Flight 93 — on 9–11

by John P. Flannery

CITIZEN COURAGE ….some time ago, on the way back from Pittsburgh, I stopped at the site of the crash of United 93 on 9–11.

The scene of the crash is of course now renewed in green growth surrounded by hemlock trees where the flight finally came to rest.

Brave men and women, young and old, passengers on the plane, voted to fight for their survival, as they knew what had happened at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — and they resolved to fight, to take over the cockpit, and they died fighting to survive, but they likely saved 100s more than the 40 passengers and crew who died here because the plane never reached the target the terrorists hoped to strike.

These men and women are the true militia we talk about in the abstract who do what’s necessary when no one else is or can act.

They showed courage to fight and fought for themselves and persons they never knew who lived in DC at the White House or on Capitol Hill because they just wouldn’t go quietly into the night.

This wall is part of a memorial honoring their bravery and it zig zags slightly and is in the line of the flight path on United 93 from over the hill behind toward the field where it came to rest; on the wall is a panel for each person of the 40 who was lost that day.

People leave mementos and tributes preserved at the end of each day.

In this picture, there is the image of a woman and gold watch, no band, stopped at 9:32.

Flight 93 passengers made calls to loved ones telling them what they were going to do before the plane went down at about 10 am.

The terrorist flew the plane in a roll to the right and left and then decided to take it down upside down.

JPF