JEFFERSON CITY — The Tunnels to Towers 9/11 Memorial Mobile Exhibit is open in Jefferson City until Sept. 13. New York firefighters walk visitors through the exhibit, giving firsthand accounts of what they witnessed.
For the past five years, Steve Cearlock, a retired Cole County public information chief, has been fighting for the exhibit to be displayed in Jefferson City over 9/11.
Cearlock got the call in June that the exhibit would be in Jefferson City on the 25-year mark since the attacks.
"The foundation called and said 'We're coming,' and I said, 'What do you mean you're coming?' and he says, 'We're coming to Jefferson City with the mobile exhibit,'" Cearlock said. "I just said, 'We got a lot of work to do.' Just the logistics of it getting here is pretty awesome and intense because we're very, very proud to have it here."
The Tunnels to Towers mobile exhibit is a tribute to those who died on 9/11 and is a tool used to further educate people across the country on the events of that day. There are also static displays around the Missouri State Capitol with military, Missouri Task Force 1 and first responder vehicles.
John Bruckner, a retired battalion chief with the New York Fire Department, was at ground zero following the attacks and led some of the rescue and cleanup efforts.
Bruckner said he doesn't want people to just remember the bad of the day.
"We got so much help from all over the country. People sent us firetrucks, we lost 70 pieces of apparatus, 343 New York City firemen and people came out of the woodwork down at the site," Bruckner said. "Doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, chaplains, ministers, people from all occupations, came if they thought they could help."
The exhibit runs visitors through a timeline of the day, starting with the flight paths for the four planes and the routes they were supposed to take.
There are pieces of metal recovered from ground zero, photographs, audio recordings and pictures of the aftermath.
Billy Puckett drives the mobile exhibit and is also its field manager and ambassador.
"I have been doing it for a number of years, and the people that you meet, you can't put a price tag on it. It's fun," Puckett said.
Puckett said driving this piece of history around is the second-most meaningful thing he has done in his life.
"Other than my kids being born, this is the most meaningful thing I have ever done in my life," Puckett said. "Not only to represent Tunnels to Towers, but to represent all the guys that were lost that day."
The exhibit will be open on Sept. 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a ceremony will follow at 7 p.m. The ceremony will conclude with Jefferson City-area high school students reading the names of the 2,977 people who died on 9/11.
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