SEPTEMBER 9, 2026 – Four unassuming memorials at and around Fort Knox, Kentucky, carry deep significance that few may realize as they pass through the gates of the Army installation to live, work or visit.
Two came from the World Trade Center towers in New York City; the other two from the Pentagon. Combined, they offer daily reminders of that fateful Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001, when the world suddenly pivoted on a different axis.
The Fire Truck
Some remember 9/11 with the raw emotion of personal experience, like Al Wallace, who worked as a firefighter at then-Fort Myer Fire Department in Arlington, Virginia, in 2001.
“We knew about the two attacks in New York that had happened,” Wallace said.
He and fellow firefighters Mark Skipper and Dennis Young were manning the Emergency-One four-wheel drive fire truck Foam 161 at the Pentagon heliport when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. Then at 9:03, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower.
The firefighters had been alerted and warned 15 minutes after the second attack to be prepared for a possible third attack somewhere in the Washington area.
“The fire chief called our firehouse and talked to Dennis, who then called for me and Skipper,” Wallace said. “He first asked me, ‘Are you aware of what’s going on in New York City?’ I told him, ‘Yeah, our government is considering this a terrorist attack at this point.'”
Wallace and Skipper left to start preparing Foam 161 for service while Young stayed in the firehouse to monitor communications. Wallace said he and Skipper had been working around the right backside of the truck and were walking to the front of it when they saw it — American Airlines Flight 77.
“We didn’t realize that anything was out of the ordinary until we saw the airplane,” Wallace said. “It crossed the freeway about 200 yards away, knocking down light poles. Immediately, we were enveloped in this very loud noise.”
With only seconds to react, Wallace ran to a nearby van and dove under it while Skipper fell to the ground on the tarmac. Miraculously, neither man died from the ball of flames rushing at them. Both suffered only minor burns.
Wallace later testified that the position of Foam 161 was likely the reason why Young and two flight tower personnel in the firehouse were saved. Foam 161, parked between them and the crash site 200 feet away, had taken the brunt of the explosion.
“If the fire truck hadn’t been parked where it was, the firehouse would have been leveled,” Wallace said.
His instinct and training kicked in immediately as both he and Skipper prepared to maneuver the truck so they could spray foam on the crash site. Wallace revved the engines, trying to get the truck to move, finally realizing that Foam 161 was out of commission and, in fact, on fire.
So, they turned their attention to rescuing others inside the Pentagon. On Sept. 11, 2013, Foam 161 arrived at the Patton Museum of Leadership at Fort Knox, where it sits today — charred and scarred just like it became on Sept. 11, 2001.
The Headquarters Complex
Just minutes before the Pentagon crash, Army Lt. Gen. Timothy Maude had been sitting in his office at the Pentagon, conducting a meeting. The Army deputy chief of staff for personnel and his staff had recently moved into the newly renovated section at the west side of the building.
Maude was working to consolidate Army human resources headquarters — which was in three sites at that time — into one location.
He had been out of the office recently, recovering from a splintered spleen. He had decided to return to work early to continue revamping recruitment efforts because, according to one source, “the Army needed him.”
Gregory Gardner, who works at the Fort Knox-based U.S. Army Human Resources Command, said he never met Maude but had heard a lot about him when he joined the organization. He said a few years after the plane hit the west wall of the Pentagon, Army Maj. Gen. Sean Byrne, commander of the Army Human Resources Command, decided to rename the HRC facility in Maude’s honor. Byrne had served as Maude’s executive officer in 2001.
“I remember Gen. Byrne telling us, ‘I want to name the facility after Gen. Maude,'” Gardner said. “It was his plan; it was his idea, but the process took a bit of time. I thought it was a great idea to name the human resources building after him.”
Army Human Resources Command moved to Fort Knox nearly a decade after the 9/11 terrorist attack, and the building was named the Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude Complex during a May 27, 2010, ceremony.
The I-Beams
Among the rubble after the towers collapsed was a tangle of twisted and broken I-beams. They were later cut into smaller sections and distributed to areas across the U.S.
One of those pieces — a 16-foot beam mounted on a 6-foot granite column that in total weighs over 9 tons — overlooks the veterans cemetery in Radcliff, Kentucky. Many note how it looks like a partial cross, casting large shadows across the land at sunrise and sunset. The wall behind the beam is constructed of limestone blocks recovered from the Pentagon after the attack.
The Kentucky Sept. 11 memorial is dedicated to those who lost their lives on that fateful day as well as military service members who gave their all in the war on terror overseas, according to a brochure published by the Radcliff and Fort Knox Convention and Tourism Commission.
A smaller I-beam sits in granite beside Fire Station 1 at Fort Knox. It was installed in September 2011, marking the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
The inscription next to the charred steel reads in part: “It now sits upon a solid foundation of remembrance from the Pentagon to the World Trade Center and in the fields of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. A brief decade ago, America and her citizens were plunged into a state of anguish. Shaken yet united in cause, we grow stronger … we will never forget.”
By Eric Pilgrim
Fort Knox