09/10/2025
Fort Drum 9/11 Memorial
FORT DRUM, NY – Fort Drum’s 9/11 Memorial honors the lives lost during one of this nation’s darkest days and celebrates the selfless acts of courage that followed the tragic events on Sept. 11, 2001.
Located in front of Clark Hall, the monument stands as an enduring symbol of unity and resilience for future generations to draw inspiration from.
The idea for establishing a memorial at Fort Drum came from Michael Plummer, then-executive officer of the National Association of the 10th Mountain Division and former division chief of staff.
Plummer said he had visited a Pearl Harbor monument and thought that a visible reminder of 9/11 would be appropriate at Fort Drum, given the service and sacrifices of community members who responded to the attacks that day and in the subsequent war on terrorism.
Fort Drum's first 9/11 remembrance ceremony in 2002 was held inside the Multipurpose Auditorium. The following year it was held in conjunction with a groundbreaking ceremony on Mount Belvedere Boulevard (now Visitors Park). An unveiling of an illustration presented attendees with a look at the monument, which would be situated near the Military Mountaineer Monument.
On Sept. 9, 2005, the “Lest We Forget” 9/11 Memorial was unveiled during the remembrance ceremony at 8:46 a.m., the precise time when the first plane crashed into the New York City tower, during the remembrance ceremony.
The five-by-six-foot granite monument is etched with the words “Lest We Forget,” symbols of the agencies that responded in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, the locations where the planes crashed, and the 10th Mountain Division crest. It also contains pieces of steel and stone from the ruins of the World Trade Center towers.
In 2006, community members joined Fort Drum Directorate of Emergency Services police and firefighters for the inaugural Freedom Walk, where the group walked from the Post Exchange to the 9/11 Memorial on Mount Belvedere Boulevard.
The 9/11 Memorial relocated inside Clark Hall in 2007, on the first floor next to the staircase. A wreath was placed in front of the monument, but the remembrance ceremony was held inside the Main Post Chapel.
In 2010, the monument moved outside Clark Hall to its current location in time for the annual 9/11 ceremony. On Oct. 24, 2011, a collection of artifacts from the World Trade Center were displayed inside Clark Hall for the first time, including a piece of aircraft landing gear recovered from the street after the attack. The artifacts were loaned to Fort Drum from the State Museum in Albany and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
The exhibit remains in the same location today as where the monument was placed in 2007. There is also a framed collection of fire and emergency services patches placed below a firefighter’s helmet, a poem etched in wood that was written by a retired Long Island firefighter, and a tall piece of concrete from the World Trade Center.
