Flight 93 heroes honored
SHANKSVILLE – The early morning light filtered across the grassy field to the fluttering U.S. flag as family and friends of those that now are laid to rest there, gathered with others Monday to pay tribute to the courage they displayed in the final minutes of their lives. “It is still hard,” said the sister of Patricia Cushing as she wiped tears from her face during the Somerset County 9/11 commemorative service held just a few hundred yards from where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into the ground five years ago. The sister didn’t give her name.
Cushing, of Bayonne, N.J., like the other 32 passengers and seven crewmembers boarded the airliner bound for the West Coast at the Newark International Airport.
Within 30 minutes of the take-off, terrorists Ziah Jarrah, Ahmed Al Haznawi, Saeed Al Ghamdi and Almed Al Nami, took control of the commercial airplane and changed its destination to the nation’s capitol.
At 10:06 a.m., the airliner crashed into the Somerset farm field, nearly 150 miles from its intended target.
“More than 230 years ago, our founders affirmed in both word and deed, that patriotism is not an ideal, but is a way of life,” said Tom Ridge, former secretary of Homeland Security. “Many times this country has encountered hardship and heartbreaks, tragedies and trials of the spirit.
“When those times occurred, countless individuals have said in word and deed, ‘let us give this moment all we can.’
“(The passengers and crew of Flight 93) stood in solidarity so that others would receive salvation; through bravery and unquestionable patriotism, they said together, ‘let us give this moment all we can.'”
Ridge, governor of Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, and then later named as the first secretary of Homeland Security, was the keynote speaker for the memorial service.
Ridge said that the decision made by the passengers to take every measure to regain control of the airplane and seal their fate, was deserving of respect and admiration.
“Their courage mattered; their lives had great meaning and they will be greatly missed,” he said. “We will never forget them.
“History will tell of these extraordinary people who rose to defeat evil and were released into the arms of angels to see the grateful face of God.”
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said that he and the other members of House of Representatives and Senate were at work at the U.S. Capitol on 9/11 would be forever grateful to the men and women of Flight 93.
“Although it is speculated, I believe it is true that that plane was headed for the capitol of the United States,” he said. “Had those heroes not acted, I believe the capitol of the U.S. – the House and Senate would have gone down.”
The terrorists’ actions sounded an alarm, said Specter, and the government has responded with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, creation of a national intelligence director position and enacted the Patriot Act to protect U.S. citizens.
“We have an obligation to see that this never, never, never happens again,” Specter said.
U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, too, said he owed his life to the 40 brave men and women.
“I have many thoughts and emotions when I come to this spot,” he said. “I have found that they are not really triggered by anything you can see or touch, but what is felt by the heart.”
Shuster is a sponsor of congressional legislation that will award the passengers and crewmembers the Congressional Gold Medal for the acts of courage.
“They are truly deserving,” he said.
Recalling the Civil War and the victory of the 20th Maine on the second day of battle at Gettysburg, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said that like the early soldiers, the 40 aboard Flight 93, won the battle of the day, not the war, but struck a mighty blow to the enemy.
Their sacrifice will be remembered, he said.
“In great deeds, something abides,” said Santorum in recounting the words of Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, 14 years after the Civil War. “On great fields, something stays.
“Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream.
“This is true for this place.”
Gen. Tommy Franks, honorary co-chairman of the Flight 93 Memorial Capital Campaign, said that Sept. 11, 2001, was a day that shook America to its core.
“But, in this place, we’re inspired by the light of the patriotism; the story of human courage that was United Flight 93,” he said. “One moment ordinary citizens and the next, heroes forever.”
Gov. Ed Rendell told the gathered family members of the passengers and crew that through a cooperative effort with the state game commission, 300 acres have been secured adjacent to the proposed entranceway of the future memorial site to preserve the natural environment of the area.
Also, that $10 million has been earmarked for the construction of memorial site.
“It is incumbent upon us to never forget,” he said.
Also taking part in the service were the U.S. Army Brass Quintet; Superintendent Joanne M. Hanley, Flight 93 National Memorial, National Park Service; the Rev. Robert J. Way, Good Shepherd Cooperative Lutheran Ministries of Shanksville; soloist, U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Caleb Green; D. Hamilton Peterson, president of Families of Flight 93; the Rev. Paul M. Britton, brother of Flight 93 passenger Marion Britton; Los Angeles Fire Dept. Capt. Stephen J. Ruda; Pennsylvania state Trooper James Broderick; Stoneycreek Township Supervisor Douglas Custer; Nancy Magnum-Bodley; musicians Joe Negri and Max Leake and The North Star Kids and Spring Valley Bruderhof Children’s Choir.