Shanksville

With Fort Pitt and the craziness of Pittsburgh tunnels and bridges behind us, we moved out to where we would spend the night. It was the clearly more modern, but powerful, location of Shanksville Pennsylvania.

It was nearly twelve years when with small rural community of farms and fields when this small community was thrust into the national spot light. On the date this would happen 44 people boarded a flight in Newark, NJ, which was headed for San Francisco, CA. No one that morning knew the heroism which they would be called to exhibit, the heroism which would be associated with the plain name "Flight 93". Among the people on the flight were seven crew and 33 passengers. In these 33 people were people from China and Germany, mostly middle aged professionals. Lastly, there were the four terrorist who, at about 45 minutes into the flight over powered the crew, claiming one of them was wearing a bomb, took over the flight and moved everybody to the back of the plane.

From the back of the plane people started calling their friends and family, where they learned what had happened in New York, that terrorists had flown planes into the Twin Towers. They could not be glued to their TVs the way we were. They suddenly were part of something bigger, caught in a mass attack against the United States. Ominously, this plane had been turned back toward the East Coast. They didn't know it, but it was flying toward the Capitol, where the House and Senate were in session. They took a vote and decided to take the plane back, to fight. The last words heard by an operator on one of the phone were said by Todd Beamer. Let's Roll.

We drove from the school we would be spending the night in, to the Flight 93 memorial. We were upbeat on the way there, but once there it was much more solemn. There was a long path which bordered the debris field. Every once in a while was an alcove for people to leave mementos, patches, coins and flowers. They homered the unlikely heroes. At the end of this path a large carved stone had been erected for each of the passengers and crew. We took our time. Prayed. Tried to draw in the enormity of the spirit there,

For a moment, we were all individuals. When we turned to move back toward the cars, we saw the rangers doing the activities they do to close up the park. I could see the flag being brought down, but the ranger wasn't doing it alone. The Fife and Drum Corp, who were not in uniform, were not there to perform, were participating in the flag ceremony. They folded it and presented it. There was no goofing off, or looking for a photo, it was connection to something which these kids had been caught in the shadow of, but they don't really remember a time before Al Queda, before Bin Laden, before the War on Terror.

We reunited and returned to the school for dinner and games. We didn't talk much about the events of September 11th, but it was there. In some small way we were drawn closer together by sharing this rememberance.