Symbol Steel
- Description
- Piece of recovered World Trade Center steel with more than 40 Jedburgh Special Forces wings cut out. The steel is covered with negative space left by the cutouts.
- Historical Notes
- These Jedburgh wings link U.S. Special Operations Forces—among the first troops to enter Afghanistan after 9/11—with their World War II predecessors, Jedburgh teams, who parachuted into occupied France to support the D-Day invasion. Echoing the Jedburgh insignia, the wings were cut from World Trade Center steel once used in the America’s Response Monument. Installed in Liberty Park, the monument honors U.S. Special Operations Forces and intelligence operatives who served after 9/11. It overlooks the Memorial Plaza, where the 9/11 Memorial & Museum hosts military enlistment ceremonies.
Before the fires at Ground Zero were extinguished, the United States and its allies launched Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, a military campaign that targeted al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Many stepped forward to serve in the military or in national security. For some, this meant extending their service. For others, it meant facing danger for the first time.
For more than 20 years, across the battlefields that came to encompass the Global War on Terror, these Americans volunteered to assume the burdens of combat and the price they might pay.
- Accession Number: IL.2025.17.1
- Dimensions: 5 3/4 in X 35 1/2 in
- Dimensions (Metric): 12.7 cm X 88.9 cm
- Credit Line: Courtesy of Team American Freedom
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