Making sure no one forgets 9-11

As a U.S. Air Force retiree and then longtime civilian employee at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., Legionnaire Mike Kirchoff has friends all over the military community. One of those friends was stationed in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Kirchoff said his friend wasn’t injured, but that day reminded him how quickly life can be struck down. And it drove Kirchoff to make sure the post he helped charter, Paul W. Airey Post 392 in Panama City, Fla., did something to honor those killed on 9-11.

On Sunday, Kirchoff and his post dedicated its 9-11 memorial. A steel beam from the World Trade Center was mounted on a base and now resides behind a plaque in a grassy area outside of the post.

“It just brought back a deep sense of … how fast you can lose your friends,” Kirchoff said of 9-11. “Sitting here one night, I said ‘we need something.’ It’s been 15 years, and we’ve almost got a generation that doesn’t know what the attack was. We have got to keep reminding everybody that it can happen at any time.”

The process of getting the steel beam started in 2014 when Kirchoff first wrote a letter to the New York Port Authority. “I had a vision that needed to have an artifact from 9-11 at our post. It means a lot to a lot of us who were serving in the military or working for the military at the time,” he said. “It took about a year, but finally they called me and said, ‘We’ve identified a piece we’re going to give you.’ It took another eight, nine months to get the thing.”

Kirchoff picked up what is referred to as Artifact No. I-0145a on Memorial Day weekend from Legionnaire Sean Powers, a retired New York Police Department helicopter pilot and commander of 9-11 Memorial Post 2001, which meets on the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City. “I thank (Powers) so much for what he did to help us retrieve this artifact,” Kirchoff said.

A local company built the monument base for free. Granite was also donated for the plaque, and a local veteran who runs a plaque shop did the etching. “Hardly any expense went into (the memorial),” Kirchoff said. “But the outcome was fantastic.”

So was the attendance at the Sept. 11 dedication ceremony. Local and state Legionnaires were among the more than 100 attendees at the ceremony, joining military personnel from nearby Tyndall Air Force Base and Naval Support Activity Panama City, area first responders, the Rutherford High School color guard and local dignitaries.

Panama City Mayor Greg Brudnicki read a proclamation declaring Sept. 11, 2016, as “a day to remember” and said 9-11 was a lesson in remaining vigilant. “One way to accomplish this is to never forget that those innocent victims did not die in vain,” he said. “America can fight back by reminding the world the deaths of these people will always be remembered.”

Post 392 Chaplain P.T. Moore said that 9-11 became the modern generation’s Pearl Harbor. “But something else also happened on that awful day,” he said. “We witnessed something distinctly American. Ordinary citizens rose to the occasion and responded with extraordinary acts of heroism.

“It is on this day on which we remember the innocent who lost their lives, and we pay tribute to those who gave their lives so that others might live.”

While the ceremony was meant to honor the victims of 9-11, Post 392 First Vice Commander Todd Talbot reminded attendees the war started by that day’s events still rages. “If our memory of Sept. 11 is fresh for everyone, it is our men and women in uniform … tasked with preventing another tragedy of that magnitude,” he said. “We are indebted to them for their willingness to protect our country.”

The ceremony also included the ringing of a ceremonial bell 11 times to honor those who have fought in every U.S. war since the American Revolution.

Kirchoff said the turnout at the event says something about how the country views 9-11. “I was not born during Pearl Harbor, but everybody knows Pearl Harbor,” he said. “Everybody knows the day that JFK got shot. You know where you were and what you were doing.

“9-11 is one of those days you will never forget what you were doing that morning when those planes flew into that tower. You’ll know exactly where you were and exactly what you were doing, and you will take it to the grave with you.”