Remembering July 4 and September 11

 By Craig Stewart

Two weeks ago, Chairman Allan Cors and I went to New York City to visit with Peter Miller, who is a Special Projects Manager for the Port Authority of NY & NJ.  He is in essence the keeper of the remaining unclaimed pieces and artifacts from the attack on the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.   His mission is to distribute items to museums and other venues around the country that will respect, preserve, and display them or to dispose of in a reverent manner the pieces the authorities decide should not be distributed.

Peter’s domain is a huge aircraft hangar at JFK Airport that is filled largely with twisted and disfigures pieces of steel beams.  Perhaps the most striking metal item was one block of steel inside a relatively small room that was actually the compressed remains of three floors from one of the towers.  My understanding is that the Port Authority will not release this piece in respect to the families of those who lost their lives that day.

When we first got there, another Port Authority employee, Paul Johnke, who was a real hero on 9/11, mentioned something about “meteors.”  Allan and I had no idea what he was referring to until Peter took us into a secured area where several large and small pieces resembling burned boulders or meteors from space were stored.  He explained that under the weight of the collapsed buildings, fires burned for weeks in an environment devoid of oxygen that created a lava-like substance of melted metal and other materials.  When the crews finally reached this level, the material they pulled out hardened into the “meteors” we saw in the hangars.  Again in deference to the families, the Port Authority is taking great care to preserve and respect these remains.  Here is a photo of Peter Miller by some twisted beams and one of a meteor that fused with some metals rods as it was being excavated. 

Allan and I were particularly affected when we saw a burned fire truck and a badly damaged police vehicle in the hangars. These vehicles brought home again the mental picture of so many brave firemen and police officers who rushed in to serve and save lives.  Sadly, so many of them were lost when the towers collapsed.

We were allowed to “tag” several pieces of metal and the two vehicles for the American Wartime Museum and hope that the authorities will convey them to us.  They will be dramatic reminders of not only the attacks on 9/11 but also the two wars that they spawned. 

So this July 4^th I will be thinking about a day in September…