Currently at the Memorial & Museum

Preserving History...Museum Artifacts Tell a Story

August 29, 2011

Nine artifacts and several photographs from the Memorial’s Archives are being loaned to the FBI’s Terrorism Screening Center, in Washington, D.C., for an exhibit this fall. Created in 2003, the Terrorism Screening Center maintains the U.S. government’s consolidated Terrorist Watchlist – a single database of identifying information about those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.

By supporting the ability of front-line screening agencies to positively identify known or suspected terrorists trying to obtain visas, enter the country, board aircraft, or engage in other activity, the consolidated Terrorist Watchlist is one of the most effective counterterrorism tools for the U.S. government.

This helmet, one of the artifacts to be exhibited, was presented to Tom and Marsha Kight when they attended a dinner at the Fairfax Fire Department to meet with the Fairfax rescue team. The Kights lost their 23 year old daughter Frankie Merrell, a bank teller with the Federal Employees Credit Union, who was working in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. The helmet was used by a member of the Fairfax County VA-TF1 USAR Team during rescue efforts at the Murrah Building. It has a red vinyl decal on front with the words, "TO ALL OF OKLAHOMA WE THANK YOU." Signed by members of that task force, this helmet shows the gratitude rescue workers felt for the extra care given to them by the citizens of Oklahoma during the rescue and recovery.

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