Police, Firefighters Escort 9/11 Artifact to Arnold

Business stopped at the UPS distribution center at 5 p.m. Thursday at 520 Jefferson St. in St. Louis when City of Arnold councilmen arrived.

Behind them followed two Arnold motorcycle officers, five members of the Rock Community Fire Protection District, five members of the Veterans Foreign Wars Post 2593, medics from the Rock Community Ambulance District and numerous Arnold residents.

They arrived to retrieve a twisted, 2-foot piece of metal from New York City’s World Trade Center towers. More than 2,800 people died when terrorists flew two, 767 passenger planes into those two buildings on Sept. 11, 2001.

As workers brought the artifact to the visitors' reception area from the secure UPS room, Parks and Recreation Director Susie Boone’s eyes welled up with tears. Ward 1 Councilman Christine "Cricky" Lang also struggled to refrain from crying in public.

Both women worked several months to obtain the artifact from The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey for Arnold's 9/11 memorial.

The port authority, which stored and guarded the World Trade Center remnants in Hanger 17 of New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, shipped the artifact late last week.

Arnold’s 9/11 memorial will be unveiled at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 at the Arnold Recreation Center, 1695 Missouri State Rd.

Boone and Lang said repeatedly the memorial would help residents remember the lives lost and changes to America caused by the events that occurred 10 years ago.

In the UPS building, Rock Community firefighters dressed in black uniforms approached the artifact, paid their respects to the people who died that day and draped the U.S. flag around the item.

After carrying the artifact outside and securing it to a trailer, firefighters, police officers and ambulance medics entered their vehicles switched on their flashing lights and escorted the artifact along 19 miles of Interstate 55’s rush hour traffic to .

Some drivers stopped along St. Louis city streets to allow the convoy through. Some I-55 drivers kept an empty lane between their car and the convoy.

At Arnold City Hall, at 2101 Jeffco Blvd., Mayor Ron Counts, other councilmen and city staffers waited outside.

After a brief ceremony, the convoy traveled to the Arnold Recreation Center, the firefighters escorted the flag-draped artifact into the building and placed it on a temporary pedestal in public view.

The artifact will remain there until workers complete Arnold’s 9/11 memorial later this month.