World Trade Center beam to complete KSC 9/11 memorial

When they fly to New York City next month, Kennedy Space Center firefighters Tommy Van Horn and James Dumont will take an American flag like one they would present to families of fallen colleagues.

At a warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport, wearing ceremonial dress uniforms, they'll drape the flag over a crate holding a 7-foot-long, nearly one-ton beam recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center towers destroyed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

That act will start a multi-day journey that brings the beam to the space center and fulfills the veteran firefighters' vision for KSC Fire Rescue's 9/11 memorial, one they feared would not be realized after several years attempting to secure the artifact.

The steel I-beam will be placed atop a pair of small, concrete pedestals — actually scaled replicas of the twin towers — outside KSC's Fire Station 1.

"To have a piece of the World Trade Center, where so many people sacrificed that day, especially in a profession that we chose to do, and to have it as a constant reminder for the future generations of younger firefighters — yeah, I think this is the right thing to do," said Dumont, a 53-year-old Port St. John resident and fireman for 34 years.

The World Trade Center beam labeled Artifact No. G-0063 will be at least the fourth to grace a Brevard County fire department, with stations in Indian Harbour Beach, Rockledge and Viera also displaying pieces.

At KSC, it will provide the capstone to a memorial that started as simple newspaper clippings pinned to a board to honor the hundreds of firefighters killed on 9/11, and others.

By the attacks' 10th anniversary in 2011, KSC Fire Rescue resolved to establish a more permanent tribute.

The next year they dedicated a new memorial outside Station 1 featuring a flagpole and plaque inside a gravel circle where a satellite dish once stood, before it was destroyed by hurricanes.

"Not only tears of sorrow but also those of pride," reads an inscription on the plaque, a Maltese cross emblazoned in the center with the number 343 — the number of firefighters killed when the towers collapsed.

"It's a continuous reminder when the guys come to work," said Van Horn, 60, of Seminole County.

Inquiries began around the same time seeking a piece of the towers for display, backed by letters from KSC Director Bob Cabana and KSC Fire Rescue Chief Rick Anderson. They went unanswered.

Dumont made another flurry of calls and emails last year, but figured he'd done all he could. Van Horn, whose 41-year-career spanned the entire shuttle program at KSC, figured he'd retire without seeing the memorial completed the way he hoped it would be.

Then early this year NASA got word from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey: KSC had been awarded the beam.

"You got to be kidding me, really?" Dumont remembers thinking. "After all these years, it finally came true?"

On Aug. 11, Dumont and Van Horn will fly to New York to retrieve the beam with fellow KSC firefighters Thomas Derr and Danny Seawright, Chief Anderson and Kevin Smith, president of the Transport Workers Union of America Local 525. The union representing the KSC crew technically will own the artifact.

The crated beam will be trucked to Philadelphia to be loaded on an American Airlines plane bound for Miami. The airline, which owned the first plane crashed into the towers on 9/11, is donating the shipping cost.

On Aug. 14, a ceremonial procession north from Miami is expected to reach Cocoa Village around noon, before the final leg into KSC. Law enforcement agencies from South Florida to Brevard County are expected to join in.

The same day, Hensel Phelps, a firm building KSC's new headquarters building, will install the beam on the Trade Center-replica pedestals it designed and donated outside the fire station.

NASA has supported the project but can't pay for it. The firefighters are raising money for the memorial and related activities, including honor guard participation in funerals, through a new KSC Firefighters Memorial Fund.

The fundraising effort includes sales of patches, medallions and stickers showing silhouetted twin towers rising behind KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building, an image designed by Titusville artist Tim Gagnon.

"When something like Sept. 11 came around, it was such a tragedy and such a huge firefighter loss, that it struck the nerve of every single firefighter in the world, I believe, and it still does to this day," said Dumont. "This is an absolute honor for us to do this."

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace

Kennedy Space Center firefighters have established a memorial fund to help cover the costs of their 9/11 memorial and other activities honoring fallen firefighters. To contribute, visit GoFundMe.com/remembertheWTC.