Town of Barre dedicates new 9/11 memorial ten years in the making

BARRE, Mass. — Veterans and civilians came together on Memorial Day to formally dedicate the town’s latest war memorial.

It’s a powerful remembrance of the thousands of lives lost in the global war on terror.

Dennis Fleming, along with many others, helped complete a mission ten years in the making.

Fleming recalled the horrific events of 9/11.

“I was at the dentist’s office over here and from the time I left my house and went to the dentist, the first plane had already hit and they’re watching it on tv and I‘m standing there and all of a sudden, a second plane hit and you know the rest of that is history," Fleming said.

A history now etched in blocks of granite.

“I think for us, our generation, being the children of ‘The Greatest Generation,’ this is our Pearl Harbor,” Fleming said.

As a marine, Barre’s Police Chief James Sabourin was stationed in Hawaii on 9/11.

“I can remember a lot of confusion and then we deployed shortly thereafter,” he said. “So I am a veteran of the global war on terror. It’s a little surreal looking at a memorial like that come together.”

Sabourin says the memorial fills his heart with pride and it makes him proud of the town.

To help fund the project, a favorite brick program was established and donations were accepted.

Carved into the statues are the times the towers were hit. Behind the towers are subway rails recovered from the lower level of the World Trade Center complex.

To the left is the Pennsylvania monument for the lives lost in Shanksville on United Airlines Flight 93, along with the last words spoken by passengers and crew, “let’s roll.”

Finally, the memorial pays tribute to the lives lost in the Pentagon crash.

Barre native William O’Donnell, a Navy veteran, was in the Pentagon on 9/11.

When he heard about the tribute, he offered up a piece of the Pentagon which is now housed at the memorial in Barre.

“I think it’s something the entire town and area can be proud of,” O’Donnell said. “And they did it out of the goodness of their hearts.”

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