Museum Talks to Highlight WTC Steel Buried in Afghanistan

In the days leading up to Veterans Day, visitors to the 9/11 Memorial Museum can make a connection between the longest war in American history and the World Trade Center while honoring our country’s veterans.

A map in the historical exhibition of the museum lists the locations where WTC steel was buried in Afghanistan in late 2001 and 2002 by U.S. Special Forces.  Dr. Andrew Hammond, a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and visiting scholar from NYU, will lead live talks at noon from November 9 through 11 in the museum's auditorium as a part of the ongoing The Stories They Tell series. The talks are free to museum visitors.

“I will be focusing in particular on the place where WTC steel was buried to commemorate the first post-9/11 U.S. casualty in the War on Terror, Johnny Mike Spann, a CIA operative and former U.S. Marine,” Hammond said. “The map is surrounded by military insignia and NYPD, FDNY, and PAPD insignia as a way of linking their efforts in Afghanistan to the first responder units who lost so many lives on 9/11.”

The talks are part of the 9/11 Memorial’s five-day Salute to Service. Throughout the tribute, veterans will receive free museum admission. Additional special programming for visitors includes a series of animated shorts from StoryCorps in the auditorium.

Hammond is on staff with the 9/11 Memorial as one of two postdoctoral fellowships made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

By Anthony Guido, 9/11 Memorial Director of Communications