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'Fredericksburg Remembers 9/11' exhibits at regional museum are personal, powerful Date published: 9/9/2011
BY CLINT SCHEMMER Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, will offer the public its first look at two regional exhibits that recall and reflect on those horrific events and their aftermath. Opening at the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center, both shows spring directly from people's experiences, including those of local residents. Accounts from eyewitnesses, survivors, first responders, military personnel and federal workers are the crux of the main exhibition, "Fredericksburg Remembers 9/11," which occupies the ground-floor galleries of Old Town Hall. Huge wall panels pair riveting photographs from Arlington, New York and Shanksville, Pa., with quotations from those caught up in the day's traumas or carried along in their later, lingering eddies. In one, Pentagon eyewitness Mutahara Mobashar recalls being ordered to evacuate the Navy Annex: "We moved outside to the parking lot. I saw lots of smoke and flames. My first thought was, I wish I could serve (in the Air Force) again. All I could do was stand there and watch." In another, Arlington County Fire Chief James Schwartz remembers being part of a parade of rescue vehicles responding to the attack: " there is this gaping gash on the west side of the building the lawn is littered with casualties." An array of artifacts buttresses the personal experiences: limestone from the smoke-blackened west side of the Pentagon where American Airlines Flight 77 struck, part of a World Trade Center steel beam fashioned into a cross, an Arlington firefighter's emergency gear and uniform. Some of the simplest items are the most moving: A backboard used by LifeCare medevac crews to transport injured people from the Pentagon to hospitals. A copy of the Quran. Squishy, a Koala bear toy that Army Maj. Ed Sabo of Fredericksburg was given by his daughters, Katie, Lizzie and Torie, to keep him safe when he deployed to Diwaynia, Iraq, in 2010. He carried Squishy, tucked in a uniform pocket, virtually everywhere. A banner from Operation Noble Eagle, the months-long homeland-security effort to safeguard U.S. facilities immediately after Sept. 11, 2001. Local members of the Virginia Army National Guard received the banner after protecting Fort McNair, home of the National Defense University, in Washington.
Date published: 9/9/2011
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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