Honoring Flight 93 Nineteen Years Later on This 9/11 & Flight 93 Nat’l Monument

Today is 9-11-2020. This morning is starting out much like it did 19 years ago on 9-11-2001. Birds are singing outside. A garbage truck beeps as it upends the neighbor’s trashcan. School bus engines hum as they whisk masked kids off to school. The sun is shining bright. Life occurs as it normally does in 2020.

Before 2001, my knowledge of the digits 9-1-1, the Pentagon Building in Arlington, Virginia, New York City’s World Trade Center Towers, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania were limited. 9-1-1 was the phone distress code used to call first responders. The Pentagon was (and is) the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense. The World Trade Center Towers were colossal office buildings in NYC. Shanksville, PA? Now these locations are, sadly, interchangeable with multiple, reprehensible terrorist attacks. Life has evolved into many new normals over the last 19 years.

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Tragic events like the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, the Oklahoma City Bombing, or 9/11 are odious reminders of how evil humankind can be. They are forever etched on our memories. One mention of these heinous events instantly shifts one back in time with vivid detail. The people around us. The exact location one sat, stood or slept. Sounds and smells. Feelings. I won’t go into what I was doing on this day. It’s insignificant. (As part of Son B’s American History class homework, The Hubby’s recollection onboard a Coast Guard cutter on 9-11 is here.)

I do, however, want to remember the people onboard United Airlines Flight 93 and virtually take you to the Flight 93 National Memorial, near Shanksville, PA.

At 8:42 AM (EST), United Airlines Flight 93 sailed into a sunny, clear sky above Newark International Airport. Its scheduled departure, from Terminal A Gate 17, to San Francisco was delayed by 25 minutes due to heavy morning flight traffic. Forty-four people were onboard. 2 pilots. 5 flight attendants. 33 passengers. 4 hijackers.

(It’s believed by authorities that the four planes involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks were intentionally chosen by radical Islamic terrorists for their low passenger numbers. Flight 93 could seat up to 182 passengers.)

Each individual came from unique backgrounds. Engineering student Toshiya Kuge was returning home to Japan after a two-week vacation in the United States. First Officer LeRoy Homer was a Desert Storm veteran and earned his pilot’s license at age 16. Deora Frances Bodley, age 20, was the youngest passenger on Flight 93, and hoped to become a child psychologist. Author and Good Housekeeping account executive Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas was three months pregnant with her first child. Buddies Patrick Joseph Driscoll and William Joseph Cashman were traveling to Yosemite National Park for a hiking trip. Ironically, William Joseph Cashman was a proud ironworker who helped built the World Trade Center.

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Others were simply en route to, or from, quality time with family and friends. Thomas E. Burnett, Jr. had spent the last six weeks traveling for his job with Thoratec, a heart pump manufacturer. His wife and three children were anxiously awaiting his return. Retired bartender and World War II vet John Talignani was flying to attend a memorial service for loved ones who recently died in a car accident. Kristin Osterholm White Gould, a medical journalist, planned to spend quality time with friends. Richard J. Guadagno, a federally trained law enforcement officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was returning to northern California after celebrating his grandmother’s 100th birthday with family.

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On that fateful morning, at approximately 9:28 AM, the four hijackers, seated in First Class, took over Flight 93 with an intent to hit the U.S. Capitol Building. Through the FBI and 9/11 Commission Report transcripts, 37 phone calls from personal cell phones and seat-back Airfones took place between 9:28 AM and 10:03 AM. In these calls, the passengers and flight crew learned about the three commercial airline crashes into the two World Trade Towers and Pentagon building.

At 9:37 AM, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia. Around this same time, pilots of nearby aircraft and a flight controller became suspicious Flight 93 was in trouble. The plane was erratically rising and falling in altitude; and was non-responsive to communication requests from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Cleveland Center. At 9:45 AM, in an unprecedented order from the FAA, all aircraft were directed to land at the nearest airport. Flight 93 did not respond.

In Flight 93’s final moments, the passengers and remaining crew members sat in the back of the Boeing 757 unmonitored by the hijackers. They calmly voted to take back their flight. At approximately 9:58 AM, Edward Felt called 9-1-1 from his cell phone to report the hijacking was in progress. Flight attendant CeeCee Ross Lyles told her husband, “Tell the boys I love them. We’re getting ready to do it now. It’s happening.” Through a tremendous act of bravery using brute force, boiling water, and sheer determination, the group rushed the cockpit. Todd Beamer’s immortal words were recorded by an Airfone customer service agent, “Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll!” 40 heroic individuals were randomly brought together on this one fatal flight, on one inconceivable September day. Now forever known in American history as 9/11.

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A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

Mahatma Gandhi

On September 24, 2002, President George W. Bush signed Public Law. 107-226, or the Flight 93 National Memorial Act,” into law, thus establishing the Flight 93 National Memorial under the guise of National Park Service system. When we visited Somerset County in August 2006, a temporary memorial sat atop a hill. Memorial benches with the carved names of the 40 victims overlooked the crash site, 500 yards away. Tributes, notes and mementos were left on and around a 40-foot long chain-link fence. The shed-like building served as a make-shift visitor center manned by NPS volunteers.

In 2006, at first glance, this view appeared to be a simple, unassuming country field. A common field one day. A field of honor forever. The actual impact site and debris field was (and still is) off limits to visitors. Only the victim’s family members are allowed to walk in this area.

Flash forward to August 2020. Son A was a-year-old when the attacks took place. He has no memory of it. Son B knows only of the 9/11 events from what we’ve shared or from what he’s read or watched about it. Despite their limited memory of this tragic event, visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial seemed right.

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Starting at the Visitor Center, Flight 93’s fatal flight path over this peaceful field is forever memorialized. Where wooden benches with carved names once sat, black tiles stretch out in a long pathway. Titles naming each horrific event on 9/11 and the time it occurred are intentionally spaced out on this physical timeline.

• 7:59 AM: American Airlines Flight 11 leaves Boston’s Logan International Airport bound for Los Angeles.
• 8:14 AM: United Airlines Flight 175 also leaves Boston bound en route to L.A.
• 8:20 AM: American Airlines Flight 77 departs Dulles International Airport near Washington D.C. for L.A.
• 8:41 AM: United Airlines Flight 93 takes off from Newark International Airport going to San Francisco.
• 8:46 AM: American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
• 9:03 AM: United Airlines Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
• 9:37 AM: American Airlines Flight 77 collides into the western side of the Pentagon.
• 10:03 AM: United Airlines Flight 93 crashes into a Somerset County field in Pennsylvania.

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Names carved into interlocking granite panels at the Wall of Names symbolize the unity the 40 heroic members of this flight had while fighting back. At the end of the runway rests a boulder, marking the Boeing 757’s approximate impact site. In 2001, the remains of these 40 souls were interred here, as directed by the lead coroner.

The Memorial Plaza marks the outer perimeter of the crash site and debris field. Because it spans over 40 acres, a black wall marks the edge of this sacred space. Visitors often leave remembrance items on the wall’s shelves. These are gathered by NPS employees and cataloged.

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What truly resonated with me after visiting the Flight 93 Memorial again was its solace and tranquility. Life thrived everywhere, overcoming the previous chaos and unnecessary carnage. As far as the eye could see, wildflowers bloomed. In the 4 Memorial Groves, 40 species of native Pennsylvania trees, planted in groups of 40, thrive. Their concentric rings radiating out from the impact area. Birds sing throughout their branches. A peaceful final resting place.

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There’s no recipe I could concoct or track down to adequately honor the many heroes of 9/11–the flight crews and passengers, military members, first responders, average American citizens. If any combination of ingredients exist, I’d pose these:

• Service for others in extraordinary ways
• Taking a determined risk when it all might fail
• Self-sacrifice for the good of others
• Being courageous with a strong conviction in mind
• Having humility

Our 9/11 heroes were this and so much more!

Our greatest glory is not in ever falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Confucius