CANANDAIGUA — Taken out of contest, it’s not much to look at.
A mangled hunk of rust-colored steel, a foot and a half or so top to bottom. In spots, the metal is folded over itself. In others, sharp edges serve as a reminder of the necessity for a tetanus booster shot.
Just a mangled hunk of metal that comes from and represents something much, much larger.
The hope is this hunk of metal calls to mind the sunny, warm Tuesday morning 25 years ago, Sept. 11, when the country and yes, even the world was forever changed.
When thousands of people were killed. When a war on terror was launched.
You want a reminder of the horror that morning in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania? Look at what the terrorist attacks did to that hunk
of steel.
Now let this hunk of metal be a reminder of the many firefighters, police officers and other first responders who entered the two buildings and made their way upward in the towers, tasked with saving lives, knowing theirs most likely was coming to an end that morning.
“It was a suicide mission,” said 94-year-old Jack Thompson, who on Sept. 10 will mark 70 years in the fire service in Canandaigua. “They knew they weren’t coming back. The building was coming down on them, but still the courage of the firemen, they were going up to save a life.”
They climbed, as others came down.
Artifacts from Ground Zero in Finger Lakes
This piece of wreckage in American Legion Post 256’s Trail of Remembrance in Canandaigua came from Ground Zero, the site in New York City where the Twin Towers last stood Sept. 11, 2001, before terrorists drove planes into them and crashed both of them to the ground.
Many fire departments and veterans groups throughout the Finger Lakes also display pieces of Ground Zero wreckage and other mementoes many miles away from where they came.
It’s a show of support and brotherhood and sisterhood. It’s a tribute to the supreme sacrifices made that day and those that followed. It’s a way to ensure those sacrifices are never forgotten to time, whether on the 25th anniversary or 150 years from now, said Matthew Parsons, commander of Post 256.
“It’s part of history,” said Parsons, who was stationed at an Air Force base in Iceland when word came that America was under attack. “At that point, you don’t know what the extent of the attack is going to be.”
.Some of the first responders here traveled to New York City to help with the search through the debris for victims and to assist in whatever other ways they could.
Distance could never untie the bonds forged in shared service to community. Soon enough, artifacts from the scene made those ties tangible.
Here’s how much having such artifacts as a reminder of that day means to people in the saving lives business.
Canandaigua Fire Department takes on 9-11 memorial
The late Fishers Fire Chief Andy Stromfeld, who came to the town of Victor hamlet from New York City, felt it was important enough to create a 9-11 memorial here. He was among those who responded to and helped in evacuation and recovery efforts at Ground Zero. He was 60 when he died in 2021 from cancer linked to his service at Ground Zero.
Earlier this year, after the Fishers Fire Department dissolved the previous fall, the Canandaigua Fire Department took on the memorial. It includes 6-foot steel I-beam secured from the World Trade Center, pieces of rubble collected from the scene and photos.
Thompson has talked to firefighters about 9-11. In fact, he’ll be among the speakers at the American Legion’s Sept. 11 remembrance program.
His message to firefighters and to all: Don’t be afraid to tell loved ones, “I love you.”
“Three words,” Thompson said. “They might be the last words you say or the last words you ever hear.”
Powerful but simple words, yet when he thinks of the memorial now ensconced in the Canandaigua firehouse, Thompson, a Navy hospital corpsman who was stationed at Camp Lejeune after serving aboard a destroyer from 1952 to 1953, struggles for the right words.
“I really don’t know,” Thompson said. “It’s a lot of thoughts.”
But knowing that it’s there, so the next generation has the opportunity to learn about and never forget what happened that sunny, warm day 25 years ago, matters even when the words don’t come.
Never forget those who gave their lives on 9-11
As for Parsons and the American Legion memorial, he has seen people young and not so young walk up to it and discover what it is. Just seeing their reaction, Parsons knows it means something to them.
The mangled hunk of steel means something to him. Like Thompson and many others, he, too, struggles for the right words.
“You can’t put it into words,” Parsons said. “You can’t explain what the firemen sacrificed and what they went through, and how many passed away that day.”
Emotional is a word that works. Having this artifact here, and the ones that do the same job at other fire departments, VFWs and legion halls, call to mind another important word.
Education.
“It’s important to share and educate the next generation,” Parsons said. “Never forget.”
Mike Murphy covers Canandaigua and other communities in Ontario County and writes the Eat, Drink and Be Murphy food and drink column. He can be reached at mmurphy@messengerpostmedia.com. Follow him on X at @MPN_MikeMurphy.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Debris from the fallen Twin Towers carry deep meaning in Finger Lakes
