Dedicated to the ones they lost

Howell honors its residents killed in 9/11 attacks
BY NAOMI MUELLER
STAFF WRITER

HOWELL — As she walked around the monument dedicated to the memory of her husband and the four other township residents who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against America, Linda Rhodes said she felt comforted.

It is nice, Rhodes said, to know that more than four years after the attack, Howell continues to remember the people who died there. And, she said, it will be nice for her son and grandchildren to be able to visit the monument when they visit the area.

In an hour-long ceremony Friday night, Howell officials dedicated the memorial, meant to commemorate not only John Lennon, Colin McArthur, John Rhodes, Joseph Sacerdote and Alan Wisniewski, all of whom died in the attack on the World Trade Center, but also the nearly 3,000 others who died that day. The memorial is also in memory of the thousands of people who have died since, fighting for America's freedom in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The idea, Mayor Joseph M. DiBella said, is to en--sure that those people did not die in vain.

"Anytime there is a dedication or a memorial it symbolizes some event that is worth remembering," DiBella said. "9/11 is perhaps the most significant event in modern world history. This memorial ensures that we will never forget."

The memorial's quartzite floor is etched with the New York skyline and each of the five poured concrete arches that comprise the structure's pentagon shape commemorate one of the township residents who died in the attacks. On the pillars are symbols of America's freedom — the twin towers, the Statue of Liberty and the bald eagle — as well as a plaque for each of the Howell men killed.

The pillars meet at a pentagon above, meant to symbolize the U.S. Pentagon and the people killed there. Inside the structure is a boulder from Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 crashed, and a piece of what was left of the World Trade Center.

The monument, which sits on a lawn outside the municipal building on Preventorium Road, was designed by Miguel Eiras, a mason and volunteer firefighter at Squankum Fire Company. Eiras was assisted in the construction by Gene Snyder, another Squankum volunteer and the owner of a trucking company, as well as several township employees.

In a series of short speeches, several local and state officials spoke about the significance of the Sept. 11 attacks and the reasons Americans must continue to fight for their freedom. Several also remembered where they were on the mornings of the attacks and how they felt. Like the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and the Challenger explosion in 1986, all said they would never forget. The Howell memorial, they said, will help.

Monmouth County Freeholder William C. Barham remembers the bright sun that shone on the morning of Sept. 11. Howell Councilman Peter Tobasco remembers the telephone call he received from his mother, concerned that he may have been in the towers as he was the week before. Several also had first-hand experience with terrorism — Virginia S. Bauer, secretary of the New Jersey Commerce, Economic Growth and Tourism Commission, whose husband, David, was in the north tower, and Sen. Robert W. Singer, R-Ocean, whose daughter, Sarri, survived a bus bombing while living in Jerusalem in 2003.

"An act of terrorism, whether it is 9/11 or a bus bombing, affects you for the rest of your life," Singer told the crowd.

As he walked around the monument, John Lennon, whose son, also John Lennon, died on Sept. 11, said he hopes the memorial will remind residents of the thousands of people killed at the hands of terrorists. Already, Lennon said he believes some people have forgotten.

As he does everyday, Lennon wears a gold charm of his son's badge from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. His wife wears a picture of her son in a heart-shaped locket around her neck.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A...10290376/1004/SHORE

Peace Garden gets new CEO, planning project

...


"There's very much significant conflict within the world. Maybe we can help with the Peace Gardens to resolve some of that conflict on a small scale," Anderson said.

The concept design also calls for a library and restaurant to be housed in an adjacent building.

"The concept design is there," Anderson said. "The money is something else."

The last major construction project at the garden was the Burdick Center and dormitories for the International Music Camp about 10 years ago.

The park also has built a memorial with steel from the World Trade Center, and held services to remember victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The International Peace Garden, created as a memorial to the peace that exists between the United States and Canada, was dedicated in 1932. As many as 150,000 people visit the garden each year.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/state/13038186.htm

Arts Groups Pessimistic Over Prospects for Culture Downtown
 
By ROBIN POGREBIN

For downtown arts groups struggling with the void left by the 9/11 attacks, a 2002 "blueprint for renewal" seemed full of promise. Drafted by the agency in charge of rebuilding in Lower Manhattan, it pledged to develop "a critical mass of dynamic, enticing and diverse cultural venues" there.

The agency, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, also promised to help cultural institutions in the area - and those that might be thinking of relocating downtown - to find the sites and the money they would need to expand or move.

Three years later, the development corporation has accomplished practically none of the above. The number of cultural groups, including libraries, below Canal Street now, according to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization, has plummeted to 112, from 200 before 9/11. The $45 million that the development corporation set aside last May for cultural groups that are not part of the master plan at ground zero has yet to be distributed.

Tom Healy, the president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, expressed frustration over the delay. "Nothing has happened," he said. "There is no plan. There is no group that's been chosen to help them give that out yet. And it would make a huge difference now, that kind of money."

Given the gradual evaporation of planned cultural organizations at the ground zero site itself, many downtown arts groups are pessimistic.

The Freedom Center was dropped from the site last month by Gov. George E. Pataki in response to objections from the families of some 9/11 victims who wanted a strictly patriotic memorial focus; the Drawing Center, which had sought to relocate from SoHo, was forced out for similar reasons. Both had been chosen in June 2004 to share a museum building designed by the Norwegian firm Snohetta.

"We're all pretty upset about it," said Holly Block, the executive director of Art in General, an alternative art space on Walker Street. "It's very problematic that it's been politicized."

Contributing to the bleak picture, a performing arts center that was to be designed for the ground zero site by Frank Gehry and shared by the Joyce Theater, which presents dance, and the Signature Theater, an Off Broadway company, is on the back burner. And Anita Contini, the point person for culture on the development corporation, resigned from that post in July and is unlikely to be replaced.

While many arts groups have stuck it out downtown and several are trying to upgrade their operations, all say they could use more help. Three-Legged Dog, a media and theater group, has been struggling since Tower 7 fell on its headquarters at 30 West Broadway. The company cut its staff from 27 to 2, suspended salaries for nine months and stopped production for a year and a half.

The group decided that the route to survival was building a new home. It has managed to raise $3 million toward a $4.6 million arts complex, now under construction at 80 Greenwich Street. But there is still $1.6 million to go.

Three-Legged Dog said it had asked the development corporation for help but never heard back. "We've had a request to them for about three years now," said Kevin Cunningham, the company's executive artistic director.

Members of Dance New Amsterdam, a nonprofit dance service organization, say they asked the development corporation for $1 million two years ago but also never received any response. "I think everyone is so discouraged about L.M.D.C.," said Charles D. Wright, the group's executive director. Still, the dance group managed to raise $4.5 million over the last few years for a new 25,000-square-foot space, now under construction at 280 Broadway in the Sun building. Such arts groups have managed to endure mostly through contributions from various foundations, individuals and local downtown groups, like the cultural council, which was given $5 million from the Sept. 11 Fund to distribute in the first three years after 9/11. "With the cultural plan stalled at ground zero, it's all the more important that the rest of what goes on culturally gets supported," Mr. Healy said.

The development corporation has been noticeably absent from this effort, arts groups say. "They've said all along that they are going to be helping people in the neighborhood," said Mr. Cunningham of 3-Legged Dog.

"If some attention could be focused on the smaller existing projects, we would be seeing a lot more evidence of recovery in Lower Manhattan," he added. "All of these organizations with budgets under $5 million are cash based. We can't wait. We have to move or die."

John C. Whitehead, chairman of the development corporation, said in an interview that he had received proposals for cultural ventures downtown from some 100 organizations about two years ago. "We haven't done much with them because our focus was on the cultural organizations that we picked," he said, referring to the four groups originally selected for ground zero itself. "We have begun to concentrate again on that."

He added: "Cultural programs are alive and well in Lower Manhattan. They have done very well. There have been no crises that money needed to resolve."

Stefan Pryor, the president of the development corporation, said his agency was preparing to begin distributing the $45 million designated for off-site arts groups. "We are in the process of developing an approach," he said. "I would characterize it as 'soon.' "

He added, "Culture is critical, and one of the L.M.D.C.'s highest priorities is ensuring that culture continues to flourish downtown."

The development corporation helped some organizations just after the terrorist attacks with grants to help them get through the first few months. But none have received any aid since. The corporation has been helping the Drawing Center look for space since the center was ousted from ground zero. The Drawing Center, now on Wooster Street, is considering three alternative sites downtown. Still, the smaller arts groups have pressed on, marshalling their limited resources. When Collective Unconscious, an art collective and performance space, was planning a $125,000 upgrade of its Church Street headquarters, the group did not even try to get help from the development corporation. "We're an all-volunteer organization - there is no one on staff," said Caterina Bartha, a founding director. "We just felt we were too small."

Instead, the group received $35,000 from the Department of Cultural Affairs through Councilman Alan J. Gerson's office and $40,000 from the cultural council, Ms. Bartha said.

And several cultural groups are leery of the labor-intensive prospect of having to apply for help all over again. As for what cultural component might end up in the museum building at ground zero, Mr. Whitehead said he planned to meet with the Smithsonian Institution "to see if they have an interest in giving us any ideas." He also mentioned the New-York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York and the New York State Museum in Albany - which has an exhibition of 9/11 artifacts - as institutions that might play a role in programming.

That such a new museum could encounter another round of protests is unlikely, Mr. Whitehead maintains. "We have a family advisory committee now that includes most of the people who were our opponents," he said. "We're very conscious of what won't fly."

Raising money for the museum and performing arts center on the site falls to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which is also raising money for the site's memorial. But the foundation has made clear that this is not its most pressing concern.

"We're focused on the memorial and the memorial museum," said Gretchen Dykstra, the president of the Memorial Foundation, in a recent television interview.

But Mr. Whitehead, who is also chairman of the memorial foundation, said of Ms. Dykstra's comments: "I think her job is to raise the money, and our job is to decide what gets built on the site."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/arts/31cult.html

9/11 survivor feels blessed to share second chance at life

By ANDREA EILENBERGER
The Express-Times
 
BETHLEHEM -- Her left hand pushed through piles of debris that had minutes before been the north tower of the World Trade Center, desperately searching for anything outside the concrete and steel prison in which she was trapped.

Over the next 27 hours, her leg crushed and her spirit at times wavering, she repeated a prayer and extended her arm, but help was elusive.

Suddenly, another hand grabbed onto hers and didn't let go until she was safely on a stretcher. Paul was her miracle, and since that day, she has dedicated her new life to reaching out to others as Paul reached out to her.

"He comforted me, and told me 'they're going to help you,' " Genelle Guzman-McMillan said. "He called me by my name, and then I heard them cutting away at the debris."

Nobody saw Paul, and nobody has been able to prove there was a Paul climbing around the wreckage of the tower that day. McMillan is sure the comforting Paul was an angel sent to answer her desperate prayers.

Sunday morning, she shared her story and her faith with the congregation of Calvary Baptist Church in Bethlehem.

"A time of trouble or crisis will come upon us," the Rev. Larry Burd told parishioners. "For Genelle, her time of crisis came on Sept. 11, 2001, on the 13th floor when the World Trade Center collapsed."

Guzman-McMillan is the last person to be rescued from the terror attacks. She worked as an office assistant at Port Authority on the 64th floor, and had only paused for a second to remove her shoes as she ran down stairwell B that day.

It was then, on the 13th floor, as she stooped down to unstrap her high-heels that the second plane hit.

She doesn't know why she lived and Rosa Gonzalez, a friend and co-worker running down the stairs with her, didn't survive. But Guzman-McMillan said she knows it is now her job to spread the word of her miracle.

Until she lay trapped between two concrete pillars that day, she wasn't a "committed Christian." She went to parties and was more concerned with fashion than with going to church.

"I want to reach more young people," she said Sunday. "When the towers fell I had been living for me. But I know now everything is God's time."

As soon as her right leg, which had been pinned beneath the rubble and was crushed, healed enough to walk on, she began traveling with the pastor of her Brooklyn church. Later, she would appear on CNN, ''Oprah'' and in Time Magazine.

On Sunday, parishioners hugged her and thanked her for her courage.

"Her story really touches your heart," parishioner Barbara Leake, of Hanover Township, said. "We're all going to be in a crisis of some sort some day."

Now Guzman-McMillan lives in Valley Stream, Long Island, with her husband and four children. She works for the Port Authority at JFK International Airport.

"I'm not afraid to go into tall buildings, she said.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/...42242720.xml&coll=2

 http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/timel...004-05-05-FINAL.pdf

By JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, paid tribute to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks Tuesday as they began a weeklong tour of the United States - a trip the British press predicted would cause little excitement among Americans.

After arriving in New York City on a private chartered jet, the couple traveled by limousine to Ground Zero, where they walked around to greet some of the several hundred well-wishers and onlookers who gathered behind barricades.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...80,-5385024,00.html

Charles and Camilla begin US tour
 
The duchess was given flowers by five-year-old Katherine Beaumont
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have begun their US tour by paying their respects at Ground Zero.
The royal couple then inaugurated the British Memorial Garden for UK victims of the 11 September attacks.

After meeting families of British victims, Prince Charles said he and his wife had been moved by what they saw.

The prince is also visiting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the New York headquarters as part of the American tour.

The royal couple's eight-day stay also includes visits to New Orleans, Washington and San Francisco.

The trip is Prince Charles' and Camilla's first joint official overseas tour since they married.

  In the four years that have passed the sorrow is not lessened

They were met at Ground Zero by New York Governor George Pataki, British Consul General Sir Phillip Thomas and Kenneth Ringler, the executive director of the Port Authority, which owns the site.

Hundreds of well-wishers met the royal couple at the British Memorial Garden where the prince unveiled a dedication stone.

After meeting relatives of some of the British victims near the garden, Charles said: "Both my wife and I are profoundly moved by what we saw, not just the scale of the whole outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and loss.

"In the four years that have passed the sorrow is not lessened.

"Our hearts go out to you and also to the families of the New York fire and police departments who sacrificed their lives."

Talking about the memorial garden, Charles said: "Both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given each other."
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4394934.stm

James Scott Barnard, 1955-2005: Firefighter helped at ground zero of 9/11

By HECTOR CASTRO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

When Seattle firefighter James Scott Barnard traveled to New York City after Sept. 11, 2001, he found himself in a field of rubble, trying to recover human remains, working by night in the glow of artificial light.

"He felt like he was walking on holy ground," said his wife, Jeanette Barnard. "There were dead in there, and he just felt like what he was doing was holy."

Barnard, whom friends called "Scotty," spent two weeks at ground zero recovering remains, encompassing in his efforts two of the most important aspects of his life: service to others and his spiritual beliefs.

"He was just honored to be a part of it," his wife said.

Scott Barnard, a 14-year veteran of the Seattle Fire Department, died Oct. 26 after a yearlong bout with cancer. He would have been 50 Saturday.

"What I'd like people to know about Scotty was that he was a class act and a gentleman and a professional," Capt. Smokey Simpson said. "The city is worse off with his passing."

Barnard joined the Seattle Fire Department when he was 36, after moving to Washington from California. He soon became part of Ladder 7, the technical rescue squad responsible for many of the most difficult rescues.

It's the team that rescues window-washers stranded hundreds of feet in the air, digs for construction workers trapped in trenches, and dives into local lakes and the waters of Puget Sound, trying to save lives.

Barnard was also a member of the Puget Sound Urban Search and Rescue Team. It was with that Federal Emergency Management Agency team that he went to New York as part of the effort to recover bodies.

 Firefighter Annie Myers was on the same team and worked with Barnard on Ladder 7.

"He was just a wonderful guy," she said. "He lived and breathed the Fire Department."

In an interview after his return, Barnard recalled the overwhelming task his team faced at ground zero. "I can remember seeing it for the first time, and there was just total destruction four stories high," he said.

But he valued the opportunity to help, his wife said, whether it was moving a friend into a new home or helping to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. Serving others was one of the main reasons he wanted to become a firefighter, Jeanette Barnard said.

"He always wanted to be a firefighter," she said. "He loves helping people."

Jeanette Barnard met Scott before he was a firefighter, when he worked in construction in Southern California. He and a friend stopped in to visit her roommates, and he was polite enough to finish a serving of Jeanette's undercooked coffeecake. "Scott finished his because his mother told him to finish whatever someone gives you, so he was always very polite," she said. "A year later, he asked me to marry him."

Scott Barnard joined the Fire Department in Arcadia, Calif., northeast of Los Angeles.

He worked there for 10 years before the couple moved to the Puget Sound area with their two sons, Clay and Luke, now 21 and 18, respectively.

Diagnosed with colon cancer in August 2004, Barnard continued to work and was still reporting for duty until a few weeks ago. He spent his last few weeks at home, with friends and firefighters visiting often.

Lt. Frank Brennan said Barnard joked and was in good spirits, even knowing he was dying.

"He was Scotty right up to the end," Brennan said. "We're going to miss his goofy sense of humor and just his presence in the station."

Jeanette and Scott Barnard shared a religious faith.

"I know where my husband is," she said. "He's with the Lord. I will see my husband again."

SERVICE SET

A memorial service for Seattle firefighter J. Scott Barnard, who died Oct. 26, is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Jovita Baptist Church, 1120 114th Ave. E., Edgewood.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/246763_barnardobit02.html

 

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce that Peter Walker, the landscape architect working with Michael Arad on the World Trade Center Memorial, will chat live with visitors to our website next Tuesday, November 8th at 12pm EST.

Peter will answer your questions on topics ranging from his approach to landscape design to the tree selection process for the Memorial to your specific landscape challenges. Simply go to out homepage at http://www.buildthememorial.org/ and click on the chat link to the hour-long discussion.

This is the Memorial Foundation's first of what we hope will become a series of online chats to broaden the public's understanding of the beautiful plans for the Memorial which is scheduled to break ground next spring. We look forward to your participation and feedback and hope that you will invite others to join the discussion. Have fun.

Best wishes,
Gretchen

Gretchen Dykstra
President & CEO
World Trade Center Memorial Foundation

BACKGROUND ON PETER WALKER

Peter Walker was selected in 2003 to collaborate with Michael Arad on the design for the Memorial Plaza. Peter Walker and Partners designed the thousand acre Millennium Parklands in Sydney, Australia, and has collaborated with numerous world-renowned architects including Renzo Piano at the Memorial Plaza. Peter Walker and Partners designed the 1000- Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, Frank Gehry at the Herman Miller Inc. facility in Rockland, California, Cesar Pelli at the Plaza Tower and Town Center in Costa Mesa, California, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Leandro V. Locsin at the Ayala Triangle in the Makati District in Manila, The Philippines, Murphy/ Jahn at the Hotel Kempinski at the Munich Airport Center, Moshe Safdie at the Cambridge (Mass.) Center Roof Garden, Ricardo Legorreta and Mitchell/ Giurgola at IBM Solana at Westlake and Southlake, Texas, and Arata Isozaki at the Center for the Advanced Science and Technology in the Hyogo Prefecture in Japan.

Mr. Walker holds a Master in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed Graduate Study in Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois. He has held teaching posts as Chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, Chairman, Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and Director of the SWA Group Summer School, among others. He has received numerous awards, including the American Society of Landscape Architect's Medal, the Jefferson Medal and the International Federation of Landscape Architecture's Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Gold Medal.
 
gretchen@buildthememorial.org

A Message Written in Steel
By Alan W. Dowd


After she fell below the water’s surface on December 7, 1941, the battleship Arizona became a tomb for 1,177 sailors. She and her crew, of course, still lie there, silently reminding us of the price of our freedom. But the Arizona would do more than serve as a memorial and final resting place for those men: She would donate her guns to the war effort, to her sisters who survived that fiery morning, to her distant cousins who would avenge that day of infamy. The University of Arizona Library reminds us that ammunition, machinery, equipment, and guns from the Arizona were salvaged for other warships. In fact, as the Naval Historical Center adds, two of Arizona’s big guns were actually used in coastal defense emplacements on Oahu.

So what’s this have to do with today? More than you might think.

Quietly, without much fanfare or attention, a small handful of Americans gathered last month to mark the fifth anniversary of the USS Cole bombing. The Cole, like the Arizona, was the victim of a surprise attack. It came on October 12, 2000, and it claimed 17 sailors. They died, like the Arizona’s crew, half-a-world away, while their families and friends back home were still asleep.

Unlike the Arizona, the Cole didn’t succumb to the waters. Instead, with a hole in her side, the Cole was carried back to the United States, to Ingalls Shipyard in Mississippi, where she would undergo a year of reconstruction and repair. As fate would have it, the repairs were completed on September 14, 2001—just three days after that second day of infamy.

 

By 2002, the Cole was back at sea, fighting in the very war that bloodied her, the war that had no name until a year after she left part of herself in the Gulf of Aden. Navy Capt. Christopher W. Grady was the first to skipper the rebuilt Cole. “From the Straits of Gibraltar to the coast of Syria, we were driven,” he intoned at this year’s memorial service, “driven to take the fight to the enemy and to do our part against the scourge of terror.”

The Cole’s tenacity and refusal to quit are fitting, given the life and times of its namesake, Sgt. Darrell S. Cole. Sgt. Cole volunteered for the Marines in August 1941, and was promptly ordered to serve as a bugler. Although he applied for a combat assignment, he was rejected. But a year after enlisting, he got his chance to fight on Guadalcanal, when he was ordered to fill in as his unit’s machine-gunner.

After that battle, he was again assigned as a Field Musician; again he asked for a new assignment; and again, his request was denied. But once his unit was sent back into battle, he traded in his bugle for a gun. During the Battle for Saipan, Cole’s squad leader was killed, and a wounded Cole took command of the entire squad. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for “his resolute leadership, indomitable fighting spirit and tenacious determination in the face of terrific opposition.”

After the invasion of the Tinian islands, Cole came to be known as “The Fighting Field Musician.” On February 19, 1945, Cole led a battery of machine-gunners onto Iwo Jima. I’ll let the Navy pick up the story from there: “Moving forward with the initial assault wave, a hail of fire from two enemy emplacements halted his section's advance. Sergeant Cole personally destroyed them with hand grenades. His unit continued to advance until pinned down for a second time by enemy fire from three Japanese gun emplacements. One of these emplacements was silenced by Cole's machine guns. When his machine guns jammed, armed only with a pistol and one hand grenade, Sergeant Cole made a one-man attack against the two remaining gun emplacements. Twice he returned to his own lines for additional grenades and continued the attack under fierce enemy fire until he had succeeded in destroying the enemy strong points. Upon returning to his own squad, he was instantly killed by an enemy grenade. By his one-man attack and heroic self-sacrifice, Sergeant Cole enabled his company to move forward against the fortifications and attain their ultimate objective.”

Neither Sgt. Cole nor the ship bearing his name knew the meaning of surrender.

Nor do the people of New York, which is why it so fitting that the Navy’s next amphibious transport docking ship is named the USS New York and just happens to be built with steel from the fallen World Trade Center. A huge structural beam from the South Tower—weighing ten tons—will form the core of the New York. But according to Patrick Cartier, whose son died in the South Tower on 9/11, the steel from Ground Zero represents much more than the core of a new warship. It embodies “the very soul of the event—all of that steel which housed all the people fell along with them, and they were all consumed in that terrible fireball,” he explained to the Stars and Stripes.

 

Once completed, the New York will have the capacity to carry up to 1,000 Marines into battle, along with landing craft, amphibious vehicles, and assault helicopters.

 

The ten-ton span of steel represents a tiny fraction of the 1.6 million tons of wreckage hauled away from Ground Zero, of course, but the symbolism is unmistakable. As New York Governor George Pataki put it, “On September 2001, our nation's enemies brought their fight to New York…. The USS New York will now bring the fight to our nation's enemies well into the future.”

Whether it’s embodied by the name of a hero, or the spare parts of a sunken ship, or the jagged pieces of a fallen building, symbolism can be a powerful and motivating force, especially in a time of war. To rebuild or even resurrect something once destroyed or left for dead is to send a demoralizing message to the enemy: You have failed.

The Japanese received it when Gen. Douglas MacArthur made sure to summon Gen. Jonathan Wainwright to his side during the surrender ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri. Thousands of Wainwright’s men were lost during the brutal Bataan Death March; Wainwright himself barely survived almost three years as a POW.

I suspect at least some of the jihadists, when they aren’t looking for a new cave to hide in, are getting the message as well. As I write this, the Navy’s Cole website simply and aptly reports, “USS Cole is currently underway.” The New York will join her in 2008.

http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18815/article_detail.asp

Memorial honors Sept. 11 victims
Howell officials & relatives of those lost dedicate monument
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
 
JEFF GRANIT staff Patricia Lennon (r), the wife of John Lennon Jr., who was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, speaks with attendees at the dedication ceremony of Howell’s 9/11 memorial on Oct. 28.
 
The formal dedication last week of Howell’s Sept. 11 memorial is a hometown tribute that brought true comfort to some of the loved ones of the people that the monument was erected to honor.

Linda Rhodes, whose husband, John, was one of five Howell residents who died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, attended the dedication ceremony accompanied by her daughter Debbie Malek.

 
JEFF GRANIT staff John “Jack” Lennon Sr., the father of John Lennon, who was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, looks up at the center pentagon that is part of Howell’s 9/11 monument. The monument at the municipal complex was dedicated Oct. 28.
 
Rhodes, a 21-year resident of Howell, said it was hard to find the words to express her gratitude to the people of Howell for their desire to commemorate her husband and the others in this way.

Rhodes and Malek said they know they will both find comfort in coming to the monument for quiet times of reflection.

“It’s so much nicer than going to the city,” said Malek, who recounted the trips she has made to ground zero.

Malek said although pieces of her father’s briefcase were retrieved and returned to her on one of those trips, that did not offer the comfort that having a hometown place to visit does.

Rhodes, who said she has one grandchild and two more on the way, said Howell’s monument to their grandfather will make visiting the site with them all the more special.

Howell residents Colin McArthur, Joseph Sacerdote, John Lennon Jr. and Alan Wisniewski were also killed in the attack that signaled the start of a coordinated global war on terrorism.

Lennon’s wife, Patricia, his mother, Lucille, and father, John “Jack” Lennon Sr., were also present at the Oct. 28 dedication at the municipal complex.

Patricia and Lucille Lennon both said the construction of a memorial to honor their lost loved one and the others was a nice thing for the town to have done.

Mayor Joseph M. DiBella said the monument was built to honor not only the people who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, but all whose lives have been lost in the continuing battle against terrorism.

The construction of the monument was budgeted at $150,000 and came in under the projected cost that included labor and the cost of materials, according to Helene Schlegel, director of Parks and Recreation.

The design and construction was the work of Howell resident Miguel Eiras, a professional stone mason who designed the structure and constructed it with the help of another Howell resident, Eugene Snyder. Both men are volunteer firemen with the Squankum Fire Company.

The memorial they constructed is a dome-shaped structure with five arches, representing each of the Howell residents killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Their names are engraved in black marble plaques mounted along the inside of the arches along with plaques featuring national symbols such as the American eagle and the Washington Monument.

The five arches meet at the top in a pentagon, an homage to the lives lost in the attack at the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

The floor of the monument features black and gray stone on which an outline of the World Trade Center’s twin towers in the New York skyline is depicted.

A large black granite rock inside the dome is inset with a plaque commemorating the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 along with a pedestal that contains a piece of the World Trade Center.

The rock is from the Shanksville, Pa., area where Flight 93 crashed in a field following a revolt against the plane’s hijackers by passengers. Government officials believe the passengers’ revolt prevented the terrorists from piloting the plane into a target in Washington, D.C.

Inlaid along a perimeter bench are marble tiles etched with the names of every known victim of the terrorist attacks that took place at the various U.S. targets on Sept. 11. More than 3,000 people were killed in the attacks carried out by members of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.

Dignitaries who attended the ceremony that ran more than an hour under a crisp October evening sky included state assemblymen Joseph Malone and Ronald Dancer, and Monmouth County Freeholder Bill Barham.

On hand to represent U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine was Virginia S. Bauer, who recounted losing her husband, David, in the World Trade Center attack.

Ramtown Fire Company Chief Robert Kelly spoke about the 343 “brothers” who, along with Lennon, a transit authority officer, lost their lives on 9/11 while trying to help save others.

The ceremony, which was officiated by DiBella and Township Council members and featured the Howell Police Honor Guard and the Monmouth County Police Pipes and Drums, was opened by a rousing rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as sung by Priscilla Malave and Natalie Rivera.

DiBella announced that New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith had arranged to have a special flag flown over the White House in honor of the dedication of the Howell memorial.

http://tritown.gmnews.com/news/2005/1103/Front_Page/001.html