Artists Registry

My name is Robert Mulligan, I am a Police Officer in Keansburg, New Jersey. Following the attacks on 9/11, I had readied a 1966 Pontiac Catalina for a trip that I would take around the country to pay respect to the victims and families that had lost so much. I also did it because we live in a country that has fought for so long to give us the privilege to go any where we want too.

The car was made ready through help from many sponsors and friends who felt the same way I did. We just wanted to help people heal from the horror of September 11. I was a Police Officer in the Borough of Frenchtown, New Jersey when the attacks occurred and I had worked part time security at the Stock Exchange in New York. About two weeks before 9/11, I visited Windows of The World at the top of the World Trade Center during my break. I was not up there long, because while I was there, I became kind of nervous thinking about the bombing in 1993. I then took the two long elevator rides down to the bottom and was relieved to be out of the building.

When the attacks occurred on 9/11, my first thought was about a friend who I knew who worked in the towers. My second thought went back two weeks ago and how fortunate I was to have exited without incident.

For the following weeks while on patrol I found myself feeling helpless. I visited Manhattan and worked at the Red Cross Kitchen at Ground Zero once. I saw the devastation up close and nothing looked the way it did. The destruction was too much to comprehend. I left the city that night still feeling helpless. I could not imagine what the Police Officers and Firefighters and all the other emergency workers went through the first couple days at Ground Zero.

Over the next several months, many Americans were still afraid to fly. I thought about how great our country was and how we had the right to go around this beautiful country and see places from the ground that you can not see from the air. This is when I decided to try to ready my old car that my Uncle Ray had given me.

After months of preparation and work, the car was ready to go. New paint detail and a donated junk yard motor and months of volunteer work from local garages. I left alone from Ground Zero on June 18, and traveled to the Pentagon and out to California and back thru Shanksville,PA and Frenchtown, NJ and back to Ground Zero. The trip took 12 days and logged about 7,500 miles.

I met many people and handed out information on many charities including the New York State World Trade Center Fund,The Port Authority Police World Trade Disaster Survivors Fund, The Ground Zero Clergy Group and the Todd Beamer Foundation(Flt.93).

The trip was healing to me in many ways. I was devastated thinking about all the children that would grow up without their parents now for no good reason. I hoped I would make a difference for even one of those children. I still have the car and on occasions I will take it to a memorial day parade or a car show so people can see it, however my deep felt devotion is to give the car to the World Trade Center Memorial Museum, so that 50 years from now, our children and there children can see how Americans tried to help each other and the sacrifices that are made during a time of need.

The car and the trip was logged and can be seen at frenchtown.com/usa Thank you for taking the time to read my story.