{"id":"6","article_title":"Nearly complete Pentagon memorial tells story of 9\/11","category_id":"1","article_date":"2012-10-23","article_summary":"As president of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, Jim Laychak has been involved in nearly aspect of the project's planning.The only thing he has not done<br>","article_content":"<img title=\"Image: http:\/\/www.myvivvo.com\/thumbnail.php?file=art.pentagon.cnn_700122187.jpg&amp;size=article_medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myvivvo.com\/thumbnail.php?file=art.pentagon.cnn_700122187.jpg&amp;size=article_medium\" alt=\"Nearly complete Pentagon memorial tells story of 911\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n                                \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>As president of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, Jim Laychak has been involved in nearly aspect of the project's planning.<br><br>The\r\n only thing he has not done is visit the bench dedicated to his brother,\r\n Dave Laychak, who died on September 11, 2001, when a passenger airplane\r\n hit the Pentagon.<br><br>\"I want to hold off and go and see his bench \r\nand touch his bench that day,\" said Laychak. \"I wanted to save something\r\n special for me personally on September 11 when we dedicate the \r\nmemorial, so I can spend some time with it then.\"<br><br>Laychak is one \r\nof many looking forward to the dedication of the memorial, which is \r\nbeing built to honor the 184 people killed when American Airlines Flight\r\n 77 crashed into the Pentagon.<br><br>\"This is hallowed ground for a lot\r\n of the family members, and the essence of this place will be about \r\nthem, those that we lost,\" Laychak said.<br><br>After more than five \r\nyears of fundraising, the organizers are about $13 million short of \r\ntheir goal. They plan to have the memorial finished and dedicated on the\r\n seventh anniversary of the attacks.<br><br>The park, which cost $22 \r\nmillion to build, needs another $10 million in endowment funds to make \r\nsure it's always properly maintained. So far, the Pentagon Memorial Fund\r\n has raised $19 million from sources as diverse as former Defense \r\nSecretary Donald Rumsfeld, NBA star [and Navy veteran] David Robinson \r\nand the government of Taiwan.<br><br>The focus of the memorial is 184 \r\ncantilevered benches built over a pool of lighted water. Each bench is \r\nengraved on the end with the name of one of the 184 people who died on \r\nboard Flight 77 or in the Pentagon that day.<br><br>The benches are \r\narranged by age, with the bench of the youngest victim, 3-year-old Dana \r\nFalkenberg, in the far southeast corner and the bench honoring \r\n71-year-old John Yamnicky in the northwest corner.<br><br>For Wendy Ploger, whose father and stepmother died aboard Flight 77, the benches add special meaning to the memorial.<br><br>\"I\r\n don't know how to describe it, but it tells the story of what happened,\r\n which is sort of what helps me to heal,\" said Ploger, whose relatives \r\nwere on their honeymoon when they died.<br><br>The benches for the 59 \r\nvictims on board the plane are arranged so that someone reading the name\r\n on the end of the bench will face the sky where the plane came from. \r\nThe 125 benches for the victims inside the Pentagon face the opposite \r\ndirection, so someone reading the name will look up and see the south \r\nfacade of the Pentagon, where the jet hit that day.<br><br>\"The way the \r\nbench is facing, my father's bench, if you read his name on the end of \r\nit, you are facing the same direction that the plane was flying [from] \r\nas it impacted the Pentagon,\" said Ploger, whose parents were originally\r\n scheduled to take a different flight but changed their plans.<br><br>\"At\r\n first I felt a little strange sitting on it. But then, it's comfort and\r\n it feels good and I feel like I'm close to my loved one,\" she said.<br><br>Some\r\n of the original plans have changed since construction started in June \r\n2006. Originally, the benches were to be made of aluminum. But aluminum \r\ncan oxidize, leaving pits and white residue. The builders chose to use \r\nmarine-grade stainless steel, which won't rust and can withstand the \r\nelements.<br><br>The benches are inlaid with black and gold granite \r\nmined in Spain and cut in Canada. A perimeter wall around the park is \r\nbuilt of the same Spanish granite.<br><br>Black granite was originally \r\nchosen for the top of a perimeter wall around the park, but builders \r\nlearned the hard way that on warm and sunny days, the black granite gets\r\n so hot \"it could burn your tuchis,\" one worker said.<br><br>Ploger and Laychak say they are not sure how others will respond to the memorial, but for them, it brings a sense of peace.<br><br>\"For me, it just makes it so real,\" Ploger said. \"This is sort of the closest I've been to the event and to that day.\"<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><br>","created_by":null,"created":null,"modified_by":null,"modified":null}