Rudabeh Shahbazi
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LOS ANGELES (KABC) — With the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks just weeks away, some a new memorial to the fallen is about to make its debut.
“One morning, I woke up and I tried to recall a name of a fallen hero that died for my personal freedom and I couldn’t do it,” said Kevyn Major Howard.
That’s how Howard’s nonprofit organization, Fueled by the Fallen, was born.
On delicately crafted Chevrolet Camaros lie the thousands of names of those who died in the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The 911 Angel Series is on its way to New York, four other states and Washington for the anniversary where survivors will drive them to ground zero.
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“These cars will someday sit in a museum and some beautiful child is going walk up with their friends and point at a name, and that name is going to be their family tree,” Howard said.
The cruisers aren’t just for those who lost their lives on Sept. 11. There are also cars to commemorate veterans who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.
Vietnam veteran Josh Cruze lost friends in war and says their memories couldn’t be more important.
“All those names, so young to give up so much at such a young age for something you believe in,” Cruze said. “Our country is very vulnerable right now with what’s going on around the world, and these young men and women are putting it on the line every day for us to protect our country, a country that I’m very proud of.”
Dep. Mike Ascolese of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cherishes the names of fallen officers memorialized on this car.
“Our freedoms in this land are paid for by the blood of these people, and they cannot be forgotten. They have to be remembered constantly,” he said. “The unfortunate part is that we have to keep adding names and I would like someone to put me out of business of doing that.”
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