Man Organizes 9/11 Memorial in Salem

Healing Field flag display will honor victims of attacks
CAPI LYNNStatesman Journal

July 22, 2006
For Kelly Broomall, like many people, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were personal.
As an American, he was appalled that such a tragedy could take place on U.S. soil.

As a former Marine, he was incensed that the terrorists would have the gall to target civilians.
As an industrial engineer for Boeing, he was enraged that something he had a hand in building could be used as a weapon.

"It was my airplanes -- our airplanes -- that crashed into the twin towers," said Broomall, who has worked for Boeing for nearly 28 years. "I helped manufacture the parts that went into those airplanes."

Broomall will never forget that day and hopes that no one else will either. In an effort to keep the memory of Sept. 11 victims alive, he is involved with bringing a patriotic display called the Healing Field to Salem.

As many as 5,000 commemorative flags will be unfurled Sept. 8-11 at Riverfront Park during a four-day salute to people who lost their lives that day and since in the fight against terrorism.
City officials and local service clubs and businesses are raising money for the event, which coincides with the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Jerry Thompson of the Capital City and Networking Exchange Clubs said that the goal is to raise $60,000 to purchase the flags and the materials needed to display them.
"We're about halfway there," he said.

The flags will be sold for $25 each, with net proceeds going to local charities such as Family Building Blocks and the Oregon National Guard Emergency Relief Fund.

Two types of commemorative flags will be on display and available for purchase: the Flag of Honor, which has the names of everyone killed in the attacks; and the Flag of Heroes, which has the names of the emergency-services personnel who died that day.

The Healing Field also will include a section of U.S. flags that will fly in honor of the U.S. military service members who have died during the past five years in the war against terrorism.
Thompson said the plan is to cover 22-acre Riverfront Park in red, white and blue, placing flags in rows and columns about 10 feet apart

"If we have wall-to-wall flags," Thompson said, "it will look spectacular."
Salem is one of 10 U.S. cities that will host such a display around Sept. 11, said a spokeswoman from the Healing Field Foundation.

The first event was held in 2002 in Sandy, Utah, where the foundation is based.
Broomall, who lives in Troutdale, was moved by television coverage of the event and vowed to bring a Healing Field to Oregon. He organized events in 2003 and 2004 that were staged in Gresham.

He said that 75,000 people attended the first year and that more than 6,000 flags were sold for charity.

Visitors have been touched by the Healing Field.

Some have compared it with visiting Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where rows of white headstones mark the final resting place of many of our nation's war heroes.

"It puts things in perspective," Broomall said. "When 9/11 first happened and they said we lost 3,000 people, it was just a number. But when you start lining up flags up in a field that's 850 feet long and 250, 275 feet deep, and when you can hold your arms up and touch each one of these flags, that's a person. That's somebody who had hopes and dreams, and they're gone."

clynn@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6710