A nearly 20-foot, 17,000-pound piece of steel recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center made a stop in Cincinnati this weekend, 25 years after the Sept. 11 attacks. For Scott Nokes, the Marine veteran and former firefighter traveling with it, the mission is deeply personal.
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The steel, entrusted to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is making its way across the country on a tour connecting veterans, first responders and everyday Americans to the stories of those who died that day.
Nokes served two deployments in Afghanistan before becoming a firefighter in New Jersey. He said the example set by first responders on Sept. 11 inspired him to serve.
"After getting out of the Marine Corps, I went off to become a firefighter, which was my other childhood dream thanks to the guys and girls out there right now."
"I saw them on TV and their stoic approach to going to find and recover their brothers and sisters and citizens," Nokes said.
During his time in the Marine Corps, Nokes developed stomach problems that persisted after he left the service. While working as a firefighter, he went into septic shock and fell into a coma. The medication that saved his life, combined with the sepsis, resulted in the amputation of both feet below the knee, the total loss of vision in his right eye and most of the vision in his left eye.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation built Nokes a mortgage-free home, which was completed in December 2019. His was the 78th home the foundation completed. He now works as an ambassador for the organization, helping share its story.
"How could I not, right? I'm the first ever recipient that doesn't have a Purple Heart. I'm the first non-catastrophically injured but catastrophically ill recipient," Nokes said.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation was established in memory of New York City firefighter Steven Siller, who was assigned to Squad Company One in Brooklyn. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Siller had just finished an overnight shift and was on his way to play golf with his brothers when he heard over his scanner that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. He returned to his firehouse, then ran approximately 2.5 miles through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel — which had been closed for security reasons — carrying his gear to reach the site. Siller was a father of five children, ranging in age from 10 years old to 9 months old at the time. His body was never recovered.
The foundation's mission has since expanded to provide mortgage-free homes and other support to first responders and military members who are catastrophically injured, catastrophically ill or killed in the line of duty, leaving behind families with young children. In Ohio alone, the foundation has completed 31 mortgage-free homes across its programs.
Close to 1,100 victims of the Sept. 11 attacks were never recovered, making the steel beam sacred not only to the Siller family but to the nation.
Cincinnati's stop was the tour's 302nd. Nokes said the tour has had a unifying effect on every community it visits.
"It's been able to bring communities together. It doesn't matter who you were before you got there, you're there now as a proud American, never forgetting and reuniting as one," Nokes said.
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