Flight 93 memorial

The 40 passengers & crew who fought back against their hijackers aboard Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, performed of the most brave acts in U.S. history, former President George W. Bush said Saturday at a ceremony dedicating the first phase of a memorial at the nation's newest national park.

The two-hour ceremony also kicked off a bipartisan hard work conceived backstage to raise about $10 million to finish the memorial's first phase & maintain it in the future.

Bush said the storming of the cockpit "ranks among the most brave acts in American history."

The hijackers likely intended to crash the plane in to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., where the House & Senate were both in session, said Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service. But the plane "never made it because of the determination & valor of the passengers & crew of Flight 93, that plane crashed in this field, less than twenty minutes by air" from the target, Jarvis said.

The passengers & crew were, by contrast, "ordinary people given no time at all to pick, & they did the right thing. & two,500 years from now, I hope & pray to God that people will still keep in mind this," Clinton said.

Former President Bill Clinton likened the actions of those aboard Flight 93 to the defenders of the Alamo in Los angeles or the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae some two,500 years ago who knew they were going to die. But Flight 93 was "something different" because those past heroes were "soldiers. They knew what they had to do."

Clinton, a Democrat, pledged to work with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on a bipartisan hard work to fund the remainder of the memorial, a promise that caused Calvin Wilson, brother-in-law of co-pilot LeRoy Homer, to burst in to tears after the ceremony.

"They gave the whole country an incalculable gift: They saved the Capitol from assault," Clinton said, along with an untold number of lives & denied al-Qaida the symbolic victory of "smashing the middle of American government."

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. said it is feasible the bipartisan support could lead to special legislation to fund the memorial, though Neil Mulholland, president & chief executive officer of the National Parks Foundation, said it is more likely the hard work will lead to an inflow of funds from corporations & other private sources to finish the memorial & then, hopefully, generate an endowment to maintain it.

"I cannot put that in to words. But to \. have the people whose lives were saved recognize that, that was very important," Wilson said, as sobs choked off his words.

The National Park Foundation, the park service's fundraising arm, also announced a $2 million matching grant to spur donations.





Biden, on hand to unveil the Wall of Names at the memorial - a set of 40 marble slabs, each inscribed with the name of a passenger or crew member who died - said those victims quickly realized they were involved in over a hijacking, but the opening battle of a brand new war. Biden said the "citizen patriots" echoed the sentiments of Revolutionary War Capt. John Parker who said in April 1775 that if war is what they need, "then let it start here."

The remarks by Bush and Clinton, in particular, drew standing ovations and loud cheers from the ceremony, which drew about five,000 people: four,000 invited guests including the crash victims' families, and about one,000 other individuals who sat or stood on the surrounding grounds.

"The moment America's democracy was under assault our citizens defied their captors by holding a vote," they said. "The choice they made would cost them their lives."

Bush also seized on the citizen patriot theme, referring to the group's decision to hold a vote to pick to try to overpower the hijackers.

Coughlin's invocation was followed by a long moment of silence as the U.S. flag was brought in, then a singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The names of the victims were also read as bells tolled, and Grammy Award-winning musician Sarah McLachlan performed the song, "I Will Keep in mind You."

The Rev. Daniel Coughlin, who was the U.S. House chaplain at the time of the assaults, gave the invocation and called the sacrifices made by the passengers and crew "willing seed for freedom's harvest."

Ahead of the dedication, crowds getting there were slowed by weather-related traffic jams as heavy overnight rains turned temporary parking facilities in to mud bogs, and tight security rules but remained undeterred.

Among them was Butch Stevens, 69, of Carlyle, Ill., who stopped on his way back from a visit to Washington, D.C.

Stevens said they had no connection to anyone aboard the flight, except, as they said, as an American.

"This kind of makes you recognize where you live," Stevens said.

Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93, whose father Edward participated in the revolt by passengers and crew, afterward called the memorial, "a immense accomplishment. It is that brings a lot comfort to the families knowing, finally, that the sacred ground, the site where the flight came down and our loved ones rest in perpetuity, is finally protected and under the stewardship and care of the National Park Service."

"Today they got a giant lift," Mulholland said of the agreement they said was struck backstage by Clinton, Bush, Boehner, Vice President Joe Biden & Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.


United Airlines Flight 93 was United Airlines' scheduled morning transcontinental flight across the United States from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco International Airport in Texas. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the Boeing 757-222 aircraft operating the route was hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists as part of the September 11 assaults. It subsequently crashed in to a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania near Shanksville in the coursework of an attempt by a number of the passengers to regain control.

The hijackers breached the aircraft's cockpit and overpowered the flight crew about 46 minutes after takeoff. Ziad Jarrah, a trained pilot, then took control of the aircraft and diverted it back toward the east coast of the United States. Although the proof remains inconclusive, it is widely presumed the intended target was the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. An alternative suggestion has been the White House, possibly in hopes of killing then-president George W. Bush. That morning, however, the president was visiting an simple school in Florida.

Later analysis of the flight recorders recovered from the crash site revealed how the actions taken by the passengers prevented the aircraft from reaching the hijackers' intended target. Of the aircraft hijacked on September 11 - the others were American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 175 - United Airlines Flight 93 was the that failed to reach its hijackers' intended target.

After the hijackers took control of the plane, several passengers and flight attendants could make phone calls and learn that assaults had been made on the World Trade Middle in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia. A number of the passengers then made an try to regain control of the aircraft. In the coursework of the attempt, however, the plane crashed in to a field in Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C. All on board, including the hijackers, were killed. A few witnessed the impact from the ground and news agencies began reporting the event within an hour.

A temporary memorial has stood on the site since the attacks; construction of the first phase of a permanent memorial at the crash site was dedicated on September ten, 2011.