James Lynch - 2996 Tribute Project Post

As I contributed my name to participate in the 2996 Tribute project, I’m not really sure what I expected, perhaps a welcome screen and some instructions on how to begin, but what I got was a picture of a man who had been lost in the Pentagon on 9/11 and his name. There was no gentle introduction nor were there instructions on how to proceed. I sat in front of my computer screen and looked at a picture of Mr. James Lynch for a short while, waiting for inspiration, and the only thought that came to me was, “He looks so kind.” Thus began my search to find out what I could of James Lynch and I freely admit that I was looking for some kind of hero.

Mr. Lynch was a resident of Manassas, Virginia. He’d been in the Air Force and was proud of his military service and in September of 2001 worked as a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy, his reason for being in the Pentagon on 9/11. One story I read repeatedly on the memorial message boards was about his fondness for Werther’s Original candy. He purchased it in large amounts, not so much for himself, his son said, but for those around him. He’d go around his workplace and give candy to co-workers who needed a little sweetness added to their day. He was known to co-workers as the ‘Candy Man.’ His son commented with fondness that his dad probably could have paid for his college education with what he’d spent on candy!

Mr. Lynch’s sister remembers her brother as a boy with a fondness for electronics and gadgets. She remembers him wiring a record player into the backseat of his car so they could drive around and listen to music, especially Roy Orbison records. She also remembers walking into his wire-filled boyhood bedroom. He’d hooked everything up so that with the flick of just one switch, voila!, everything electronic would turn on. Every kid’s dream, isn’t it? He made that happen. Her last communication with her brother was via computer. She said he’d encouraged everyone in his family to get a computer and keep in touch via email. His final email, she said, consisted of simple hellos and jokes. How could they know it would be his last?

This is pretty much all I could find out about James Lynch. There were comments on a memorial site from co-workers and others who confirmed that he was kind and sweet, a gentle soul. You might say, that’s not a lot, but like most of us, he lived his life out of the spotlight. I began to wonder, how do we claim immortality? Those of us who are great claim it in history books and encyclopedias but those of us who lead smaller lives can only claim immortality in the finite memories of those nearest and dearest to us. If we’re lucky, they last for a generation or two, and then they become as dust and float away as the people who carry memories of us pass on themselves. Here’s the challenge then, to make a life immortal while we can, rather than a death, to celebrate the living human, and not the act of destruction that took him from us.

I didn’t personally know any of the 9/11 victims, but searching for James Lynch has made the 2006 anniversary of September 11th a much more personal time for me than any of the previous anniversaries. Although I started my quest by looking for a hero, what I found was much more. I found an ordinary man, a real man who, in the time he had, did his best in his own small way to make his life, and the lives of those around him just a bit better, kinder, sweeter. I do not claim to know Mr. Lynch, I barely scratched the surface of who he was and I realize this, but I feel that I’ve perhaps done the equivalent of shaking his hand, or accepting a piece of his candy. If I'd known James Lynch I would have searched him out for the candy, yes, but even more for the caring soul that offered it, the gentle smile from kind eyes. James Lynch was, after all, a hero, but a hero of a different kind.

It has been to my enrichment to have been involved in Project 2996. Going forward I realize that my remembrance of 9/11 has been permanently altered to include Mr. Lynch and for this reason I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to participate.