Pentagon to preserve makeshift memorials for Sept. 11 victims

Mementos left for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon will be preserved for history, the Defense Department said Thursday. The department has hired a moving company to start collecting thousands of letters, photographs and flags left on the grounds of the Pentagon to remember victims. Nearly 200 people were killed Sept. 11 when terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon. The moving company, supervised by military and Defense Protective Services personnel, started collecting mementos around the attack site on Friday. The memorabilia will be catalogued and preserved for history by the Army Department's Center for Military History, said Defense spokesman Jim Turner. After the agency archives them, the mementos could be used in future public displays for historical and educational purposes, according to a statement from the Defense Department. Turner said volunteers have kept the memorial sites tidy over the last few months. Some of the items were outside, but have been kept intact by volunteers and the dry weather this fall. Preserving the mementos is "something we are mindful of," he said. People can leave new mementos on the small knoll to the west of the Pentagon's South parking lot. The department will periodically collect new items and place them in storage with the rest of the memorabilia.