‘A defining moment;’ Area 9/11 memorial ceremonies remember the fallen

“My great fear is that we will forget as time passes,” Fairborn City Manager Mike Gebhart said. “Memories fade. The emotion, unity and national pride that occurred because of that tragic day seemed like a distant memory. May we never forget the innocent citizens and public safety personnel who perished in New York, Washington, D.C., and the field in Pennsylvania.”

The ceremony included presentation of the colors by the Fairborn Junior ROTC, the National Anthem performed by the Fairborn High School Marching Band, and a three-volley salute.

The ceremony was livestreamed for the first time to the students of Fairborn City Schools, none of whom were alive at the time of theattacks, which were “a defining moment in American history,” Fairborn mayor Dan Kirkpatrick said.

Former Fairborn mayor and retired educator Joan Dautel shared her experience as one of the people who traveled to New York to acquire Fairborn’s piece of the World Trade Center, in April of 2011.

The steel beam that makes up Fairborn’s 9/11 Memorial is 121/2 feet tall and weighs 3,828 pounds.

Among the pieces that would eventually go to cities across the country were artifacts recovered from the day the World Trade Center fell.

“Damaged fire trucks, burned police cruisers and ambulances. Clothing, personal items, shoes,” Dautel recounted. “I particularly remember seeing twisted metal picture frames with partially burned photos still in them.”

Fairborn’s steel beam was also the first piece of the World Trade Center to visit Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the fourth plane that would have crashed into the U.S. Capitol crashed in a field, killing all passengers on board. The Fairborn delegation made the trip on the suggestion of Rescue One, one of the busiest rescue organizations in the world, Dautel said, and whose entire on-duty crew was killed on 9/11.

The caravan with the steel beam attracted a crowd of onlookers all the way back to Ohio, Dautel said.

“Especially as we got closer to Columbus, we had cars and trucks passing us, honking their horns, flashing their lights, giving us a thumbs up as they passed us, and some of them even rolled their windows down, and had little American flags,” she said.

At the time, Dautel said, there were those making social media posts that the city was “making a big deal over a piece of steel.”

“Let me repeat what my response was,” Dautel said. “There is no celebrating over the 2,606 innocent people who died in the towers and on the ground that day...We aren’t celebrating the deaths of 343 firefighters or the 23 New York City police officers, or the 36 New York Port Authority officers, or the 15 EMTs, or the passengers on United Airlines 175 or American Airlines 11. That attack was nothing to celebrate.”

“This piece of steel reminds us that the cost of freedom is high,” she said. “We shall keep this day. We shall keep the events and the tears in our minds, our memories and our hearts, and take them with us as we carry on. This piece of steel reminds us not to forget those who gave their lives and to thank those who risked their lives daily to protect us. We will not forget.”