Hallowed ground
Flight 93 National Memorial reflections
This is the sign as you enter the Flight 93 National Memorial off Lincoln Highway in Somerset County, Pa. Photo by Curt Olson
The events of Sept. 11, 2001 provoke strong emotions for Americans–as it should.
Anyone glued to their television for the early morning shows was rudely shocked between 8:45 and 9:15 a.m. when commercial airplanes ran into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
That shock continued when it was learned that some people on upper floors jumped to their deaths. Then, the Pentagon was hit. And then a plane went down in Pennsylvania.
Less than two hours after the first plane struck the towers had collapsed. While the shock continued, Americans also dealt with grief and anguish when they focused on the first responders, those who couldn’t escape the Twin Towers, those aboard the planes, those at the Pentagon, and the passengers and crew on Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
The magnitude of the loss of life was immense. Americans were acquainted with funerals from events that day into the fall and even into the holiday season.
The emotions of 9-11 emerged Sept. 13 while visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa. As my wife and I walked into the Flight 93 National Memorial Visitor’s Center that morning, we didn’t know what to expect.
We remember the events of 9-11-2001. My wife was an elementary teacher at Richmond Heights Christian School in Richmond, Heights, Ohio. I was the schools and higher education reporter for The News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio. I also served as religion editor at the newspaper. The events of that day are raw, just like they were for all Americans.
That day altered everything I did as a journalist. Among the schools beat articles, there were two Madison High School teachers who created 9-11 merchandise for charitable purposes. Among the college beat articles, travel changes after 9-11 altered the way foreign students could get to U.S. campuses. Among the religion section articles, a U.S. Navy lieutenant from Illinois was killed in the attack on the Pentagon that day. His sister worked at a church in Mentor, Ohio.
Visiting the National Memorial for the first time came with a solemn and sobering mood based on the hallowed ground from United Airlines Flight 93 crashing on an old strip mine in Somerset County, Pa. which is part of the Laurel Highlands in southwestern Pa. In 2001, this county had a population of just under 80,000 residents, and it has lost 5,000 to 6,000 residents in the more than 20 years since that day.
Forty white marble stones have names of the Flight 93 passengers and crew. That leads to a gate made of hemlock trees, which leads to a specific spot on the crash site where families placed a wreath. Photo by Curt Olson
The 40 passengers and crew members chose sacrifice for the nation over the plane they were riding in, potentially doing significant damage in Washington, D.C. and killing more lives. They chose other people's lives ahead of their own. They chose to be heroes, rather than passive or apathetic.
As more people filed into the Visitor’s Center, there was dead silence, courtesy, respect, and a deep understanding of the events that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 on land not far from the building where hundreds were reacquainted with those events.
The Visitor's Center had several sections that explained the events of Sept. 11, 2001, specifically United Flight 93. One of the most moving spots in this part of the memorial were the seats on the airplane with phones. These included numerous passengers who made calls to Air Traffic Control or loved ones. You could listen to the messages.
You could feel the intensity and pressure of the moments that compelled Flight 93 passengers to take matters into their own hands. They knew the plane had been hijacked. As they gathered information from the ground, they knew they had one choice: rush the cockpit and take the plane back. They didn’t think twice about what they had to do. They chose good over evil.
The phones put you in the shoes of these passengers, but the section of the Visitor's Center that hit me was the impact of Shanksville, Pa. on these 40 families for whom they didn’t know from Adam and Eve.
The local coroner turned a National Guard Armory into a morgue and treated each family as if they were his own.
While the Visitor’s Center provides an overview of events and sets the mood, the Memorial Plaza helps you feel the finality of everything that happened at this site. The Memorial Plaza has 40 white marble stones of names of passengers and crew, and the hemlock tree gate heightens the emotion of this hallowed ground. The crash occurred near the hemlock tree grove on the site.
Sandstone blocks mark the crash site. In the field, a wreath sits that was placed there by families, all of whom have unlimited access to where their loved ones died in a crash that tied these families together forever. The black granite walkway near the Visitor’s Center and on the Memorial Plaza traces the flight path before it crashed.
This “sleepy little town” has taken on its unsuspecting role of embracing and hugging these families, making them an extension of family. The Flight 93 National Memorial also features the Tower of Voices, and the right wind speed makes the chimes speak.
Patriot Park is just west of the Flight 93 National Memorial, honoring those who have died in the war on terrorism. There are multiple story boards here that tell accounts of the war on terrorism. Photo by Curt Olson
Visitors also must go to Patriot Park and the Rose Garden.
Slightly west is Patriot Park where a field of more than 7,000 flags honors those who died in the war on terrorism. Slightly east is a Rose Garden the Flight 93 families established with a water fountain, roses, and rocks that have the names of the 40 passengers and flight crew. The Rose Garden also had a local Eagle Scout create a small trail in the Rose Garden park.
Americans from across the nation descend on this National Memorial on Lincoln Highway, and there is far more that unites us than divides us.
The families view it as a burial spot, as they should. Americans should walk away with a renewed American spirit of unity, honor, sacrifice, courage, bravery, and good defeating evil.
A reignited and re-energized American spirit is long overdue.
