9/11 memorial van honors 2 LI natives and NYPD detectives who died in Twin Towers after terrorist attack

NYPD detectives are keeping their promise to never forget two detectives and Long Island natives killed on 9/11, by remembering their sacrifice with a memorial van on display at the Hauppauge Fire Department.

NYPD Dets. Joseph V. Vigiano and Claude Daniel Richards were killed while trying to rescue survivors in the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Detectives' Endowment Association president Scott Munro, who also served as a commissioner and chairman of the Hauppauge Fire District, worked with Long Island businesses, including the Bohemia-based Perfect Bodies Auto Body, to restore the van. They transformed a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair into a memorial to Vigiano, Richards and the 79 detectives who have since died from 9/11-related illnesses.

The memorial van was unveiled Friday at the Hauppauge Fire Department 9/11 memorial, where the department remembers Ray Meisenheimer and Peter Brennan, fire chiefs who served with the FDNY and were killed in the attacks.

The attack on the World Trade Center killed 23 NYPD officers, 37 Port Authority police officers and 343 FDNY firefighters when the Twin Towers collapsed. 

"We want to remember them," Munro said. "Now, 25 years later, we're still going to continue every year and remember the police officers that we lost on 9/11. We do this for the families. That's what it's about, and believing in law enforcement and what they do every day, what detectives and police officers do every day when they take an oath to do that job."

Vigiano, 34, of Medford, was a Deer Park fire commissioner, Munro said. He joined the NYPD when he was 20 and was a decorated detective who responded to the World Trade Center with his brother, FDNY firefighter John Vigiano, who was also killed in the attacks.

Joseph Vigiano was last seen between the 30th and 35th floors of the north tower, Newsday previously reported. His brother was preparing to enter the south tower, and his remains were never recovered.

Joseph Vigiano’s son Joseph, who was 8 when he lost his father, was promoted Monday to sergeant in the NYPD Emergency Service Unit.

Richards, 46, grew up in Bethpage and was living in Manhattan. He was a member of the NYPD bomb squad that previously investigated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the crash off Long Island of TWA Flight 800. Richards was an U.S. Army veteran and served as an airborne ranger in Bosnia.

He was killed in the north tower while searching for survivors before it collapsed.

The black van is topped with a 1960s-era gumball police light and siren. The van features a thin blue line above the New York City skyline and the Detectives' Endowment Association badge above Richards’ and Vigiano’s photos. The back doors are wrapped with a photo of first responders hanging a flag from the wreckage of Ground Zero.

Detectives plan to bring the van to lay a wreath at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on Tuesday. The van will also be at the Hauppauge Fire Department on Wheeler Road for its memorial ceremony at 7 p.m. on Sept. 11.