Robert Diaz doesn't want anyone to forget.

BOISE -- The sun streams down from above and the cars stream past below as Robert Diaz positions his wheelchair and hoists up an American flag up over the railing on top of the Cloverdale overpass, high enough for the I-84 drivers beneath to catch a glimpse.

It's been a quiet tradition, Diaz said, since that first Sept. 11 seventeen years ago.

On that day, Diaz - a younger man, then - was working in a Seattle skyscraper when the planes crashed into the Twin Towers. As chaos unfolded 2,800 miles away, his boss sent everyone home.

Diaz was driving away from work when he glanced up to see two men draping an American flag over an overpass.

"I thought to myself, you know something? This is something I could do," he said.

The yearly tradition continued after Diaz left Seattle for Idaho. He said he picked the Cloverdale overpass Tuesday because it was shut down, part of the aftermath of a fiery crash that damaged the roadway and killed four people, including three young service members stationed at the Mountain Home Air Force Base.

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Diaz said he did not want to be a distraction for drivers or force anyone to swerve to avoid him and his flag.

"This was the perfect place to go ahead and do that," he said. "This is my way of remembering, my way of giving back a little bit, and my way of just marking the day and putting it in the back of everybody's mind."

Some people honked. Others waved, or dialed up news stations - have you seen this guy? - or simply watched for a few seconds as the flag flapped in the breeze.

Diaz said he hoped the sight lifted people's spirits or brought a little brightness to a dark day in U.S. history, adding that he hoped to serve as a reminder that "we still live in a terrific place."

He is no stranger to the hard times. Diaz called himself "not the most prosperous," recounting how his business slipped away after he got sick. But he isn't bitter, he said - how could he be?