MIDDLETOWN - A memorial dedicated to Connecticut's fallen in the war on terrorism received an additional symbolic of their sacrifice.
A flat-bed returned from JFK with a 13-foot steel piece which may have looked like a beam from the World Trade Center, but was actually a rail.
It was a part of the rail system running under the Twin Towers. The piece is one of just a few relics left, recovered from Ground Zero.
Diane DeLuzio hammered in the first metal peg. Her son, Steven, died fighting in Afghanistan. He wanted to join up after the Twin Towers fell.
"It's why my son went to war and why so many others did as well," DeLuzio said. "I want to believe that he's proud of me right now, as I am of him."
Sgt. Steven DeLuzio is one of 65 Connecticut service men and women remembered at the Connecticut Trees of Honor Memorial in Middletown.
The path, lined with markers and trees, is expected to be completed next month with a special statue erected at Veterans Memorial Park.
“The fact that so many of our service members signed up to join the military after 9/11, it’s a fitting tie-in to have a piece of 9/11 included in the memorial,” said Sue Matucci, president of the Trees of Honor Memorial.
Steve Harrington, president of Industrial Air Flow Dynamics in Glastonbury and a supporter of the Honor Memorial Committee offered the truck and driver for the delivery of the artifacts from New York to Middletown. Middletown Fire Chief Robert Kronenberger coordinated the effort, along with other committee members.
