WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000
Music

00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.000
Narrator: Bravery, grace, spirit and strength . . . the feelings the American flag evoke in

00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:16.000
its citizens mirror those felt watching a national treasure -- the space shuttle -- launch on

00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:21.000
missions to explore and discover our universe. The nation admires its flag in times of

00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:29.000
celebration, competition, war, peace and tragedy. A few days after the collapse of the World

00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:35.000
Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, "The National 9/11 Flag" waved in the breeze attached

00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:40.000
to the scaffolding of a building directly south of the attacks. Even torn and tattered, it

00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:52.000
made an impact on the Space Coast community . . . as local heroes stitched a Florida

00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:58.000
restorative patch to the flag at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Feb. 18.

00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:59.000
Jeff Parness/Director, New York Says Thank You Foundation: There's this cathartic element of

00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:07.000
'Well, I can finally do something. I can hold this needle and thread and I can finally put a

00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000
stitch in and try to make this whole, you know, from what was taken away from us.

00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.000
LeRoy Haynes/Former Fire Marshal and Commander, FDNY: This is awesome, this is awesome. The

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.000
fact that it's here and that I'm here. We're both survivors.

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:20.000
Narrator: Today, the flag is on a cross-country journey to be restored to its original

00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.000
13-stripe design using pieces of fabric from American flags destined for retirement in all 50

00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:30.000
states. Kennedy's Visitor Complex was the official stop for the state of Florida. The

00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.000
star-spangled banner, which brings new meaning to national collaboration, has already touched

00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:40.000
thousands of lives . . . aboard the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, during the home

00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:47.000
opener for the New York Giants, at Fort Hood, Texas, at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and at

00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:53.000
Wisconsin's Marian University. And at Kennedy's Visitor Complex as it was raised over the

00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:57.000
Rocket Garden, where American ingenuity flourishes with rockets and capsules from NASA's

00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.000
Mercury, Gemini and Apollo days.

00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:01.000
Joe Dowdy/Special Operations Manager, NASA's Kennedy Space Center: You know, I kind of think

00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:09.000
of America as this magnificent mosaic that's composed of all these various events, and

00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:17.000
various places that make us a special country. And, you know, our history is replete with all

00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:23.000
kinds of examples of sacrifice, 9/11 certainly is very fresh in our memories, but also here

00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.000
at the Kennedy Space Center.

00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:28.000
Narrator: Once complete, "The National 9/11 Flag" will become a part of a permanent

00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.000
collection of the National September 11 Memorial Museum being built at the World Trade Center

00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:39.000
site. There, America's flag can evoke a sense of pride, unity and hunger to keep achieving

00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:52.000
greatness just as the nation's space shuttles have for the past 30 years.