By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Anyone old enough to remember the Sept. 11 attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives in New York City, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, remember where they were when news broke of the terrorist attacks.
As part of a memorial to those lives lost, members of the 180th Fighter Wing tell their stories of that day. One was still in school, in shop class, another was in a meeting at Wood Lane offices. One was serving in Saudi Arabia, another in New York City. And one was at the 180th, and piloted one of the many military jets scrambled that day.
The 180th Fighter Wing is the site of Northwest Ohio’s 9/11 Memorial, currently under construction.
Members of the 180th Fighter Wing were able to collect artifacts for the memorial, including steel beams from the World Trade Center, limestone from the Pentagon and soil from Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed.
The memorial, designed as a sun dial, will also include locally, hand-blown glass pieces representing the 2,977 lives lost in the attacks. The memorial should be completed by Sept. 11, 2017.
