Keynote speaker will be former three-star Admiral Joseph Sestak
A Steel Workers’ Memorial is under construction near the National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum in Coatesville. Photo by Robert O. Williams.
Former three-star Admiral Joseph Sestak will keynote this year’s “Coatesville Remembers 9/11” memorial, a free program designed to honor those who lost or risked their lives that fateful day.
The former two-term congressman and National Security Council’s Director of Defense Policy under President Clinton will speak at the National Iron and Steel Heritage’s event on Wednesday, Sept. 11.
Sestak “commanded an aircraft carrier battle group that conducted combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq with 30 U.S. and allied ships and more than 15,000 sailors and 100 aircraft. He was the first director of the Navy’s anti-terrorism unit (Deep Blue) after 9/11, and the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations responsible for the Navy’s five year $350 billion warfare requirements,” according to a news release for the program.
The National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum (NISHM) is the trustee of the largest collection of 9/11 artifacts outside of New York City. The event will be held on the grounds of the Lukens Executive Office Building, in the Lukens National Historic District, on South First Avenue and Business U.S. 30, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Former three-star Admiral Joseph Sestak will keynote this year’s “Coatesville Remembers 9/11” memorial on Wednesday. Photo by Robert O. Williams.
The backdrop to the ceremony will be the new “Steel Workers’ Memorial,” which is being created from steel “tree” number “E-0014,” and will be dedicated to 66 steelworkers who lost their lives in Coatesville when it is completed, the release said.
This steel “tree” is a 35-ton section of the North Tower façade. It was located 70 feet above the concourse level. Steel “trees” (structural trident shapes that were fabricated at Lukens Steel of Coatesville in the late 1960’s) framed the first nine floors and soaring lobbies of the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. As the horrors of 9/11 unfolded, the “trees” jutting out of the ground became the icons of the tragedy, the release said.
Through negotiations with the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, the Graystone Society (for NISHM) was able to secure 10 steel “trees” for use as the centerpiece of its museum.
The “trees” were returned to their birthplace in Coatesville, the home of Lukens Steel, which manufactured the steel, on April 14, 2010, in a solemn procession. Some of those “trees” will be on display at the 9/11-memorial service.
The program will run from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Members of the public are invited to join county and state dignitaries, first-responders, schoolchildren and civic groups at the event, which will be held rain or shine. The Lukens Band, as well as local choirs and singers, is expected to attend, and refreshments will be served, the release said.
The National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum considers the acquisition of the World Trade Center “trees” to be the bedrock in artifact development for the museum. The museum is located in the Lukens National Historic District and draws national crowds to its facility, which educates the public on the people, places, products and processes of steel making. The remainder of the “trees” will have a permanent display in the museum.
The Graystone Society, which operates the museum, was created in 1984 to help preserve the city’s historic architecture and assists with municipal improvement and economic development through preservation. The Graystone Society is named for Graystone Mansion, part of the Lukens National Historic District, which is the home of the National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum. For information and touring reservations, please contact the Graystone Society at 610-384-9282 or admin@steelmuseum.org or visit http://www.steelmuseum.org.
