrounding area. Among those were 343 firefighters and 71 law enforcement officers.

When the Midshipmen line up to face visiting Air Force at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium on September 11, 2021, John Kelly III's immediate family will be there to witness it, while processing the 20th anniversary of the worst day ever recorded in New York City.

For John Kelly, Jr., this marks the first year he has not spent September 11 physically honoring the four murdered firefighters from his dear Engine 201 in Brooklyn.  

Kelly, now in his 34th year as a NYC firefighter, still grieves for the families of Lieutenant Paul Martini and firefighters Gregory Buck, Christopher Pickford and John Schardt, whose son, John Albert Schardt, grew up with John Kelly III.

["The memories] start creeping up on you in July and August every year and you think about another upcoming anniversary," John Kelly, Jr. says. "Everybody I talk to among firefighters talks about the angst they feel with the anniversary approaching.

"Everybody deals with it their own way. I got guys who I was with on 9/11 who leave the state and go to a serene place and have no contact with anybody. Other guys are in a bar at 8 in the morning," he adds. "Maybe it's a good thing that I'm missing it for the first time."

While Daniel Kelly, 16, was not yet born yet, his older brother John was 20 months old — far too young to grasp what was going on that day, when his father broke up that golf outing, came home, kissed his wife and son goodbye and made his way with fellow firefighters to the scenein lower Manhattan at Ground Zero. Kelly, Jr. assisted with the initial recovery effort, amidst the massive toxic rubble of glass, concrete, thick dust and burning steel.  

Kelly, Jr. and countless other firefighters or first responders — such as Carl Sinagra, the younger Kelly's football coach at Monsignor Farrell High School who had retired from the NYFD in 1995 due to a knee injury suffered on the job — recovered and identified bodies of civilians, law enforcement officers and firefighters.  

Over his elementary and middle school years, John Kelly III gradually pieced together the meaning of September 11 and the extent of the devastation created that day.

"I can't pinpoint a time when I learned about [September 11]. There wasn't a time when I recall thinking, 'Oh, that's what happened,'" Kelly III says. "But it was always in the back of your head, since you grew up with [information] you heard all around you.

"There would be one day every year, when my father would leave really early in the morning and come home really late at night," adds Kelly III, referring to how his dad spent all of those anniversaries showing his support by gathering with the grieving families of Engine 201 victims at cemeteries, memorial services and their homes.  

"I didn't realize at a young age how serious it really was," he adds. "You start to realize, because you're close to so many families directly affected by it, that [September 11] takes on a whole new meaning. It was very impactful. It's something you truly can never forget."

The direct and indirect connections to September 11 are plentiful. Kelly III says they probably number at least a hundred.

There is his childhood buddy Jake Siller, who grew up just a block from the Kelly's, who lost his father, Stephen Siller, on 9/11. Siller died at 34 that day, after reversing course en route to a golf game to grab his gear at his Squad 1 firehouse and charge to the Twin Towers to aid in the ongoing rescue/evacuation operation underway.

Siller died after racing through the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel on foot toward the World Trade Center with about 80 pounds of gear on his back. He was last seen near the South Tower shortly before it collapsed. His death inspired the creation of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which builds mortgage-free smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. The foundation is run by George Siller, Stephen's older brother and Jake's uncle.

There is Kelly's girlfriend of the past three years, Samantha Palazzo, whose father, Jeff Palazzo, was killed in the towers while trying to rescue others with his brothers from Rescue 5 company on Staten Island.  

There is firefighter Sal D'Agostino, who was Kelly's linebackers coach at Monsignor Farrell. D'Agostino was involved in one of the uplifting episodes of that day of tragedy, known as the "Miracle of Ladder 6." When the North Tower collapsed, it fell all around D'Agostino's company, yet his entire company survived.  

And there is his good friend, Pat McSweeney, who met Kelly as an eighth-grader playing on the same Pop Warner Football team and later played with him at Monsignor Farrell. McSweeney, who was raised on the South Shore of Staten Island, was nine months old the day of the September 11 attacks. That day, he lost his father, Timothy McSweeney, another firefighter.

"People say I look a lot like [his father]," says Pat McSweeney, who is a redshirt junior tight end at Coastal Carolina. He got to know his father from family photos and hearing many stories about his personality, goodness and of course, his ultimate sacrifice.

"Growing up, it was normal for my older brother and sister to talk about our dad. He died trying to save others. Our normalcy was having to remember [9/11] every year," McSweeney adds.

"As you get older, you start to understand how big of a deal it really was," he adds. "This was an historic event, one of the biggest things that's ever happened to this country. Our dad was one of the people who showed up on the scene to work. He stepped up to the plate when the time came.  

"I've seen so many kids on the ball fields who never had the chance to get to know their dads," says John Kelly, Jr., who is thrilled he was lucky enough to get to know his sons. "I am not a religious guy. But I still wonder why did this guy or that guy not survive and I did, when he was a better human being that I was, or am? Like a lot of other guys, the 'why?' factor is always there."

Sinagra, who says he has been afflicted with medical ailments as a result of his time volunteering at Ground Zero and has devoted much of his time to coaching over the past two decades, says that being around young men such as Kelly have lifted him up over the years.  

Sinagra went through a tough time post-9/11. Years after he lost his cousin in the towers, a firefighter named Michael Esposito, Sinagra published a book in 2015 called "Twisted Steel," dedicated to Esposito. Sinagra needed seven years to write it.

"I was not in good shape after 9/11. I got so emotional every time I tried putting pen to paper. I really needed football and the kids I coached through my adversity. And John was a big part of that," says Sinagra, recalling the Staten Island kid who was mature beyond years as a varsity player.

"John was a tremendous kid and player, a great athlete and person. He was a selfless leader, a throwback. He's been a leader since he was young. He's the type of man you'd want your daughter to be involved with."

John Kelly III feels and talks like an extremely lucky young man, as he takes stock of his time spent at Navy and what he has learned there about himself. He turned down offers from Army, Bucknell, Wagner and Holy Cross. After his official visit to Navy, and after Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo persistently called him, Kelly chose Navy and never looked back.

He will graduate in May with a degree in qualitative economics. He aims to be commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. His football days in Annapolis have been frustrating at times. He did not see varsity action as a freshman, barely got on the field as a sophomore. He earned his first letter last year during the 3-7 season played against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the Mids suffered dearly from having no spring football and no meaningful preseason camp in August.

Kelly, 6-feet-2, 227 pounds, sees things turning in 2021 for Navy and him. He will share a raider spot with junior Nicholas Straw and be part of four special teams units. In the regular season finale, Navy will play archival Army in the Meadowlands, next to the New Jersey Turnpike — about a half-hour drive from the Staten Island home where he grew up as a die-hard New York Jets fan and has seen many games in person at that same stadium.

But Saturday's game against Air Force on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, with his parents and brother in attendance, also has Kelly's full, excited attention.

"This season feels like life coming full circle, so many things happening," Kelly says. "Playing the Air Force game and commemorating the people lost. Playing Air Force with my father there — my number one fan and the strongest, most important man in my life as he steps back from 9/11 to be here. It's a dream come true."