‘Never forget’
Conway 9/11 memorial getting repairs, ceremony planned
Fire Chief Mike Winter of the Conway Fire Department said a 9/11 memorial ceremony planned for 10 a.m. Saturday in Simon Park is fulfilling a promise the country made. “It’s a day that we promised to never forget,” Winter said.
It was 20 years ago that people around the world stopped in their tracks to watch unbelievable events unfold as terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
Also, a 9/11 memorial unveiled in 2016 at Central Fire Station in downtown Conway is getting a face-lift in conjunction with the anniversary. The memorial, which includes a steel beam from the World Trade Center, is made with 343 bricks, representing the number of New York City firefighters who died in the attacks.
The ceremony in the downtown park, at 805 Front St., will include comments from Winter.
“I’ll talk about the [firefighters] we lost that day, and we’ll have an out-of-service toll,” he said. Conway Police Chief William Tapley will also speak, and there will be a 21-gun salute by the Conway Police Department. The Honor Guard, composed of police officers and firefighters, will carry the flag. Central Baptist College President Terry Kimbrow will say a prayer.
Mayor Bart Castleberry, a former fire chief who went to New York City a month after the attacks, will talk about his recollections of the day. He and Jack Bell, now director of the Conway airport, were on the Arkansas Crisis Response Team, part of the National Organization of Victims Assistance, that went to New York to help. They were set up in an abandoned train station in New Jersey, directly across from ground zero.
“When we got there, it was still a rescue effort,” Castleberry said. “The towers were still smoldering, and the security was still really high. We were there working with the families of the World Trade Center. If your husband worked there and he was one of the missing, you came in, and we set you up” to get financial assistance and much more, he said. DNA testing was also done to help identify remains.
The last step was to “sign off on a death certificate,” Castleberry said. “That was the hardest thing for them; at that point, they were giving up all hope.” After the process, “they’d write a goodbye, something to their loved one,” on walls that had been set up where people had posted photos of their missing loved ones.
“I worked with a lady for eight hours one day, went through the whole process; we became well-acquainted,” he said. “When we got to the final thing (the death certificate), she couldn’t do it. We went outside, sat and drank a Coke and talked, and she finally said, ‘I think I can do it.’”
The woman then wrote a long note to her husband, Castleberry said.
He said he was struck by “the human tragedy of the whole thing, not just all who perished, but the human emotion and toll on the survivors.”
Castleberry also accompanied families to ground zero, where the towers fell.
“The thing that was so memorable, when we walked in with those families, those soldiers, the firefighters and the steel workers — they all stopped and stood at attention for those families,” he said.
Castleberry recalled one woman whose two sons pointed out where their father’s office had been.
“From the time we left, she never took her eyes off that spot,” Castleberry said. “Even when we got back on the ferry, she repositioned herself so she could see.”
Winter said the memorial ceremony is important for the community.
“This is something [where] 343 firefighters lost their lives. I’m not sure how many law enforcement, and then you had the civilians, the ones on the airplanes, the ones in the towers — such a horrendous event that we vowed to never forget,” he said.
Almost 3,000 men, women and children were killed in the 9/11 attacks, according to 911memorial.org. Thousands more were injured.
“What I reflect back on was the unity in this country after that happened — how many cookies and pies and visitors came by the fire station,” Winter said. “We still have a flag that’s flying that a kid brought in to us that is in our training room, framed. It’s an American flag, but it has the names of all the firefighters who perished that day.
“This country came together right after that event. That was one of the great things that came out of such a tragic event,” he said.
A memorial at Central Fire Station, 1401 Caldwell St., is another reminder of the tragedy, said Todd Cardin, assistant chief over the training division. He is a member of the Conway Fire Department’s original 9/11 Committee.
“It’s a reminder of what we’re willing to sacrifice every day,” Cardin said. “We don’t get paid for what we do; we get paid for what we’re willing to do.”
The Conway Fire Department applied for and received a large piece of steel in October 2011 from the World Trade Center.
The hunk of steel sat inside Central Station until Kevin Bass of Conway saw the piece and took it upon himself to solicit donations for the memorial. He launched the Citizens for Conway 9/11 Memorial page on the Go Fund Me website and raised $10,272.
The memorial, in addition to incorporating the piece of steel, has plaques created by a company in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The largest one, 42 by 24 inches, serves as the backdrop and features the Twin Towers, The Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania. The memorial includes a recirculating waterfall, and the perimeter of the concrete has small plaques giving the timeline of events. The memorial includes information about the New York Fire Department, as well as the Conway Fire Department.
Winter said the elements have taken their toll on the memorial.
“It started looking bad;
we’re having the black backdrop redone. The actual piece of steel, we’re cleaning it up some.”
Conway firefighters are doing that work, he said. The Florida company has refurbished the main plaque, and last week, it was on its way to Conway and is scheduled to be in before the ceremony, Winter said.
The 10 plaques around the bench of the memorial were damaged by the chlorinated water, Winter said. Billy’s Trophies and Awards in Conway is remaking the plaques.
Although water will still flow out of the top of the memorial, the rocks will be raised. “We’re going to make it a dry bed,” Winter said.
Bass said last week that he wasn’t aware the memorial was being refurbished, but he’s glad.
“It’s a place where people can tell the story of where they were
when [9/11] happened,” he said.
The 9/11 memorial isn’t for the firefighters, Winter emphasized in 2016. It’s for the city, and for residents who weren’t born when the attacks happened.
“It’s not just something to walk by. … It’s something to stop and read,” Winter said. “Kids in elementary school — [9/11 is] a thing they read about in a book. If someone will bring them by, not only can they see it; they can read about that day.”
Winter said last week that when he was talking to Tapley about Saturday’s ceremony, the police chief mentioned how he has officers who were toddlers when the 9/11 attacks happened.
“I’ve got firefighters who were 2, 3 years old. They didn’t live it like we did,” Winter said.
And Winter wants them to know — and never forget.