To honor emergency service personnel and remind people of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Wisconsin resident Woody West donated a motorcycle depicting images from 9/11 to the Jefferson City Fire Museum on Tuesday.
West did all of the metal work on the 1980 Ironhead Sportster "The Remember Rally Chopper" as a tribute to emergency service personnel. While JTS Engineering from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, built the engine, Jason Mindemann and Dynamic Design, also of Wisconsin, painted images of 9/11 on the bike.
A Vietnam War veteran, West wanted to honor rescue workers in some way after 9/11. He originally drove around the country telling people about the Remember Rally, which honors rescue workers, but he wanted to do more. That's when he decided to build a motorcycle to pay tribute to emergency personnel.
"With the theme on it and wanting to respect what rescue workers do, I wanted this bike to be shown," he said. "I mean, there's a lot nicer bikes than this one, but when they see the towers on there and what happened to our country in '01, I wanted them to think about that and I want them to know what rescue workers did."
West, who worked on the motorcycle for about seven months, used different items to signify emergency workers, like a fire hose connection as a taillight and silver police badges as foot pedals.
He originally hadn't planned to donate the motorcycle to Jefferson City. From Wisconsin, West called local fire museums in the state, but they would only display the bike for a short period of time. He wanted the bike to be shown year-round.
West considered donating the motorcycle to the fire museum in Jefferson, Wisconsin, but when he searched for a phone number online, he found the number for the Jefferson City Fire Museum.
West spoke with Jefferson City Fire Museum Board President Steve Holtmeier on the phone and realized the mistake. However, when West contacted the fire museum in Jefferson, Wisconsin, it declined to take the motorcycle.
So West decided the motorcycle belonged in Jefferson City.
While the motorcycle will be displayed in the fire museum, Holtmeier said, it is a testimony to more than firefighters. Several firefighters, policemen and EMS personnel died during 9/11, and this bike is a testimony to them, he said.
"There's always the phrase, 'Never forget what happened,'" said Holtmeier, who is a Jefferson City Fire Department captain. "So anytime there's a citizen who wants to remember us and thank us for our duty, we're very appreciative of that. That's what we're in it for - to help the people out - so we're thankful he's recognizing our sacrifice."