--- title: 9/11: Read President Obama's Speech on the 15th Anniversary description: President Barack Obama remembered the victims of the 9/11 attack 15 years ago during a Pentagon ceremony on Sunday morning canonical: https://time.com/4486785/president-obama-speech-911/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-11T15:44:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:31:06.045Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's Speech on the 15th Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks og:description: The U.S. has to "stay true to ourselves, stay true to what's best in us" og:url: https://time.com/4486785/president-obama-speech-911/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13ce236cc7f0180b/6988a578f887dc32d5e975c3/obama-pentagon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon in Washington. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's Speech on the 15th Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks twitter:description: The U.S. has to "stay true to ourselves, stay true to what's best in us" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13ce236cc7f0180b/6988a578f887dc32d5e975c3/obama-pentagon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Speech on the 15th Anniversary of 9/11 > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Sep 11, 2016 3:44 PM UTC  Barack Obama speaks during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Sept. 11, 2016. Barack Obama speaks during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Sept. 11, 2016. Joshua Roberts—Reuters by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Sep 11, 2016 3:44 PM UTC President Barack Obama remembered the victims of the 9/11 attack 15 years ago during a Pentagon ceremony on Sunday morning. Invoking Scripture and quoting from the Book of Proverbs, Obama spoke at his last 9/11 memorial service as the U.S. president, telling Americans of the importance of diversity in the country. “For we know that our diversity—our patchwork heritage—is not a weakness; it is still, and always will be, one of our greatest strengths,” he said. “This is the America that was attacked that September morning. This is the America that we must remain true to.” Read his full remarks from the Pentagon memorial service: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4486785/president-obama-speech-911/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4486785/president-obama-speech-911/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Speech on the 15th Anniversary of 9/11","datePublished":"2016-09-11T15:44:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:31:06.045Z","description":"The U.S. has to \"stay true to ourselves, stay true to what's best in us\"","url":"https://time.com/4486785/president-obama-speech-911/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13ce236cc7f0180b/6988a578f887dc32d5e975c3/obama-pentagon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13ce236cc7f0180b/6988a578f887dc32d5e975c3/obama-pentagon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon in Washington.","caption":"Barack Obama speaks during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Sept. 11, 2016.","creditText":"Joshua Roberts—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4486785/president-obama-speech-911/","name":"Read President Obama's Speech on the 15th Anniversary of 9/11"}}]}] ```