9/11 steel beam stirs memories, emotions at Lt. Michael P. Murphy Museum

Christine Kopp has a vivid memory of the funeral of FDNY Captain Thomas Moody, a Stony Brook native who had just been made captain and was filling in for officers getting physicals on Sept. 11, 2001.

He died in the north tower.

A friend of Moody’s sister, Kopp went to his packed services at St. James Church in Setauket, and recalled seeing big, strong men "who were trained to do heroic things" breaking down and sobbing. And as she touched a beam Monday from the World Trade Center where Moody died, she became emotional herself.

"The realization that what I saw on TV was nothing compared to what they saw," Kopp, 69, of Centereach said. "They've seen things that I could never imagine seeing, and to have to go through what they went through."

Kopp was one of the dozens of civilians, first responders, and military families who came to touch a steel beam recovered from the south tower of the World Trade Center on display at the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Navy SEAL Museum in West Sayville on Monday. The event was part of the Tunnel to Towers’ Steel Across America: Connecting a Nation Tour.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation will carry the 26-foot beam to more than 35 cities throughout the country to bring awareness of those who lost their lives that day and since.

The beam, which weighs about 16,900 pounds, was parked in a truck in the museum parking lot. A metal staircase allowed ceremony attendees to walk up to, touch and have a moment of silence with the beam.

When it was his turn, retired NYPD officer Thomas Robinson knelt and prayed at the beam. "I did a lot of time on the pile,” said Robinson, who came in full uniform. "It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years."

The beam had been donated to the foundation by the Port Authority and stored in a facility in Connecticut before it was placed in the special foundation truck.

"This piece of steel recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center will go across this country for one reason and one reason only — to make sure Americans never forget," Frank Siller, foundation CEO and chairman, said at Monday’s ceremony.

 Siller said that Long Island held a special connection to the foundation and the tour for multiple reasons. His brother, firefighter Stephen Siller, who died on 9/11 at age 34, had lived on Long Island after their parents died. 

Stephen Siller, who was off-duty that day, ran through the then-closed Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the Twin Towers, in full gear, and died in the collapse of the towers. That run inspired the name of the foundation and an annual race that traces his path.

Murphy, of Patchogue, was undergoing Navy SEAL training when 9/11 occurred. He was inspired to wear a patch from FDNY Engine 53 Ladder 43 on his uniform in honor of his friend Owen O’Callahagn, who worked at the fire department.

"He told his men, hey, you know what, they attacked our town, New York. So we have to wear this patch in honor of the men that lost their lives as well,” Maureen Murphy, his mother, told Newsday.

Murphy was wearing the patch when he was killed during Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan in 2005.

Stephen Siller Jr., who was 9 months old when his father was killed, presented the Murphy family with a commemorative, custom-built American flag made of steel from the World Trade Center.

Charlotte Conners, 48, of Plainview, attended the ceremony with her husband, Mike Conners, 54, to honor her cousin, who was killed during the terrorist attacks. Both of her brothers were first responders at Ground Zero and now face health issues.

"Just to be here and feel it as a New Yorker, to have lived through it, and then to come here and know that other people feel it,” she said.

The beam will be displayed next at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, site of the crash after the plane's crew and passengers prevented an attack that day on the Capitol.