Flight 93 Memorial

Part of what inspired me to commit to this National Park Challenge was the fact that I’m surrounded by so many parks, but I had so far been unwilling to go see them. Many parks are just a few miles out of my normal routes, and yet I was too busy to get where I was going to stop.

That’s how it is with the parks of Pennsylvania. I’m no stranger to PA. I spent 99.9% of 22 years there. And yet I’d only seen three of state’s 15 National Parks. 15 National Parks?!?!?! My home state has 15 National Parks?!? I needed to see some more. I took a day of my vacation a few weeks ago and saw three of them.

I can’t say I recommend seeing three National Parks in one day. These three were all fairly close together so it seemed silly not to, but if I’m honest it was overwhelming and exhausting. I was physically…and emotionally drained after my visits and I still had 3 hours in a car to go!

To save your brain (and your emotions) from overload, I’ve broken the day up into 3 separate posts.

The first park I visited that day was the Flight 93 Memorial. Out of the 54 parks I’ve seen, this was by far the most difficult.

In the few months of this challenge so far, I have realized that many of the parks don’t celebrate inherently happy occasions. I’ve visited several battlefields and a plantation. It’s no secret that we are a nation with a shadowy past. But that was the big difference – they were all in the past. I only knew of these events from history books and documentaries. I had the intellectual knowledge that all of these things had happened. But with the Flight 93 Memorial, I had the memories of it happening. The Flight 93 Memorial was just a field in Shanksville when I was a kid. There was no reason for it to be anything else.

My story is no more or less unique than anyone else’s story of September 11, 2001. I remember where I was, who I was with, and how confused I was. I had a case of the invincibility syndrome – “It can never happen to me. It won’t happen here.” When in reality it nearly did. Flight 93 crashed less than 150 miles from my house.

I’ve only recently begun to consider the fact that I don’t know what it was like to be an adult before 9/11. I was a junior in high school when it happened. I didn’t fly until after it happened. My country has been at war for nearly half my life. And I know many people who were born after 9/11. They will never know a world without such an attack on and in our country. These facts are so much my reality that it took visiting this National Park to realize them.

At the Flight 93 Memorial I only saw fields, trees, and one homestead in the distance. The only sound I heard was heavy machinery building the future Visitor Center. It’s remote. One of the remotest parks I’ve seen so far. I was just driving along a country, two lane highway when I saw the sign of the turn off. Then it was an even narrower, winding road that took me up one hill and around another until I was surrounded by nothing but greenery. So different from Washington, DC – the intended target of the plane and only 18 minutes away.

The memorial is simple. Elegant. At the end of a black walkway, there is a wall with a panel for each passenger and crew member that lost their life. Panels are engraved with the individual’s name and flowers and gifts were left at the bottom of some. The wall follows the flight path of Flight 93.

The black walkway borders a field. The crash site. A boulder marks the approximate place of impact. A neighboring hemlock grove still has a bare spot from where the plane hit. The crash site is fenced off and remains closed to everyone but family members of the victims. Although enough DNA evidence was gathered to identify every passenger on the plane, the field is still filled with remains. That was a sobering thought. Hundreds of acres, still closed. The explosion was that big. Flight 93 had only been airborne 46 minutes. What was meant to be a non-stop flight from Newark to San Francisco was ended nearly as soon as it began. And 7,000 gallons of jet fuel had to go somewhere.

Flight 93 was delayed 25 minutes on the morning of September 11th. In a cruel twist of irony it eventually departed 4 minutes before the first plane hit the World Trade Center. 4 minutes. 4 minutes separated the 7 crew members and 33 passengers from the lives they knew…forever.

In 30 minutes from when the hijacking began, the passengers and crew knew their plane was part of a terrorist plot and decided to do something about it. What would have happened had they not?

I like to think I’m brave. I love my country. But in 30 minutes could I call those I love, say goodbye, then give up my life to create a better life for them? Thank you to all of you who have put yourselves in danger to create a better life for us and safer country. We can never repay you. I think the passengers and crew of Flight 93 are 40 of the greatest patriots this country will ever know. They didn’t sign up for this. They were off on business trips and vacations. But they were given a choice. They left Newark as airline customers. Probably annoyed airline customers because of the delay. But they died in a field in Pennsylvania as heroes.

A trip to the Flight 93 Memorial not an easy one, but it’s a trip I encourage you all to take. It’s more than just history. It’s our lives. We will never forget.

Learn more here: http://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm