Inside the Ashland building for Fire Prevention and Paramedecine Science, a piece of history serves as a sobering reminder on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America."Every time I pass by it, multiple times a day, it always reminds me of that day and the sacrifices made by first responders, as well as all of the lives lost across all of the events of 9/11," said William Hicks, the chair of this department at Eastern Kentucky University. Hicks was one of millions of Americans who made a promise to never forget what happened on that fateful September morning.Hicks' job now is to make sure his students, who weren't alive on September 11, 2001, know about those events. He was standing just outside the Ashland building when the attacks began."Actually, I was right behind you," he began to explain. "I came in for an early morning class, after seeing the first plane hit the tower, and we came in and watched throughout the rest of the morning."A few years later, a couple of EKU students worked hard to get a piece of one of the Twin Towers brought to campus."Two students started a campaign working through their congressional representative, and they went up (to New Jersey) and loaded it in their car, and brought it back with a police escort service," Hicks said, before noting it serves as a teaching tool to this day.The steel beam, a gift from the Port Authority of New Jersey, is an annual focal point of the school's 9/11 ceremony and stair walk to honor the firefighters who were killed while trying to save people from the towers in New York."That piece of steel is treated like human remains. It gets a full funeral procession, it gets an honor guard, and handled appropriately," Hicks said.Evan Leitz and Madison Hall, two students in the program and the President and Vice President, respectively, of the Association of Fire Science Technicians, have been stair walk participants in the past."Although we weren't alive, it's great to keep doing this for our generation so we can keep on carrying on the memory. making sure people in our generation never forget what happened," Hall said.Leitz also works as a volunteer firefighter as he works his way towards a degree."Some of us are volunteer firefighters," he said. "Just the courage they had to have to go into that building, even though they knew what would happen, is definitely inspiring," Leitz added.Leitz, Hall, and the people from their generation may not remember the details, but they'll never forget the kind of courage that was on display and is solemnly honored a quarter of a century later."We explained the importance of never forgetting those events and the sacrifices that were made," Mr. Hicks said. ...read more read less