September 11 survivor Marc Caruso emotionally recollected his painful experience and stories of lost loved ones while imploring students, staff, and citizens Wednesday at Milton High’s memorial ceremony to never forget what happened that fateful day.

“It can never die,” said Caruso, who lost 27 friends in those attacks. “This memory has to live on.”

Caruso came to Milton from Darien, Connecticut, to tell the scores of people gathered Wednesday in front of the high school about things he hadn’t “spoken about in 23 years” – in other words, since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

That morning, the foreign currency trader was at his desk when his entire building (the World Trade Center’s North Tower) shook and papers – what looked like confetti, Caruso said – began drifting down outside his window. He speed-dialed his close friend Randy Scott and arranged to meet up.

Then their phone line went dead as an airplane struck the South Tower’s 84^th floor – the same floor where Scott was working.

Caruso didn’t know that was the case at that time. But he and other traders soon realized they had to evacuate themselves from their own workplace. Caruso did a sweep of his floor – encouraging one woman, who is now 85, to follow behind him on the stairs – and made it down to the lobby, then outside.

There, they saw people jumping from windows and plunging to their death. While his co-workers dispersed, Caruso stayed close so he could meet Scott.

They never did. After a big cloud from the collapsing South Tower enveloped him, Caruso walked north in shock and covered in dust to Grand Central Station. After crying for hours on a New York City street, he eventually made it back to Connecticut, where he visited Randy’s family.

They would come to presume Scott died instantly after the plane hit his South Tower floor. Then, ten years later, his widow learned about a brief note – with only the words “84th floor west office 12 people trapped” – traced, by fingerprints and blood, to Randy. It had been tossed from the South Tower and floated down, in tact, when a passerby grabbed it.

That note is now in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan, where Caruso serves as a docent recounting facts and stories to visitors from around the world.

Caruso said Wednesday that September 11 memories are “fading,” thanking those behind Milton High’s ceremony for being proactive in ensuring what transpired that day is not lost forever.

MAYOR: ‘EVERY ONE OF THOSE LOST LIVES IS WORTH REMEMBERING’

Caruso served as the keynote speaker in an event that began with patriotic music by Milton High’s orchestra, followed by welcoming remarks from Principal Brian Jones. Jones expressed his gratitude to those who involved in this annual event, including the Mikels and Chambers families.

After members of the Eagles’ chorus sang the National Anthem, senior Justin Mikels noted how the times from Wednesday’s ceremony coincided with 9/11 milestone – like the South Tower’s collapse at 9:59 a.m., Flight 93’s crash in a Shanksville, Pennsylvania, field at 10:03 a.m., the Pentagon’s partial collapse at 10:15 a.m., and the North Tower’s collapse at 10:28 a.m.

Speaking about he and other students, Mikels said 9/11 is “not an experience we lived but history we are learning.” That history includes both that day’s horrors as well as the strong spirit of unity and resilience that followed.

Mayor Peyton Jamison spoke next, crediting students who weren’t born in 2001 taking the lead so people never forget about these attacks. In addition to helping stage the event, students joined First Responders in recent days placing 2,997 flags on Milton High’s lawn representing every one of that day’s victims.

“Each of them was someone’s son or daughter; each of them had hopes and dreams,” the Mayor said. “[And] every one of those lost lives is worth remembering.”

Deputy Fire Chief Richard Bushman then talked about “that day our world changed” and “our nation came together in ways we hadn’t seen in decades.” He praised First Responders who “ran into the unknown” that sunny September morning.

Bushman concluded by crediting teachers and staff members for their work in telling the history of 9/11, as well as students’ role in listening and relating those stories.

After Caruso’s remarks, the ceremony concluded – as it does every year – with students introducing the personal stories of a handful of victims, then standing (with that victim’s photo in hand) by the flag with their name. This year’s representatives had personal connections with Caruso.

The ceremony concluded with a patriotic medley by Milton High’s orchestra, followed by a mournful rendition of taps played by lone trumpeter Nathaniel Smith on the school roof.