MOBILE — Stephen Siller was on his way to play golf with his brothers on Sept. 11, 2001, when he received word from his scanner. A plane had hit the World Trade Center.

Stephen, who was assigned to Brooklyn's Squad 1 for the Fire Department of New York City, immediately turned his truck around, called his wife, Sally, asking her to tell his brothers he would catch up with them later, and drove to the firehouse, where he threw his gear in the back of his truck and drove toward the smoke.

Upon his arrival at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, he found it was already closed for security reasons, so he took his gear out of his truck, put it on his back and ran two miles toward the South Tower. It was a trip he never returned from.

Siller was one of the 2,977 people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, a toll that includes 343 New York Fire Department members, 23 members of the New York Police Department, 37 Port Authority Police Officers and three New York State Court Officers.

Nearly 25 years later, his son, Stephen Siller Jr., who was nine months old at the time, continues to carry on the memory of his father and the many others who perished that day.

On Memorial Day, May 25, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation visited Battleship Park in Mobile as part of their nationwide Steel Across America tour, bringing with them a powerful piece of American history.

Visitors had the chance to get a close look at an original piece of the World Trade Center: a 25-foot steel beam weighing over 16,000 pounds. The traveling exhibit is part of a five-month tour across the nation, culminating later this year in New York City on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

"Who he is is ingrained in that steel beam," Siller Jr. said. "We never recovered his body. That's what we have of my father, and for people to come out and pray over that and reflect on that, it means the world to me. I know that the thousands of kids around this country that are like me, that have been left behind when a first responder or military service member dies in the line of duty, it means the world for all people gathering around to let them know that they are not forgotten, and they never will [be]."

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation was created to honor Siller. The organization provides mortgage-free homes to Gold Star families and families of fallen first responders, including specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders, as well as works to combat veteran homelessness. The foundation says it plans to give away 343 homes this year in honor of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives during the attacks.

"It is a memory of a clear morning turned into unimaginable darkness," said Tom O'Conner, Tunnel to Towers Foundation board member. "It is the echo of sirens and screams but carries the weight of silence. It lays beaten and scarred, reminding us of the damage it caused in a city and a nation. Ingrained within it are the souls of the lost. Let it be to us a physical representation of what we mean when we say 'Never Forget.'"

Their visit to Mobile drew a crowd of veterans, first responders, law enforcement officers and families despite the downpour of rain. Commander Mark Fields, executive director of the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, was presented a commemorative custom built steel flag with the Twin Towers and the New York City skyline depicted made using steel taken from the World Trade Center.

"When you come to the park, we want you to enjoy your time, but we also want you to at least understand why we have things here," Fields said on hosting the event on Memorial Day.

The park features a Fallen Heroes Memorial honoring the names of over 150 Alabamians killed in the Global War on Terror.

An emotional Fields also recounted the summer of 2003, when he and his family lived in Stafford, Virginia, while on assignment in the Washington D.C. area. One of his neighbors was Army Col. Paul Kelly, who lived in the same cul-de-sac with his wife, Maria, and his two children. They, along with other neighbors, gathered for holidays, grilled out on the driveway and watched their kids play in the street.

On Jan. 20, 2007, Kelly and 11 other soldiers were killed in Baghdad. Twelve days later, on Feb. 1, Fields and the entire Stafford community traveled to Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to Kelly at Section 60, "the saddest acre in America," which serves as the final resting place for hundreds of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I go back to February of 2007 when our community traveled to Arlington National Cemetery, and I saluted a very dear friend of mine," Fields said. "I told him I will never forget you. Still telling that story 18 years later of a soldier, a father, a husband and a friend who gave it all so we could be here today. I thank him for that and I will never forget him for that."