Vice President JD Vance will stand Friday morning at Ground Zero with the son of a firefighter killed in the 9/11 attacks — as the Coast Guard names a ship in his honor.
Matthew Palazzo, an active-duty Coast Guard member, will join Vance as he serves as the top US official at the solemn 25th anniversary ceremony alongside all living former presidents.
Palazzo, who joined the Coast Guard in 2020, never knew his father, Jeffrey Palazzo, who responded to the Twin Towers terrorist attack with Staten Island-based FDNY Rescue 5.
The elder Palazzo and 10 colleagues from his rescue company, collectively known as the “Staten Island 11,” died when the towers collapsed.
He was a Coast Guard reservist at Station Rockaway at the time of his death.
His son followed him into the Coast Guard, currently serving as a machinery technician second class.
The Coast Guard will commission the Fast Response Cutter Jeffrey Palazzo in New York on Saturday. The 154-foot vessel will be based in Guam.
In total, 343 FDNY members were among the more than 2,700 victims of the al Qaeda attacks in New York City.
Vance will be joined at Ground Zero by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
President Trump will lead a commemoration at the Pentagon.
