"Let's Roll" - Flight 93 Memorial

      Yesterday afternoon, we visited the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, PA.  It was a cool, overcast afternoon, very different from the bright, sunny day that led to the construction of this memorial.  September 11, 2001 started out very sunny, but soon a huge cloud hung over our country.

      As we entered the memorial, we encountered several signs, capturing the events of the day.  We then came upon a young ranger, telling the story to the crowd with great emotion.  The memories of that day came flooding back. Where I was, who I was with, what I was doing and what I was feeling. There were very powerful emotions.  The young ranger was probably in grade school in 2001, but he told the story as if he was on the plane that terrible day.  The ranger described how the flight began routinely but soon everything changed.  He spoke of terror, phone calls, messages to loved ones and of course, he spoke of the heroic efforts of the passengers. 

      Who doesn't get chills when thinking about passengers like Todd Beamer and Jeremy Glick (and others) who took it upon themselves to do everything in their power to stop the hijackers and save the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people in Washington DC.  "Let's Roll" was the phrased use by these heros as the stormed the cockpit, and it is a phrase I still use today with these people in mind.

      We made our way to the actual memorial site, with the impact zone on our left.  It was a quiet, reflective stroll, the memories of that day fresh in our minds.  The actual momument was very moving, with the names of the passengers engraved in the stones.  One stone, bearing the name of a woman, had "with unborn child" engraved in small letters below.  Wow, what a terrible day that was.  It was quite powerful, but the part that touched me the most was looking throught the wooden gate, across the impact zone, to the symbolic boulder where only family members (and I am told, our President) are permitted enter.  Lives lots, the world forever changed.

All those lives lost, but so many more saved by the heroic actions of regular Americans who refused to sit quietly by and accept their fate.  They came together, developed a plan and dove headfirst into action with the command "Let's Roll".