Exhibit brings terror of Sept. 11 close to home

The Veterans Memorial Museum has unveiled an exhibit commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The display features two concrete end caps from the Pentagon and a steel floor beam from one of the World Trade Center towers. The pieces were salvaged after the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. The exhibit also features still and video images from the attacks.

"To us, it's like having a piece of the USS Arizona," said Chip Duncan, a museum employee, referring to one of the battleships that sank during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. "There really is no other comparable that you can think of in American history."

Duncan, who designed the exhibit, said he was touched personally by the attacks.

His father, Charles, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, worked in the Pentagon two decades before the attacks, and the younger Duncan recalled walking down the halls of the nation's military headquarters. His father's office was a short distance from where American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, killing 184 people.

Duncan said it felt odd to see architectural features roll through the museum doors that he had seen more than 20 years earlier.

"It shouldn't be here," he said, gazing at the display. "It's kind of strange to see this here because that's Washington, D.C., on the other side of the country."

The exhibit will be at the museum through winter, Duncan said.

The pieces are owned by the Spirit of America Foundation, founded by John Jackson, a Lacey resident who owns a steelworking company. One of them will be donated to the museum for permanent display, and Jackson is working to secure a second permanent piece. The goal of the foundation is to build a memorial commemorating the victims of the attacks in every state. Its first order of business is to build a memorial at the state-owned Heritage Park, which could cost up to $750,000, he said.

The foundation secured the pieces in 2002, and Jackson displayed them on a trailer that he drove to various events, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the attacks. He met Lee Grimes, the museum's executive director, at an event and thought a museum display would allow more people to view and touch them.

The display is interactive, and visitors are encouraged to touch the pieces. Jackson said he has seen a wide range of reaction from people who have touched the pieces - anger, shock and sadness. One man broke into tears at an event in Seattle three years ago, and Jackson learned he was an American Airlines pilot who handed off the plane to one of the crews that died in the attacks.

Although horrific, the events of Sept. 11 were distant for Washington residents, Jackson said.

"When all of the sudden they come face to face with a twisted piece of iron from the event that they can touch, it becomes real for them," he said.

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Information from: The Olympian, http://www.theolympian.com