State House recognizes 9/11 Memorial in Radcliff

A piece of twisted steel from the World Trade Center and limestone that once made up Pentagon walls are united in Radcliff as a memorial to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.

FILE PHOTO/Jill Pickett

A 9/11 Memorial featuring a piece of steel from the World Trade Center sits in the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery-Central in Radcliff.

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Legislative Research Commission

Rep. Tim Moore, R-Elizabethtown, speaks Wednesday on the House floor regarding House Resolution 103, which named the 9/11 Memorial in Radcliff as the state's first officially recognized tribute to the tragic attacks.

Dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the al-Qaida assaults, the memorial on a hillside at the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery-Central has been honored as the state’s first 9/11 memorial.

The House of Representatives unanimously approved House Resolution 103 on Wednesday. Reps. Tim Moore and Jimmie Lee were primary sponsors of the measure, which was co-sponsored by Hardin County’s entire House delegation.

“It is gratifying to know that the entire House was eager to support this recognition of our 9/11 Memorial at the Central Kentucky Veterans Cemetery,” Moore said. “May that memorial remind everyone who visits the cemetery that freedom is not free, and that there are men and women willing to pay the price to defend our liberty.”

Moore credits Kelly Barron, executive director of Radcliff and Fort Knox Tourism and Convention Commission, for suggesting the idea.

“This puts the 9/11 memorial on the map,” Barron said.

With the help of North Hardin High School graduate Samuel Young, an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Terrorist Screening Center, a group of local volunteers was able to secure mangled steel from the rubble of the World Trade Center. The steel was incorporated into a memorial for the 3,000 victims of the four airborne attacks.

Soon after the dedication ceremony, the group also obtained fragments from the Pentagon segment als smashed by an al-Qaida suicide assault using a hijacked commercial airliner.

In addition to honoring 9/11 victims, the resolution pays tribute to Kentuckians who have joined the war on terror through their service in the U.S. military.

“As long as this Commonwealth endures, may it continue to raise up patriots who love liberty, oppose injustice and serve selflessly to promote the cause of freedom,” it concludes.

A volunteer committee financed design and construction of the memorial through donations and by selling engraved bricks for $119 — 9/11 turned around.

To learn more about the memorial, go to www.kentucky911memorial.org.

Ben Sheroan can be reached at (270) 505-1764 or bsheroan@thenewsenterprise.com.