87 LRS, 305 MXS bring World Trade Center steel Published July 9, 2010 By Michelle Hozey Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst volunteer writer JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- On the morning of September 11, 2001, Maj. Elizabeth Clay, previously the 305th Maintenance Squadron commander, sat on a bench outside the Pentagon. She heard the roar of a jet in the distance and stood, expecting to see two fighter jets en route to a fly-by over Arlington National Cemetery. She didn't see two fighters. Moments later she heard a crash as American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. She saw the resulting fireball and felt the heat of the explosion on her skin. Years later, she recalled that the excitement she had felt only moments before quickly turned to fear. For a moment she stood in shock, wondering what had happened. The major said she didn't know at the time she had witnessed a portion of a deliberate act of terrorism which ultimately killed 2,976 innocent people. She reached the street across from the site of impact and heard the news through the gathering crowd. She stood with the crowd and stared in disbelief at the flaming hole the plane had left in the Pentagon. On September 11, 2006, Master Sgt. Bubba Beason, currently the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing first sergeant and formerly the 305th Maintenance Squadron first sergeant, sat glued to the TV, watching an NBC special report on Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy Airport. He learned that the hangar - formerly Tower Air, which went bankrupt in 2000 - housed artifacts from the terrorist attacks. Beason said he didn't think about Hangar 17 until 2009 when he received orders to Afghanistan. He then decided that he had to see its contents. Several days later, he met Pete Miller, of the New York Port Authority, at the hangar. As he observed the damaged pieces of steel, crushed vehicles and other artifacts, one item stood out to him, Beason said. The piece was labeled "M-2". Like all the other items in the hangar, it was assigned a number to help investigators determine what part of the buildings it was from. "M-2" is now a piece of burnt, twisted steel that once spanned the 96th to 99th floor of the north tower, right where American Airlines Flight 11 struck. According to Beason, as he touched the mangled steel column he thought, "This is where it started; the exact spot. This is what it's all about." That piece of steel represented his mission in Afghanistan - to protect the people of America from tragedies like the attacks of September 11. As he surveyed the ruins, Beason said he decided to do whatever it took to bring a piece here to create a memorial for the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst community. Unfortunately, the process was long. In mid-January, one week before his scheduled deployment, he received a call regarding the pieces that had been identified for the base. Before he shipped out, Beason handed the project over to Clay, his commanding officer. Clay and seven personnel from JB MDL visited Hangar 17 June 23 to finish what Beason had started. Four Airmen from the 305th Maintenance Squadron - Tech. Sgt. Michael Hames, Tech. Sgt. Daniel Morris, Staff Sgt. Shane Shepperson and Senior Airman Lanea Trevino - assisted three personnel from the 87th Logistics Readiness Squadron - Staff Sgt. Dustin Brown, Stephen Pipes and Ed Pechel - in loading two 8,000-pound steel beams onto a flatbed truck for transport here. Clay, who PCSed July 1, said the journey was emotional. It brought back memories of the day she sat outside the Pentagon and witnessed the acts that changed America forever. She said she can move to her new base and rest easy knowing that she fulfilled Beason's dream of bringing a piece of living history here. "You're looking at pieces of history," Beason wrote in an e-mail from Afghanistan. "Not dead history, living history. It's living in every serviceman and woman in the U.S. Armed Forces. I have a piece of the World Trade Center interwoven into my bootlaces; every step I take over here reminds me of that day. I will never forget why I am here." The two pieces of World Trade Center steel are temporarily being stored in the 305th MXS Hangar 2201 until an appropriate memorial site is identified. "People are forgetful," Clay said. "I hope this memorial will help them remember."