SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (WTAJ) — 18 years later and the site here in Shanksville remains hallowed ground. A site of remembrance and dedication to the 40 brave American heroes who banded together to halt further terror on America’s darkest day.
In an instant, the eyes of America were focused on a small town in rural Somerset County Pennsylvania.
United Flight 93, headed to San Francisco from Newark New Jersey, crash-landed in an open field just outside of Shanksville.
One phone call from a person on Flight 93 sounded as though they understood what was going on, but sounded determined to see her family once again.
“I’m on a plane that’s been hijacked. Please tell my children that i love them very much. I hope to be able to see your face again baby.”
40 brave Americans aboard that flight regained control of the hijacked plane headed for Washington D.C.
Their heroic act, preventing any further terror from spreading into our Nation’s Capital.
“I think that I’ll reach a point in my own mind where I will feel like we will have done everything that’s humanly possible to do this and I have to understand and I do, the vast amount of people and resources that are being used.”
Immediately in the days that followed, communities from all over came together to this small part of Central PA to begin and aid the healing after America’s darkest day.
18 years later…
The mission remains the same. Honor those 40 brave souls and be a site of remembrance for our nation.
The marble wall of names leads to a wooden gate.
“It’s made out of hemlock with 40 angles, representing each of those passenger and crew members. That wooden gate is only ceremonially opened on September 11th after the ceremony and allows access for the family members to walk out the flight path and visit the boulder, the impact site of Flight 93.”
Katie Cordek, Flight 93 PIO