Students, family, and friends gathered early this morning on the campus grounds of Texas A&M University's at the A&M Bonfire Memorial, Spirit Ring, to once again, honor the 12 who fell when the bonfire did in 1999.

Photo Courtesy of Texas A&M/Youtube
Photo Courtesy of Texas A&M/Youtube
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It's hard to imagine that it's been over two decades since that tragic night, but equally hard to imagine was the bonfire collapse itself. Our hearts and prayers are with the family members who lost loved ones.

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If you would, take a moment to remember the 12 students who lost their lives, on November 18th, 1999.

"From its inception as a scrap heap in 1907 to the more familiar and stack of vertical logs, the 'Fightin’ Texas Aggie Bonfire' symbolized every Aggie’s “burning desire” to beat the University of Texas in football. Attracting between 30,000 and 70,000 people each year to watch it burn, Bonfire became a symbol of the deep and unique camaraderie that is the Aggie Spirit. Bonfire burned each year through 1998, with the exception of 1963. That year Bonfire was built but torn down in a tribute to President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963." The A&M Bonfire Memorial page reads.

Photo courtesy of Texas A&M/Youtube
Photo courtesy of Texas A&M/Youtube
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The second time in A&M’s history that Bonfire did not burn was almost exactly 92 years after the first Bonfire due to its collapse on Nov. 18, 1999 at 2:42 a.m. It would become the last bonfire in A&M's history.

Texas A&M University presented this video tribute below on the tenth anniversary of the 1999 Bonfire collapse. The video was first shown at the Bonfire Remembrance Program on campus on Nov. 17, 2009.

Photo Courtesy of Texas A&M/Youtube

We will never forget. Gig Em'.

Thank you to AeroUSA for this aerial view of the Bonfire Memorial at A&M

 

 

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