Heroes in the Pennsylvania Sky - WSJ
By: James Freeman (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Nineteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are honoring the heroes of Flight 93 today at the national memorial near Shanksville, Pa. On Sept. 11, 2001, passengers and crew fought back against al Qaeda hijackers and forced a crash in an empty field before the plane could be used to kill more Americans.
Mr. Trump visited the memorial this morning. Julian Routh reports in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
In written remarks delivered with a voice just barely above a whisper, President Donald Trump said the names and stories of the 40 passengers and crew “are forever inscribed in the eternal roll call of American heroes.”
“The heroes of Flight 93 are an everlasting reminder that no matter the danger, no matter the threat, no matter the odds, America will always rise up, stand tall and fight back,” Mr. Trump said.
According to a White House transcript of his remarks, Mr. Trump also said:
On that September morning, when America was under attack, the battle turned in the skies above this field. Soon after taking off from Newark, New Jersey, radical Islamic terrorists seized control of United 93. Other hijacked planes struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and then the South Tower, and then the Pentagon.
The terrorists on Flight 93 had a fourth target in mind. It was called: our nation’s capital. They were just 20 minutes away from reaching their sinister objective. The only thing that stood between the enemy and a deadly strike at the heart of American democracy was the courage and resolve of 40 men and women...
When terrorists raced to destroy the seat of our democracy, the 40 of Flight 93 did the most American of things: They took a vote, and then they acted. Together, they charged the cockpit, they confronted the pure evil, and in their last act on this Earth, they saved our capital.
Mr. Trump added:
In the days and weeks after 9/11, citizens of all faiths, backgrounds, colors, and creeds came together, prayed together, mourned together, and rebuilt together.
The song “God Bless America” became a rallying cry for the nation. We were united by our conviction that America was the world’s most exceptional country, blessed with the most incredible heroes, and that this was a land worth defending with our very last breath. It was a unity based on love for our families, care for our neighbors, loyalty to our fellow citizens, pride in our great flag, gratitude for our police and first responders, faith in God, and a refusal to bend our will to the depraved forces of violence, intimidation, oppression, and evil.
Mr. Biden will be speaking at the memorial this afternoon. The Journal’s Gordon Lubold and Ken Thomas report :
Mr. Biden spoke at the dedication of the Shanksville memorial in 2011, saying that the crew and passengers “knew it was the opening shot in a new war and so they acted, they acted as citizen-patriots have acted since the beginning of our country: They stood up and they stood their ground.”
Mr. Biden was asked this morning at a memorial event in New York what this day means to him. CBS News reports :
“It means I remember all my friends that I lost,” he replied. “It takes a lot of courage for someone that lost someone to come back today,” Biden continued. “I know from experience, losing my wife, my daughter, my son, you relive it, the moment as if it’s happening. It’s hard. It’s a wonderful memorial, but it’s hard. It just brings you back to the moment it happened, no matter how long, how much time passes. So I admire the families who come.”
Back in 2001, Joann Loviglio of the Associated Press reported five days after the attacks on the final moments of Flight 93:
“Are you guys ready? Let’s roll!” It’s an expression Todd Beamer used whenever his wife and two young sons were leaving their home for a family outing.
It was also the expression the 32-year-old businessman and Sunday school teacher used before he and other passengers apparently took action against hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, his wife was told by an operator who talked to Beamer just before the plane crashed in a western Pennsylvania field Tuesday...
Todd Beamer placed a call on one of the Boeing 757’s on-board telephones and spoke for 13 minutes with GTE operator Lisa D. Jefferson, Beamer’s wife said. He provided detailed information about the hijacking and - after the operator told him about the morning’s World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks - said he and others on the plane were planning to act against the terrorists aboard, Lisa Beamer said...
Before the call ended and with yelling heard in the background, Todd Beamer asked the operator to pray with him... Several other passengers made phone calls from the jet before it crashed southeast of Pittsburgh. Jeremy Glick, 31; Mark Bingham, 31; and Thomas Burnett Jr. 38, all called loved ones. Glick and Burnett said they were going to do something...
After the prayer was finished and the promise was made to call his wife, Todd Beamer dropped the phone, leaving the line open. It was then that the operator heard Beamer’s words: “Let’s roll.”
Mr. Freeman is the co-author of “ The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”
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