Dad of Firefighter Killed on 9/11 Reacts to Freedom Tower Surpassing Height of Empire State Building
Today, a project that has been over a decade in the making sees a new milestone. The Freedom Tower - the central tower in the rebuilding of the towers at the site of the World Trade Center attacks that took place on September 11, 2001 - will today surpass the height of the monumental Empire State Building as it reaches 100 floors.
Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr. shared a special interview with viewers on this day that he said brings with it a sense of freshness and opportunity. Lee Ielpi lost his son Jonathan on 9/11 after he came eight miles from Queens, NY to help save fellow New Yorkers after the attacks. Lee is himself
a survivor of that fateful day, as well as a Vietnam vet; he also runs the Tribute center near the WTC site. According to Ielpi, words can't express the meaning for him and others like him of this marked day.
"I think this is an absolutely spectacular day ... it shows the resilience of this country of ours," he said. "It's rebuilding. It's revitalizing. It's bringing back what was taken away from us."
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Ielpi actually suffered cancer as a result of trying to recover his son and others from the buildings, and Peter Johnson, Jr. asked if seeing the now towering building where the original stood is bittersweet. "For my family it is," he said. "You look at this tower and you think back, because now, there's the tower where the original towers stood." But overall, he said it's a beacon for the future and a reminder of what our country is capable of overcoming.
As for what his son would tell his dad if he were still alive? "He'd say, 'dad, what are you doing? You should be out hunting and hiking and fishing,'" he told Johnson, Jr. "But you know, we have a new mission now."
Watch the full interview:
