Remembering 9/11 – My Trip to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA
“A common field one day. A field of honor forever.”
Today is the anniversary of 9/11, so I thought it would be a good time to share this.
As some readers may know, I took a vacation at the end of August. During my week off, I traveled to Pennsylvania to visit the Flight 93 Memorial site in Shanksville. It is a trip I have wanted to take for years.
Flight 93 was the plane best known for the passenger revolt and the famous line of “Let’s roll.” The passengers used the plane’s meal cart as a battering ram to get into the cockpit in order to fight the hijackers. Ultimately, the plane crashed into a grassy field, killing everyone on board.
I decided to stay at a hotel in Harrisburg, the state’s capital city. I had never been to Harrisburg before but enjoyed seeing it. It’s an interesting city with lots of restaurants and nightlife, but that’s not really why I was there. It took me about six and a half hours to drive down from Massachusetts and I checked into my hotel at around 7 pm.
On Tuesday, I got up and drove to the memorial. It was another two and a half hour drive west from Harrisburg. You can see my route in this map. One of things I found interesting about the drive through central PA is that it truly is Trump country. It’s a sea of corn fields and huge Trump billboards. I also forgot how mountainous Pennsylvania is in the west. When you reach the Blue Mountains, you literally drive through them in tunnels that are at the base of multiple mountains.
The site is really in the middle of nowhere. When you finally get off the highway in Shanksville, there are gas stations and a few other businesses, but as you follow the signs for the memorial out of town, you quickly find yourself in extremely rural surroundings.
When you arrive at the entrance to the memorial site, you turn off the main road and the first sign you see is one telling you that it’s another mile to the memorial. The grounds of the site are massive. Once you reach the main parking lot, you walk a short distance and you see this walkway.
What I later learned is that this walkway mirrors the path of the plane as it came in for its crash landing, upside down and at a 45 degree angle.
When you reach the end of the walkway, you’re on a balcony, looking out over the impact site. A sign on the balcony says “A common field one day. A field of honor forever.”
Though it’s difficult to see from the photo, there is a boulder which has been placed at the exact impact site, which is closely guarded. The only people allowed to visit the impact site are members of the victims’ families. Not even staff are allowed to visit the impact site without permission from the families.
This photo gives you an idea of the immense size of the memorial campus.
I then walked back up the walkway and went into the visitor center where I spoke with a park ranger for a few minutes. He told me some things about the crash that I didn’t know. According to him, crews were able to obtain and identify the remains of every passenger on the plane. Also, these fields were the site of a mine for many years, making the ground somewhat porous. Because of this, when the plane impacted it not only exploded from the jet fuel. The wreckage bored right into the ground, burying what was left of the plane many feet into the ground.
The visitor center is full of various displays that take you through the timeline of the day. High tech graphics show the flight path as the plane took off, when the terrorists took control, and when the passengers fought back. At the time of impact, the plane was only about 20 minutes of flight time from Washington, DC. It is believed this plane was destined for the Capitol Building.
I went back to my car after this and drove down to the area near the crash site. This photo was taken looking back up the hill towards the balcony way up in the distance. This also gives you a sense of the size of the place.
You can learn more about the memorial here.
If you have ever considered visiting, I would recommend it. The place gives you a much deeper understanding of what happened that day and the sacrifice of the 40 passengers and crew members who died preventing this plane from reaching its intended target.
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Comments
The saddest part about 9/11 now is knowing that the Islamists and their Western enablers have won, and we are not only heading toward a totalitarian West, but also towards a second Holocaust.
Your concerns are real. Still, they have not won, not yet.
I don’t want to rehash everything I say over at Glenn’s, but the left now controls every institution in the country. Gramsci’s march is complete.
In the end, we and our families will achieve a victory if we stop using tactics and strategies developed in previous wars.
Our enemies are using techniques, tactics, strategies for 2024.
We are using techniques, tactics, and strategies that were successful in WWII.
“The generals always prepare to fight the last war.”
It’s a truism ………. because it’s been true across time and location.
Many, many, many examples — but let one example suffice: The US Army completely blew off the Wright Brothers. The U.S. Army did not take any interest in a “working flying machine” until after the Wright Brothers’ successful demonstration in France.
Imagine that.
Let it sink in for a minute.
Anyway, the American military was defeated in Vietnam by an enemy that had almost no airplanes. And almost no tanks. And almost no navy.
The “West” is being overrun. We can stop it, and reverse what’s happened — but it will require a certain recognition of, and acceptance of, reality.
The enemies of “The West” are not all stupid. Some may be, but not all of them.
well vietnam was lost b/c the msm told us it was lost
the tet offensive WE WON
but not what the msm told us
SAME THING WITH ELECTION RESULTS
we are the mercy of who is doing the reporting of “facts”
We lost the war.
We were defeated.
Every one of our war aims ……. was not achieved.
I’m sure you are not incapable of understanding that it’s a failure if zero of your war aims are accomplished.
That’s the point.
It’s happening again, too.
Idk what to compare it to. Perhaps The Truman Show? We are losing BECAUSE we cannot seem to recognize the TotalWarfare tactics employed skillfully against us. including MSM, including kidnapping, including murder, including lawfare, including sabotage, including boycotts, including childhood education, including local police you name it
Our enemies are fully committed.
while we hold on to archaic notions of what “war” is.
Being from Pennsylvania I have visited the site several times even before it was a National memorial with its concrete monuments. The NPS has created a place where you can almost feel as those victims felt on that awful day. The recordings of the passengers last phone calls to loved ones often bring tears to listeners eyes. The US government may want us to get beyond it but I will never forget what happened here and who was responsible.
I still get emotional every 9/11.
At work, we watched in disbelief as the second tower was hit.
We swore we’d never forget. For some, this is true.
For many, they’ve no knowledge of the chaos caused on that day and ‘all is forgiven’.
Thank you Mike,
a fitting and beautiful article, even though it left me in tears.
Every year on this day, I think about how much worse that horrible event would have been if not for the bravery of those passengers. Flight 93 was never going to be allowed to enter DC airspace. Cheney had already authorized the plane to be shot down (exercising an authority he did not possess as VP either under the USC or statute). Imagine the years of second-guessing that would have ensued and the damage it would have done to the pilots who had to do the unthinkable. This says nothing of the potential loss of life on-the-ground if the plane came down in a more populated are. As Mike says in the article, Shanksville is in the “middle of nowhere,” and that turned out to be a small miracle itself.
thank you sir.
Any photographs of any airplane debri?
ANY airplane debri?
Taken by professionals?
Or taken by civilians?
Locals?
Passers-by?
Ever?
Just curious.
(Even if the area was literally quicksand, wouldn’t some debri be left above ground?)
may the omar loving bastards rot in fckhellllll
lets roll maga! lets roll!
I also visited this site with my wife and 2 kids this summer after seeing NYC and the 9-11 museum there—-among other things. I did my best to instill in my kids the absolute bravery of the passengers who stopped this plane from becoming another guided missile into a site in D.C.——the Capitol as has been told. These passengers—-regular people like you and me——looked death in the eye and knew what was coming, and they went out heroes. I told my kids that we don’t celebrate heroes like on the past, but we will as a family. Todd Beamer, and others—-we are in their debt. I hope my children never have to face a decision like Beamer and others—-but if they do, I hope they choose to go down like heroes.
9/11 still hits me hard. This piece got the tears flowing.
Yes Eric, the Islamists are in the ascent, and only Trump may be able to stop it.
Normally I would have put up some 9/11 pictures as a memorial this morning. But my constant defense of Trump and common sense, and my attacks on Islamists have removed me from my thousands of followers on Facebook.
The censorship and lies from our media and the Democrats in government are in control. We need more people to get involved fighting voter fraud. It may not be as glamorous as Flight 93 and “Let’s Roll”. But it is what we need to restore freedom and America.
If more of us say and do “Not on my watch”, it could result in a renewed land of freedom. As the Duke might say, “Saddle up pilgrim.”