Doug Harms was roused from his sleep by a phone call from a friend telling him to turn on his TV.
A recording engineer for Atlanta music mogul Dallas Austin at the time, Harms watched in disbelief 10 years ago come Sunday, as thousands of people perished the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Like most Americans, Harms was paralyzed emotionally by events surrounding Sept. 11, 2001.
"I didn't know what to do or think or how to feel," he recalled earlier this week.
Not anymore.
Now a DeKalb County firefighter, Harms, 32, teamed with local sculptor Curtis James "C.J." Miller to design a memorial to the victims of theterrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and those who died in the plane crash in Pennsylvania. On Sunday the pair, along with a host of DeKalb dignitaries, firefighters and police officers, will dedicate an 11-foot statue of a Phoenix wing rising from the ground at the DeKalb County Public Safety Building.
Mike Korsch, a retired New York detective and volunteer firefighter on Long Island who worked the clean-up at Ground Zero, will also be in attendance.
"What we’re attempting to do on Sunday is to take a few moments to remember those first responders who sacrificed their own lives to save others that day," DeKalb County CEO Executive Burrell Ellis said. "It's a tragic story but there were some tremendous acts of heroism and courage that we should never forget. We will be commemorating that day and remembering lives lost, in particular the first responders."
During the ceremony, a rod of steel from the World Trade Center site -- a 160-pound remnant from that gruesome day -- will be permanently installed in front of the monument.
"It's a piece of history that changed the world," Harms said. "And it's nice to have something here in the county that people can see from that event."
In addition to the memorial, there will be four markers representing the four fated airliners from that day. They will tell where the flights took off and when they were hijacked as well as the number of passengers aboard each flight.
"It's a memorial so people never forget all of the lives that were lost," Harms said. "It's just something I wanted to do. I felt there just needed to be some kind of memorial in the metro area."
Four months ago, the 2,200-square-foot monument was still just an idea in Harms' head. Once once the project was approved, fellow firefighters, police officers, county officials, local businesses and the community helped raise $40,000 to build it.
After trying in vain to find a metal sculptor, Harms called the Savannah College of Art and Design which put him in touch with Miller, a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant who served as a firefighter and did two tours of duty in Iraq.
"I hope people remember the time after [the attacks] when we came together," Miller said. "That’s what this memorial is. It's how we came together, how we responded."
Together, the two created the stirring monument. Harms contacted New York City officials to see if it was possible to appropriate a piece of the Trade Center site for the monument and when the request was granted, he and a group of firefighters drove to New York in early June to pick up the piece of steel.
"They don't know which building it came from but they know it was from one of the two towers because of the thickness of the steel," Harms said.
The project became a rallying point. A granite company pitched in to help. So did a crane operator, who happened to be a fire-rescue employee who'd been laid off earlier this year but felt compelled to take part in erecting the tribute.
"It's amazing how this project has come together. It's one of those things that just blossomed," DeKalb Fire Chief Edward A. O'Brien said. "Most of the people we have in our department were young. Some were in high school and elementary school. It's a huge milestone. It's positive and one that will be recognized and visual for years to come."
The ceremony dedicating the memorial begins at 8 a.m. Sunday at the the DeKalb Public Safety Headquarters, located at 1950 West Exchange Place in Tucker.
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