Firefighter hopes for local 9/11 memorial by next year

If Roy James has his way, Princeton will be host to a 9/11 memorial featuring steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center by Sept. 11, 2012.

James, the deputy chief of the Princeton Fire Department, is currently in talks with New York City’s Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum about obtaining two of the museum’s steel beams that were recovered from Ground Zero.

“There’s one piece that’s a straight beam, probably eight or nine feet long, and it’s got a few indentations, a few deformities, but it’s not too bad,” James said. “And then there’s another piece that’s an S. It used to be a straight beam and now it’s been twisted into an S-shape.”

James will hear Nov. 9 whether or not Princeton will receive the Intrepid Museum’s steel, but he is meanwhile looking into other sources for steel from the World Trade Center. He has enlisted the help of fellow firefighter Kyle Rendell, an architect with KSS Architecture, and hopes to build a two-part memorial somewhere in the town. The memorial would include two separate sites, one for educating children and one for more somber reflection.

“We want one to be a little bit sacred, where people can go to be themselves and just let their emotions go,” James said. “And the other to be more for the kids, a place to go, to touch, to share stories, to explain.”

The Borough Council has agreed to assist in the cost of the memorial, James says, and he will soon approach the Township Committee for additional funding. He is also seeking private donations.

“I believe every town in the U.S. should have something to memorialize what happened,” he said. “If I have to do backflips or swim in the river, we’re getting a piece of steel.”

Like many other Americans, James feels a personal connection with 9/11. His wife was working on Wall Street in 2001 and happened to be at home on maternity leave when the planes hit.

“I remember the scream coming over my two-way radio from one of my managers that a plane had hit the World Trade Center,” James said. “I can still hear it in my head, my manager screaming and just the fear in her voice — ‘Oh my god, another one just hit.’ ”

Three years ago, James bought a motorcycle and became a member of the Red Knights, an international motorcycle club for firefighters. He has participated in several 9/11 memorial rides, including one in 2009 that travelled from Shanksville, Pa., to the Pentagon and then to the site of the World Trade Center.

“Every year, I was like, ‘Wow, that was the greatest thing.’ It was police-escorted, there were thousands of bikes, they closed the highways for us and I always remember, as they were stopping traffic, instead of people getting annoyed or inconvenienced, they would be clapping and cheering and waving their flags,” James said.

“A lot of people think of bikers as these rebels, these guys out looking to cause trouble, but when you’re doing these 9/11 runs, it’s quite the opposite,” James said. “Every single one of us had tears in his eyes. There will be nothing that will ever compare to the emotional support that was there.”

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It was through his involvement with the Red Knights that James got the idea for a town memorial. A fellow Red Knights member happened to be a member of a 9/11 memorial committee in Hopewell, N.J.

Hopewell had successfully obtained a piece of steel and was looking to have the Red Knights deliver it to the town.

James is hoping the same process will work in Princeton. He is currently putting a committee together with the local fire department.

“I have so many neighbors who were almost there that day,” he said. “Something stopped them from being there — they overslept, their kids were acting up that morning, they canceled a meeting last-minute.”

“I want to do this for Princeton, for myself and for my kids,” James said. “The worst thing that can happen to this country is to forget what happened that day.”