SEQUIM — Police Chief Bill Dickinson was choked up with emotion Sunday, recalling the trip he voluntarily took with two other of his officers to New York City to retrieve a heavy steel shard of a former I-beam.
The piece was once part of the World Trade Center twin towers before terrorists struck Sept. 11, 2001.
The artifact was moved to the parking lot behind Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4760 where it was displayed during a first responder recognition and thank-you dinner put on by the post.
“I started out with a sense of adventure before we there,” Dickinson said. “That sense turned to a sense of sorrow.”
“We were made aware of the fact how America remembers,” Dickinson said, seeing it from signs in diners to banners on highway overpasses.
Tearing up, he told about 150 local first responders, their families and other Sequim residents, “Patriotism is alive and well . . . God bless America.”
Dickinson, Sequim Police Officer Randy Kellas and Detective Darrell Nelson drove a pickup truck to New York City and back to retrieve the artifact from Ground Zero, the site of the terrorist attacks.
And indeed they did so shortly after noon Sunday, towing it slowly up North Sequim Avenue to the lot in front of the Museum and Arts Center’s DeWitt Building.
They followed a motorcycle escort of the Patriot Guard and police group, the Blue Knights, and were welcomed by American Legion members as color guards.
For Officer Randy Kellas, who joined Dickinson and Nelson, it was an emotional journey.
Kellas, after the ceremony where he was greeted by his family, lost his composure momentarily, recalling what he did shortly after viewing the United Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania where there were transcripts of voice messages made by passengers to loved ones after the hijacking.
“I instantly called my wife,” he said, trying to maintain his composure but barely holding back tears.
He called his effort to drive with colleagues to Ground Zero and back — a trip of at least 6,400 miles — “a few miles or my sacrifice to honor those that don’t get to come home again.”
Nelson called his part of the trip a humbling but educational experience.
“The American spirit is alive and well from sea to shining sea,” he said, echoing Dickinson’s observation that there were signs of people remember Sept. 11, 2001. everywhere they traveled across the U.S. and back.
A number of first responders from Clallam County Fire District No. 3 parked fire trucks with their ladders extended to hang a large Old Glory, which waved over the artifact in the gentle breeze on an unseasonably warm day.
Citing the horrible conditions of the Twin Towers inferno, Fire Chief Steve Vogel remembered the sad September day in 2001 when 343 firefighters and paramedics died among the almost 3,000 killed in the twin towers attacks and the crash of Flight 93.
“This is a day to reflect on that,” Vogel said.
Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois read a statement from Mayor Ken Hays, who apologized that he had a longstanding personal commitment and could not attend.
Hays said he hoped the salvaged piece of steel could be incorporated into the new City Hall structure now being planned.
Fire District 3 volunteer Vince Gordon, in full firefighter regalia, paused to take a photo of the artifact said the ceremony was emotional for him.
“It helped me re-galvanize myself for being a firefighter,” Gordon said.
Carolyn Markgraf of Sequim, wearing a U.S. flag shirt and matching red, white and blue ensemble, said she came for two reasons, to honor those who died in wars and the first responders and others who died in the attacks.
Between the 9/11 attack and the wars, she said, “There were a lot of people who lost their lives.”
She had reason to be there, too. Her son, Sgt. First Class Randall Markgraf based at Fort Lewis, has served two tours of duty in Iraq and was about to be deployed to his first tour in Afghanistan.
Clara Nelson, a 17-year-old Port Angeles High School senior, said she was proud to be attending the ceremony and to greet her father, Detective Nelson.
She said her father sent her and her family photos “and we followed his Twitter” account, she said.
She remembered being just a first-grader when the attacks occurred.
“I remember going to school and we got sent home,” she said. “I was really confused. All I knew it was something bad that had happened.”
The VFW and Ladies Auxiliary went all out to decorate and serve up a thank-you meal at Post 4760, where they worked setting up table and cooking all day in the kitchen.
“We want to say thank-you because of the things that these emergency response people do for us so we can be safe,” said Bonnie Woeck, VFW Post 4760 Ladies Auxiliary president.
Post commander Roger Padie presented certificates of recognition to Dickinson, Vogel and Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin and Bob Mills, one of six certified trainers in Clallam County for Community Emergency Response Teams.
All said they were honored to receive recognition from the VFW.
“In my opinion you guys are the heroes,” Vogel said.
While it is the first responders who protect local citizens, Dickinson said, “It’s the veterans who take care of this country.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
