25 years of honoring the heroes of Flight 93

Editor’s Note: Mon Valley Independent Managing Editor Stacy Wolford was a reporter for The Valley Independent when she covered the Flight 93 crash from Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001. She has returned more than a dozen times over the past 25 years.

By STACY WOLFORD
swolford@yourmvi.com

Twenty-five years ago today, I found myself driving on a beautiful, crisp morning into the mountains of Somerset County, looking for a tiny town I had never heard of called Shanksville.

I’ll never forget thinking when I awoke that morning what a gorgeous day it was going to be. The sun was shining and I didn’t have to go to work until later that day. I had planned on taking my son, Jacob, then just 3, for a walk. My older son, Jordan, was just 7 at the time and in school.

The peaceful morning was shattered as television news stations began reporting plane crashes in New York City and at the Pentagon.

Within moments, my City Editor Joe Abramowitz was calling me on my landline phone (I didn’t have a cell phone then) to head to the scene of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash site. None of us knew that all of our lives would change forever that day. Wearing a baseball cap, black tank top and shorts, I jumped in the car and made the long drive to Shanksville, stopping along the way to use pay phones to call the newsroom for directions. There was only one little sign off Route 30 for the rural community.

STACY WOLFORD

I remember being so nervous, so scared of what I might see. I was one of the first among hundreds of journalists from around the world to arrive in Somerset County to cover the United Airlines Flight 93 crash.

We soon learned the U.S. came under attack when four commercial airliners were hijacked and used to strike targets on the ground.

Nearly 3,000 people tragically lost their lives. Because of the actions of the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93, the attack on the U.S. Capitol was thwarted.

Time hasn’t erased the memories of what I saw that day and the heartbreak I felt for the families of loved ones who sacrificed their lives — and are credited for saving thousands of others — rushing the hijackers in the cockpit.

Standing in that cornfield with no cell phone, just a reporter’s notebook and a pen, I remember watching and waiting for hours for the FBI to give us an update. After several hours watching the flurry of federal agents and dozens of other officials driving back and forth down the dirt road leading to the crash site, media representatives were finally permitted to see for themselves what was left of Flight 93. I saw clouds of billowing smoke and debris scattered over an area nearly five miles long.

And then there was the crater, covered with hunks of metal that shone brilliantly in the sunlight where the plane took a nosedive to earth.

The sight still haunts me today.

During a press briefing that day, I was part of a throng of journalists who rushed to be front-and-center to hear FBI Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Roland Corvington provide an update on the crash. “The search will be painstaking. The value of the black box and the information therein cannot be overstated,” Corvington told us.

I didn’t realize it then, but our presence there as journalists was also becoming part of history. Inside the visitors’ center is a large display featuring a photo of a crowd of journalists at that press briefing 25 years ago.

When I visited the museum several years ago, I searched that photo of journalists for familiar faces, but was shocked when I found my own. There I was, a small-town girl from the Mid-Mon Valley wearing a baseball cap and a tanktop huddled with big-time reporters from the Washington Post, New York Times and other national outlets.

While that photo means very little in the importance of the Flight 93 story, it gives me so much pride knowing it is displayed in the visitor center and I was there to share their stories of heroism.

Flight 93 National Memorial

During a recent visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial to pay my respects, those emotions and the sadness of that day were just as alive as they were 25 years ago. The Flight 93 National Memorial Visitor Center offers a free self-guided tour, which includes a chronological display of the day’s events with artifacts from the crash, flight paths and information about the flight and its passengers.

The Visitor Center can be found behind the tall memorial walls and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., weather permitting, with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. At the Visitor Center Complex, the Flight Path Walkway and Overlook features a black granite walkway, which paves the path of United Airlines Flight 93 while the two 4-foot concrete walls narrow your focus to what lies ahead. The concrete walls’ imprint mimics the texture of a hemlock tree, because of the hemlock grove surrounding the crash site.

Walking along the flight path, there are time stamps of the other three planes of Sept.11, 2001 engraved in the walkway. At the end of the walkway, visitors can stand at the overlook and view the Memorial Plaza, Wall of Names and crash site.

The Tower of Voices is the first monument that visitors see after entering the memorial off Route 30, making it the gateway to the park. The impressive structure stands 93 feet tall and contains 40 chimes to represent the eternal voices of the 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93.

Near the Memorial Plaza stands The Wall of Names, a white marble wall positioned on the flight path with 40 panels, engraved with each hero’s name.

At the Ceremonial Gate, visitors can look down the flight path to the impact site, marked by a large boulder. The Memorial Plaza is a one-mile drive down Ring Road from the Visitor Center Complex. The Memorial Plaza marks the edge of the crash site and includes interpretive panels that provide an overview of the story, as well as a cell phone tour that gives a more in-depth exploration.

Cards left at the visitor shelter on the Memorial Plaza are saved as a complete archival collection.

On Sept. 11 each year, family and friends of the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93 walk down the path that follows the flight path of Flight 93 to pay their respects at the 17-ton boulder that marks the crash site.

Looking around and seeing other visitors just as emotional as I was reminded me that the scars from that day will never quite heal.

No amount of time will ever erase the pain and devastation felt by those who lost their loved ones that day.

Twenty-five years may have gone by, but my memories of covering the crash of Flight 93 will remain forever.